3. Woods, Accessories, Supplies

Hard Woods and Soft Woods

Before discussing the different kinds of wood, it is necessary to clear up a common point of confusion that arises from the arbitrary classification of woods by the lumber trade.

In the lumber business all woods that come from conifers, i.e., trees that have needles or scale-like leaves, are classed as softwoods, and all woods from broadleaved trees are called hardwoods. Note that in this connection both softwood and hardwood are spelled as one word.

Unfortunately for a clear understanding, not all the softwoods are soft in character, nor are all the so-called   hardwoods   hard.    To   avoid   confusion, therefore, in this text, we shall refer to all woods that are soft as soft woods (two words)—which means that they are less fibrous and more easy to cut than the hard woods, as well as being lighter in weight. The other woods we shall call hard woods (two words) because they actually are hard, their texture being dense, which makes them heavy and tough.

With this distinction made clear, we can set the matter aside for the moment while we look into the actual differences between the so-called hard­woods and softwoods. An understanding of these things is often of help in identifying woods and cataloging their working characteristics. Once you understand the difference in structure between the two kinds of wood you can usually, with the aid of a magnifying glass, tell whether the specimen you are studying is a hardwood or a softwood in the lumberman’s language.

All natural wood, then, is made up of cells. In the soft woods these cells are all of the kind that are very small and closed at both ends. These though little sealed tubes are called fibers. Similar cells are also found in most of the hardwoods, but, in addition there will be many large open-ended cells or pores. In some woods these large pores can be seen without the aid of a lens, but in any case they are one reason why some hardwoods need fillers before painting or vanishing.

In both the hardwoods and softwoods there are also short, flat cells radiating outward from the center of the free forward the bark. These form what are called medullary rays, and in some kinds of wood they are much more prominent than others. Their significance will be apparent when we have looked into matter of cutting the free trunk into planks and boards.

Sawing Systems

There are several ways of cutting a tree trunk into usable lumber. The simplest is to saw the log lengthwise the full width of the trunk. The taper and varying thicknesses of the trunk give flats-awn boards the typical V-shaped surface grain. The log can also be cut diagonally, that is, across the grain right angles to the annular rings. The grain then appears as straight lines along the face of the board. If the saw has cut through any of the medullary rays mentioned above, there will be flaky streaks across the grain. Quite often these flakes give the grain an attractive appearance that it otherwise would not have had. The flakes are usually not so strongly marked in softwoods, and the radial surface is called vertical or edge grain.

Apart from the grain figure, the advantage of using edge-grain or quarter-sawed boards is that they do not warp so much in seasoning as the plain-sawed boards, nor shrink and expand excessively with changes in atmospheric moisture.

All wood is seasoned and dried after cutting. This may be done by leaving the boards exposed to the air in a dry shed for a considerable period of time. In the old days one or two years was considered in the minimum, but nowadays we are satisfied with a few months and the lumber quality suffers as a consequence.

Another method is to dry the wood more rapidly in special kilns. This usually reduces the moisture content below what it normally will be when the wood is in use. Therefore the wood must be allowed to pick up some moisture from the air before it is checked for warping and bending. All things con sidered, then, the beginner in woodworking should deal with a lumber yard or supply house of good reputation while learning to judge the qualities of cabinet woods himself.

Wood Selection

The identification and selection of woods for use in the cabinet shop is not a subject that can easily be learned from books. Colored illustrations would help, but you need to become acquainted with woods by actually handling them, and having some­one, expert on the subject, identify them for you. Frequent visits to the furniture-wood dealers is a great help in this respect because you can see the different varieties side by side ard know exactly what you are looking at. Here we shall have to be content with brief descriptions.

It does help to have on hand a reliable book on woods for reference, or even a dealer's illustrated catalog. One reason is that many of the furniture woods have several names and even local appella­tions. There are about fifty kinds of wood called mahogany, and even four or five known as white-wood. An outstanding example of confused no­menclature is Douglas fir which is known as Oregon pine and is neither fir nor pine but a species all its own.

In spite of these deterrents it is surprisingly easy to know woods when you have handled them for a short time, and as for the rest there is little point in being scientifically correct so long as the wood you use for a particular job works well and looks as good as it should.

