C. W. D. Boxall, Henry Adams, F. W. Loasby

“ The greater portion of the Swedish timber is coarse, but at the same time some of the very best deals, both yellow and white, come from Gefle and Söderhamn. The best Swedish deals run more sound and even in quality than the Russian, owing to the different way in which the timber is converted. A balk of Russian timber is cut into deals, etc., of one quality, and thus they show very many hearts or centres. In Swedish timber the inner and outer wood in the same balk are converted into different quality deals, the centre being put into the lower class ”

“ The advantages they possess over the ordinary boarded floor are: damp-proofness, freedom from dry rot, greater lasting properties, and freedom from vibration, and they do not transmit sound nor harbour vermin; they are more sanitary, through the absence of shrinkage, and consequent open joints of the older system; and the absence of nails is also a great advantage, as the holes made by these are always unsightly, and when the boards wear down the heads project, to the discomfort of the users. ”

“ Various causes may combine to render the timber favourable to the growth of this fungus—namely, large proportion of sapwood; felled at wrong season when full of sap; if cut down in the spring or the fall of the year instead of in midwinter or midsummer, when the sap is at rest; stacked for seasoning without sufficient air spaces being left; fixed before thoroughly seasoned; painted or varnished while containing moisture; built into wall without air space; covered with linoleum: exposed to warm, stagnant air, as under kitchen floors. There is no cure when the fungus has obtained a good hold. ”

“ The oak, apple, laburnum, and the wallflower are examples of exogens. Some exogens live to be more than a thousand years old. Endogens mainly increase in size by end growth. There is lateral distension for a time, but this soon ceases, and then the tree remains of nearly uniform diameter throughout its life. There are no annual rings—the growth being mostly continuous. The hardest portion of the stem is at the outside, where a false rind made up of broken leaf-ends, etc., is formed, but no bark. ”

“ The sapwood is not distinguishable from the heart. Baltic white deal is recognised chiefly by its small hard and dark knots, by its woolliness on leaving the saw, and by its weathering to a greyish tint. When fresh cut, the grain may be more or less pronounced than that of yellow deal. It is subject to streaks of resin in long cavities, and to loose dead knots. ”

“ Operation of Floor-Board Planing Machine.—The fixed cutters or face irons of a flooring machine produce the best and smoothest work. These tools operate on the under side of the boards; therefore the freshly sawn side should be placed downwards to receive the finishing, which the face irons accomplish. The revolving top scutching-block is not so much used for dressing as for bringing the boards to an exact thickness. So long as one side of the board is well dressed and of accurate thickness, it is not important to have the other side so well done. ”

“ Shrinkage During Seasoning.—During seasoning a large proportion of the moisture evaporates, causing the fibres to shrink and the timber to become less in bulk and weight. Timber is considered fit for carpenters' work when it has lost one-fifth of its weight, and for joiners' work when it has lost one-third. It also becomes lighter in colour and more easily worked. The shrinkage is scarcely perceptible in the length, but is very considerable in the width, measuring circumferentially on the annual rings (see e and g, Fig. 126) . ”

“ Nature seasoning takes so long that it keeps idle a vast amount of capital. By artificial means timber can be dried in fewer days than it takes months by the natural process, consequently improvements in the methods of seasoning are constantly being sought for. A large quantity of deals, battens, planks, etc., receive a first seasoning before being placed on the market. The most effective artificial methods of seasoning are probably of American origin. ”

“ Being considered more fireproof than any other wood, its use is enforced by district surveyors under the Building Act. In special positions, such as those enumerated above, where it is not practicable to paint the woodwork, or where, as in the case of sills, the paint becomes worn off, the greasy nature of teak and the poisonous oil that it contains preserve the wood from decay, and enable it to withstand the attacks of the spores of dry-rot fungus, without any necessity for covering the surface with any protective coating of paint, varnish, etc. ”

“ London screwdrivers have a plain handle (Fig. 97) or oval handle; cabinet screwdrivers are lighter tools, and there is, indeed, a great variety of patterns from which the worker can choose the tools that suit him. The gimlet-handle screwdriver has certain proved advantages; and the brace screwdriver—a screwdriver bit used in an ordinary brace—is useful for driving good-sized screws easily and quickly. Short screwdrivers are used in screwing on drawer locks, there being a much heavier though just as short a tool used for screwing up plane irons. ”

“ The spoon bit resembles the shell bit, but is pointed; it is found to work easily, freely, and well. The nose bit is of similar shape, but its cutting edge is a part of the steel bent nearly to a right-angle and sharpened to form a kind of chisel; this tool is efficient for boring the end way of the grain, but not across the grain. The twist-nose bit or half-twist, or Norwegian bit, is exactly of the shape shown for the twist-nose gimlet by Fig. 102; it screws itself into the wood, and the chips tend to rise out of the hole. ”

“ Heartwood and Sapwood.—A young tree is almost all sapwood, but as it matures this is gradually changed into heartwood more rapidly than sapwood is added, and as the tree increases in age, the inner layers are filled up and hardened, becoming duramen or heartwood, the remainder being alburnum or sapwood. The sapwood is softer and lighter in colour than the heartwood, and can generally be easily distinguished from it. ”

