BRITISH TIMBER AND SOME OF ITS USES
The following are a few of the many uses to which home-grown timber is
applied:—
=Alder= is used extensively for clog soles, barrel staves, mill
bobbins, and occasionally in furniture making. It makes excellent
charcoal for cooking and heating, as well as that used in the
manufacture of gunpowder.
The wood of the =Apple=, =Cherry= and =Pear tree=, when of large size,
is used for cabinet purposes, and stained in imitation of other woods.
For veneers, golf clubs, bowls, etc., these woods are of value, as also
for weaving shuttles.
=Ash= timber is largely used by agricultural implement makers on
account of its possessing great elasticity and bearing considerable
cross-strain. It is the best wood for shafts of all kinds, for tool
handles and wooden rakes, and is largely used by furniture makers.
=Beech= wood is the chief constituent of cane-bottomed chairs, and is
largely employed for the handles of joiners’, carpenters’ and other
wood-workers’ tools. For gunstocks, saddle-trees for heavy harness,
wheel-felloes and bobbins it is also largely employed. When of large
size and clean growth, it is used for calendar machines, and for
engineering purposes in spinning and bleaching districts. It makes
excellent charcoal.
=Birch= wood is largely used for turnery work, thread bobbins, clog
soles, shoe pegs, furniture, hatters’ blocks; it is also used in the
manufacture of brushes and in toy making.
=Chestnut= (Spanish) timber more nearly approaches that of oak than
any other species, and when stained is not only substituted for it, but
for the walnut as well. For piano sides it is largely used, as also for
rafters in open-roof churches, for furniture and cabinet work, ship
fittings, sign-boards, and post and rail fencing.
=Elm= wood is extensively used for the boarding and flooring of carts
and wagons, in coffin making, for the framework and foundations of
bridges, for naves for wheels, and for the keels of boats and ships.
It makes strong furniture, and is often substituted for ash in making
agricultural implements.
=Holly= is used by mathematical instrument makers, for fancy turnery
and inlaid work. It is often sold as ebony when “ebonized.”
=Hornbeam= timber for cogs in mill gearing is well known, also in
“bushing” for sawmill rollers, and for skittle pins.
=Horse Chestnut.=—The timber is largely used for packing boxes,
moulding patterns for castings, cutting boards, manufacture of brushes,
and occasionally for covering temporary buildings.
=Larch.=—The wood of this tree is largely used for fencing, boat
building, permanent staging, and pitwood.
=Lime.=—The wood is white and very fine of grain, and used for carved
work, sounding boards for musical instruments, wagon brakes, packing
boxes, toys, domestic utensils, and for shoemakers’ and saddlers’
cutting boards. Charcoal for gunpowder is made from this wood.
=Maple= is employed in the turning of bowls, for toys, and “bird’s-eye”
maple for furniture.
=Oak= has long been associated with our national defence as the chief
element in shipbuilding, but although iron and steel have to a great
extent taken its place, yet for barges and small boats the timber is
still largely used. Wagons for railway mineral traffic are largely made
of oak, while the builder finds in it his best material for the strong
frames of domes, spires and roofs of public buildings. It is also
used for the bottoms of carts and wagons, cartwheel spokes, fencing,
furniture making, railway “spraggs,” charcoal, etc.
=Poplar= wood is woolly and tenacious, and for this reason is used for
the bottoms of stone carts and barrows. It is well adapted for making
packing cases, railway brakes, weather boarding, and for purposes where
lightness is of greater importance than durability. The Abele, or
white Poplar, produces perhaps the most valuable timber of any of the
numerous species.
=Scotch Spruce= and =Silver Fir= may all be classed under the same
heading, being of about equal value and applicable to similar purposes,
viz., for sleepers and pitwood, boarding under slates, headings for
barrels, soap boxes, temporary fencing, also for conversion into
planking for lead works, and for all erections of a temporary kind.
=Sycamore= timber is peculiarly white and smooth and free from grain,
which makes it very valuable. It is used for curtain rings, churns,
butter prints, for the backs of violins, for founders’ patterns and
cutting boards, and in the making of wooden vessels and furniture. For
calendar machines and in cotton and jute factories it is much employed.
=Walnut= timber is much in demand for gun and rifle stocks, for the
best class of furniture, and for veneering purposes.
=Willow= is famous for the production of the best class of cricket bats
and for artificial limbs and crutches. It also makes good charcoal.
=Yew= wood is valuable when employed for veneering.