In many, if not most, pieces of furniture, a variety of woods is used. For example, a walnut piece might have drawer sides, back, and bottom of poplar, and drawer slides and other hidden parts of pine. Such things are recognized good practice and that does not necessarily cheapen a piece in any way. This is particularly true in the case of pieces made to be painted.   The important factors here are design, resistance to damage and wear, and the ability to take and hold the finish.

The Furniture Woods

The principal woods used in furniture making are poplar, basswood, pine, maple, oak, birch, cherry, beech, walnut, gumwood, mahogany, apple, and pear.

Other woods such as elm, beech, sycamore, and ash are used principally for concealed parts such as the frames of upholstered pieces where appearance does not matter but strength does. Less often used are butternut (sometimes called white walnut) and white cedar, while hickory, ash, and birch made spindles and small bent parts, the birch also being used for legs.

In furniture making the choice of wood depends upon a number of things such as strength, hardness, and resistance to damage that is required as well as the color and decorative markings. For painted pieces the plainer woods like poplar and pine may well be used.

Poplar. Poplar, though tinged with pale green, also is called whitewood. Like basswood (also some­times called whitewood or, more properly, linden) it is cheap, and easy to finish but has little grain and therefore no character. The poplar is quite brittle and subject to warping. For these reasons its use is largely confined to places where it does not show, such as drawer sides and backs. It is also used for cheap furniture parts such a table tops that are to be painted, and as a base for veneers. When used in large areas it is usually cut into fairly narrow strips and re-joined with the grain alternat­ing in direction, thus minimizing warping. Bass-wood is a little scarcer than poplar, otherwise one can be substituted for the other without gain or loss.

Pine. There are two kinds of pine commonly used in furniture—the white and the yellow varieties. White pine has a straight and even grain and a pleasing  texture,  and  finishes well.   It is light in weight, and the sapwood is white, with the heart-wood ranging from pinkish white to gray.

Though quite soft and easily dented, white pine does make attractive provincial furniture, especially when antiqued. It is used largely for small pieces and accessories such as hanging shelves and cup­boards, and kitchen furniture such as Welsh dressers, corner cupboards, and so forth.

The yellow or short-leaf variety of pine is not a good cabinet wood. Like fir it has a very pro­nounced grain that makes it difficult to finish to a very smooth surface. If it is used at all the sapwood is to be preferred, and it should be fairly free from knots. The so-called knotty pine is colorful and has its uses, but it should not be used for large areas. A knot here and there helps, but a rash of them spoils any piece. Such wood is best painted, as it was in the old days.

White Cedar. Another soft wood that is de­lightful to work with and lovely to look at is white cedar. It has a beautiful grain and delicate shadings of color, but it should not be used in large masses. A cupboard entirely of white cedar with a transparent finish would be rather overpowering, but such a piece in pine with cedar panels could be most attractive.

Maple. Maple is of course a perennial favorite, both for painted and unpointed pieces whether of modern or traditional design. Some striking effects can be secured by using the modern transparent finishes.

Maple comes in a variety of colors from off-white to light brown, and with wavy, curly, or birdseye grain markings. Because of its hardness it can be given a sharp edge, and make; turnings with thin edges that do not break off as pine does. The hard sugar maple is the variety most commonly used.

Oak. Oak is another furniture wood with a marked grain that is often variegated and quite ornamental. Both the white and red oaks are much used, the  principal difference  being  deeper  redbrown color of the red oak heartwood. The white oak is more durable and less porous than the red and seems to finish better.

Being somewhat hard and brittle, especially when old, oak is not as easy to work as pine, but it lends itself very well to carving. It can be left its natural color, bleached, filled with a white filler, or dark­ened to a very rich antique-looking tone.

Old oak often becomes very brittle and joints need to be made of ample size if they are to be subjected to bending or twisting stresses.

Birch. Birch may be the wood of either the yellow or the sweet birch. The heartwood of both is called red birch and the sapwood white birch, and when dark stains are applied the difference cannot be detected.

This wood is somewhat tougher than oak but rather easier to work on account of its smooth grain. It has a light tone and takes a high polish. Consequently it is particularly adapted to modern sleek styles of furniture and as a substitute for maple. Because it shrinks considerably in drying it should be well seasoned before using.

Cherry. Cherry is a close-grained wood, some­what softer than beech or birch, and of a warm brown color. It looks something like a pale ma­hogany, but there is little figure in the grain, except in the burls. It takes a high polish and is a nice wood to work with and, although relatively scarce, is often used in making antique reproductions.