“ Gefle and Söderhamn deals are good for upper flooring, dressers, shelves, etc., and backing to veneers. There are also said to be red deals from the Baltic ports and from Canada, from the Pinus rubra, used for mouldings and best joinery, very like Memel. Swedish woods are never hammer-marked, but invariably branded with letters or devices stencilled on the ends in red paint, which makes it difficult to judge of their quality by inspection, as they are stacked in the timber yards with their ends only showing. ”

“ The foxtail tenon (Fig. 30) is a good joint; alternative methods (with and without housing) of applying this in fitting rails into an oak gate-post are shown by Fig. 311.
Proportioning Tenons.—There is no universal rule for proportioning tenons, but the practice is to give from half to the whole of the width of the rail, when this does not exceed 5 in., for the width of the tenons. If more space than half were given to a haunched tenon, the end of the stile would be liable to be driven out in wedging up, and there is no reason why more space should be given. ”

“ Baltic oak from Dantzic or Riga is rather darker in colour, close-grained, and compact, and its weight is 49 lb. per cubic foot. Riga oak has more flower than Dantzic. American or Quebec oak is a reddish brown, with a coarser grain, not so strong or durable as English oak, but straighter in the grain. Its tenacity is 4 tons per square inch, and weight 53 lb. per cubic foot. African oak is not a true oak. Exposed to the weather, oak changes from a light brown or reddish grey to an ashen grey, and becomes striated from the softer parts decaying before the harder. ”

“ Floor Joists.—Russian deals make the best joists, as they are straight-grained and free from knots, sound and tough. Baltic fir is cheaper and next best. Swedish and Norwegian not reliable.
Half-timber Framing.—Oak is best, as it resists decay the longest, and can be obtained naturally shaped in curves or straight, as may be required. The colour and texture are also suitable for architectural effect. Teak is good, but does not weather quite so good a colour; it is apt to split with nailing. ”

“ Each layer, as it solidifies, expands, exerting a force on the bark, which eventually yields, but in the meantime offers a slight resistance, compressing the tree throughout its bulk. The sapwood is generally distinctly bounded by one of the annual rings, and can thus be sometimes distinguished from stains of a similar colour, which are caused by dirty water soaking into the timber while it is lying in the ponds. ”

“ The best preventive is to use only well-seasoned timber and to keep it well ventilated.
Detection and Treatment of Dry Rot.—When dry rot is suspected in a floor the floor-boards should be lifted at the corners of the room, or at dead ends of passages, or wherever signs of weakness show themselves, and the surfaces of the joists, wallplates, and under side of the floor-boards should be closely examined for fungus, mildew, or any unhealthy sign, such as a brown semi-charred appearance. ”

“ Oval steel nails are nicely shaped, very tough, and are less likely to split the material than any other kind of nail; slight shallow grooves in the shank increase the holding power. Brads are known in more than one variety. The cut-steel large brad is used in flooring, and does not make such a large hole as a cut nail. The cut-steel small brad is used for general purposes. French nails are of round wire, pointed, and have round, flat heads; they are strong, but their unsightly heads cause their use to be confined to rough work.
Fig. ”

“ The black spruce timber is far better than the white, is more plentiful, and grows to a greater size.
Elm.—Common English elm (Úlmus campestris) is of a reddish brown colour with light sapwood, the grain being very irregular and there being numerous small knots. It warps and twists freely, but is very durable if kept constantly under water or constantly dry, but it will not bear alternations of wet and dry. One peculiarity characteristic of elm is that the sap turns white and becomes foxey, and decays quickly. ”

“ Slag material, being fireproof, is to be preferred to sawdust and other combustible materials sometimes used. Fig. 384 shows the section of part of a common floor, showing 9-in. by 3-in. joists, and 11⁄2-in. boarding with a rebated heading joint. In addition, "pugging" and a lath-and-plaster ceiling are shown. The object of the pugging is to reduce the transmission of sound. The fillets for supporting the pugging need not be of the shape indicated in Fig. 384. Another means of attaining the desired end is to nail strips of felt on the upper edges of the joists, under the floor-boards. ”

“ Fig. 386.—Asbestos Slabs between Joists.
Solid Wooded Floors.—Woodwork, when used in solid masses, is an excellent material for fireproof construction. It is extremely difficult to destroy timber in bulk by fire, and in America, partly on this account, and also on account of the cheapness of timber, floors and walls are constructed of planks nailed together side by side. The walls of many of the large grain elevators and station buildings are constructed in this way. ”

“ Radially, or in the direction of the medullary rays, the shrinkage is only slight, as shown by the board f, Fig. 126. If the log is whole, the shrinkage causes shakes and wind-cracks; if cut up into planks or quartering, the shrinkage is determined by the position of the annual rings, and, with care, shakes are not caused. The wood curls or bends breadthwise, with the edges turning on the side which is farthest away from the heart. This is illustrated at e, g, and h, Fig. 126. This circumstance must always be considered in fixing timber in position. ”

“ There are many cutter heads for the formation of the tongue and groove. The face-iron side of the groove and tongue should project a little more than the scutched side; by this means the faced side of the flooring, when driven home and placed in position, has a better joint than it otherwise would have. The "Shimer" patent heads make the finest work; with a feed speed of 60 ft. or 80 ft. ”