Beech. Both red beech and white beech are from the same tree, one being the heartwood and the other the sapwood. Both woods are fairly hard with a fine, straight grain, though liable to warp and check. The non-distinctive character of the grain, and its ability to take stains well, make beech a popular substitute for other woods such as ma­hogany, rosewood, or even ebony. It is popular for turnings and is often used for French Provincial pieces, stained to a fruitwood such as apple.

Walnut.   The commonest walnut used  for furniture in this country is the black variety which comes in various shades of color from chocolate to light brown. Long a favorite for fine cabinet work, it can be turned or carved, and finishes beautifully.

Much more fancy is the Circassian walnut which is streaked with black and dark brown. In both kinds the burls and crotches are extremely deco­rative.

Gum wood. One of the most versatile of all fur­niture woods is gumwood, particularly in the low-priced field. It can be stained and finished to look like mahogany, walnut, maple, and even oak.

Gumwood is also used as a veneer, as well as in the solid, and in either form it is much less expensive than any of the woods it imitates, but it needs to be finished with care or it will look as cheap as it is.

In its natural state, gum heartwood may be any color from a pale pink to a rich reddish brown. In making furniture for yourself it is usually much more satisfying to work in the genuine wood than in any imitation or substitute. However, the rarer figured red gum makes beautiful panels.

Mahogany. True mahogany is one of the aristo­crats among furniture woods, and consequently has many imitators. It is not only pleasingly marked but rich in color and is readily worked and carved. Furthermore, it shrinks very little and is not inclined to split easily. Various types of interesting grain can be secured in quarter-sawed boards such as striped, curly, ribbon, mottle, crotch, fiddle-back, etc., and the wood is priced accordingly.

Whether used solid or as a veneer, mahogany has an inherent dignity so that it does not lend itself well to cheap pieces and kitchen furniture. The wood known as Philippine mahogany or lauan is a different wood entirely and has little to recom­mend it.

Sources of Wood Supply

In most large cities there are dealers in furniture woods, and practically all of the larger firms have illustrated catalogs. Many advertise in woodwork­ing and crafts magazines and cater to mail-order business. Some sell mostly by mail, but as a rule it is best to pick out your pieces yourself. The commoner woods such as pine, poplar, and maple, can often be obtained from the local lumber yard, but care needs to be taken to see that these woods are properly seasoned. For one thing they should look, and feel, quite dry.

An oftimes useful source of good dry lumber is old furniture. This wood is especially valuable in making reproductions of antique pieces or any fur­niture in the traditional styles—Queen Anne, Chip­pendale, Sheraton, Hepplewhite, Phyfe, French Pro­vincial, or even Early American. All such wood, however, needs to be closely examined for nails and other hardware fragments that may injure your tools, and for unapparent glue-joints. Also it is well to clean the surfaces of dirt and dust that make a damaging abrasive when sharp chisel, plane, and saw edges come in contact with it.

Plywood

In making modern furniture and built-in pieces, plywood can often be used with advantage. It gives wide surfaces without joints, and is extremely strong for its weight. Plywood is also used for non-struc­tural parts such as drawer bottoms, partitions, and dust panels, and the backs of case pieces.

CORE

PLYWOOD TYPES

Although plywood has been used in furniture con­struction for many years, it is not often found on old pieces of handmade furniture. For present-day pieces, however, it can often be employed with advantage, and in many built-in units it is practically indispensable.
 
This is particularly true with regard to some of the modern types of plywood faced with the better furniture woods.

Plywood is nothing more than several layers of thin wood glued together under heat and high pressure. The strength of the sheet is greatly in­creased by arranging each layer so that the grain runs at right angles to that of the layers on either side of it. Sometimes the layers are of the same wood and of equal thickness. In other instances there is a thick core, with several thin layers on either side.

To avoid warping, the core wood is often cut into narrow strips, glued together with the grains running in opposite directions, end for end. Poplar is often used for this purpose, being light and cheap. In practically all plywoods the inside layers are made of lighter and cheaper woods than the outside ones so that both cost and weight are reduced.

The principal drawback to the use of ordinary plywoods for the visible surfaces of furniture is the grain. These plywood layers are made by rotating a log against a sharp knife. This cuts off a slice all round the log and so produces a grain pattern that cannot be disguised. This is the only way in which very wide and long sheets of thin wood can be secured.

The alternative is to saw slices through the wid­est part of a thick tree trunk. But such slices are limited to a width of three or four feet. Therefore, if the plywood base is to be covered with a surface layer of sawn wood, either the width will be very limited or the necessity for matching the surface slices will make the cost considerably higher. Never­theless, plywoods with a veneer of some good furni­ture wood are readily obtainable and should be used in place of the less desirable common ply­woods.

Veneers

The application of a surface of good furniture wood to a solid base of cheaper, stronger, or less decorative wood is called veneering—the outer lay­er being the veneer. The process of veneering has been practiced for about 4,000 years and on some very good furniture. The use of veneers does not necessarily mean cheap construction.

Until the nineteenth century, when machines were invented to cut the veneer, it was comparatively thick.

Many old veneers of the eighteenth century or earlier, being sawn by hand, were an eighth of an inch thick, or more. Today, the machine-sliced veneers are often a twenty-fifth of an inch or less in thickness. On the other hand, the actual applica­tion of the veneer to the wood base cannot satisfac­torily be done by hand, except in the case of small patches. It is a factory process calling for hot presses and special glues. Hand work is therefore limited to quite small areas and ordinary repair jobs.

Inlays

In both solid wood and veneer it is common prac­tice to let in small pieces or strips of thin wood of contrasting color for decorative purposes. This is called inlaying. One form which uses larger pieces or patterns of wood (holly, tulip, satinwood, etc.), metal, ivory, mother-of-pearl, etc., is known as mar­quetry. Another form, using tortoise-shell and dif­ferent colored metals is called boulle work (often wrongly spelled  buhl).

None of these forms of inlaying is very difficult, but they do call for special skills outside the province of this book. They also call for great restraint on the part of the worker if the results are to be in good taste.

Later we shall discuss other and more common forms of decoration applicable to old and new styles of furniture.

Furniture Accessories

On the majority of furniture pieces in the modern or non-traditional style, the wooden drawer knobs and handles are of designs that are easily made in the shop. Some of the traditional styles of wooden knobs also can be made on the lathe. On the other hand, if turned knobs are required and you do not have a lathe, it may be preferable to buy the knobs ready-made. Bought in quantities of a dozen or more they can be quite cheap, but it you want to make distinctive furniture, it is best to make, and perhaps even design, your own knobs. Even on re-producion pieces you can add a little extra feel of handwork by making them yourself.

In dealing with traditional styles of furniture it is essential to use the authentic design of knob or pull, and often these will be of metal. In order to ensure accuracy, it is well to check with the catalog of makers, some of whom are listed in the Appendix. A few of the principal period styles of knobs and pulls are illustrated.

Other accessories include stock escutcheons, finials, drops, foot sockets, bedpost bolt covers, chest lifts, hinges, locks, bolts, cupboard and table catches, desk leaf quadrants, and so forth. Nothing looks sillier to the initiated than a French Provincial drawer pull on a Queen Anne chest, or an Empire glass knob on an early Chippendale piece. And of course none of these is suitable for modern furniture of any kind. This is why it pays to study period styles, including those of today; apparently insignifi­cant details can make or mar the finished job.

Metal Fastenings

This brief survey of cabinet shop materials must include also nails, screws, and similar fastenings. Headed nails are seldom used in cabinet work, though you will need plenty of tenpenny common nails for attaching built-in pieces to the walls and similar carpentry jobs. Otherwise, finishing nails, brads, and escutcheon pins are used almost exclusively where it is not convenient or necessary to use screws. Tacks and gimp pins are used in uphol­stering.

The nails and the brads (small editions of nails), are driven below the surface of the wood by means of a nail-set that has a point no larger than the heads. The tiny holes are then filled with a paste filler. Screws likewise are buried by counter boring or deep countersinking and subsequently covering the heads.

En attaching metal parts it may be necessary lo use round-headed or oval-headed screws, but in the majority of cases the flat, countersunk head is used. Exposed screws should be made of or coated with some non-corrosible metal such as brass, nickel, or chrominum, or have a black gunmetal finish that will not tarnish.

COUNTERSUNK AND COUNTERBORED SCREWS

LEFT TO RIGHT: BEDPOST ROSETTE; TEAR DROP HANDLE, PLATE DRAWER PULL; BAIL HANDLE; OVAL DRAWER PULL; BRASS KNOB; FRENCH TYPE PULL; CUPBOARD TURN, SCREW CUPBOARD KNOB; CUPBOARD KNOB; 2 TAVERN KNOBS; CASH DRAWER PULL; MOOERN WOODEN DRAWER KNOBS & PULLS

Brads are obtainable in pound boxes, and their sizes range from 3/16 to 1 inch. They are used mostly for attaching moldings, thin lips, galleries, and so on. The finishing nails are available in lengths from 1 to 3 inches, which is about the maximum length normally used in cabinet work. Brads also are sold in the 1¼ and 1½-inch sizes(all in 17 gauge) but at that point they really should be called finishing nails. The nails likewise run up to 3 inches by quarters and 18 gauge.

To do a neat job in cabinet work it is necessary to drill holes for all screws. The first hole, drilled he full length of the screw to take the threaded portion should be 1/14 inch less in diameter than the hole for the screw shank which is drilled afterwards. The upper hole is then countersunk to bring the slotted head slightly below the surface.

Counterboring consists of drilling a hole the full diameter of the screw head so that the entire screw is sunk deep into the wood. This enables you to use a short screw for fastening a thick piece of wood, and also permits the screw head being buried deep enough to take a wooden plug above it. Such a plug can be either decorative or made to match the grain and so hide the location of the hole. In counterboring, the pilot hole is drilled as before and used as a guide for the counterbore. There is never any need to drill a separate hole for the screw shank.

In nailing brittle woods and thin pieces it is often safest to make a small hole first to start the nail. This is done with a brad awl. The awl is carefully pushed in, with the flattened end crosswise to the grain, and twisted first to one side, then the other.

On built-in furniture it is sometimes an advantage to use corrugated fasteners to hold joints that are to be hidden. The joints need to be clamped tight before driving in the fastener, otherwise it is best to use the converging type fastener which pulls the two parts together as it enters the wood. Such fasteners are not used in fine cabinet work, but they may be of help in holding and stiffening joints in the frames of built-in  pieces.

Glues and Gluing

In any cabinet shop good glue is just as essential as screws for fastening joints. Furthermore it often holds where screws and nails will not.

There are many kinds of glue available, hot, cold, liquid, and powder, but the only kind that you need consider is the modern synthetic resin plastic glue such as Cascamite or Weldwood. This type of glue comes in powder form and is mixed with cold water, a little at a time as needed. Thus there is very little waste and the glue is always fresh. It dries in a couple of hours, and sets thor­oughly hard overnight, but the glued joints should be kept in clamps for at least 12 hours and prefer­ably 24, to allow for thorough seasoning of the glue which then attains its maximum strength.

In gluing, the adhesive is mixed to a creamy con­sistency, and spread thinly over the two contacting surfaces of the joint. The joint is then assembled, and pressure applied. The only exception to clamp­ing is in the application of glue blocks. In this case the joint is freed of air bubbles, and proper contact is assured by rubbing the glued block back and forth in the angle between the two surfaces. No clamp is needed, but if the piece is to be moved about, a small brad judiciously placed may prevent the weight of the block from dislodging it.

Stock Sizes of Lumber

In any wood joint, the glue fills the pores of the wood and literally welds the two surfaces together. With the work properly glued and clamped, the joint will become stronger than the surrounding wood so that it cannot be broken apart. The glues mentioned, incidentally, are waterproof when once they have set.

The powdered glues can be bought in small cans, or in five-pound cans which is the most economical way to buy it. However, if you buy the large can, it is best to have a small can with an airtight lid and keep that filled from the large one. In that way the large can is opened less frequently and the contents have less chance of deteriorating from contact with damp air.

Sandpaper

Various grades of abrasive paper are needed for cleaning and smoothing wood surfaces, and remov­ing varnish, paint, or other finish. Ordinary flint paper is not recommended because the particles become so easily detached and embed themselves in the surface of the wood.   Probably the most satisfactory abrasive for all-round use on wood is gar­net paper. The papers are graded according to the size of the grit, the higher the number the smaller the grit. The sizes most often used in the average cabinet shop are 7/0, 4/0, 2/0, 1/0.

In some work, such as smoothing a shellacked or varnished surface, steel wool may be preferable. This also comes in various degrees of fineness, and the numbers 2/0 and 4/0 are probably the most generally useful.

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