Elm is, nevertheless, used by turners for the wooden buckets of pumps, and is a generally useful wood. Bulk for bulk, it is lighter than beech, and it makes a good material, it is said, for lathe beds, though beech is more frequently used. It will answer for chucks, as indeed most woods will that can be cut into screws; it is very tough.
Evergreen Oak, or Holm Oak, as it is called, is very different to the forest tree, and might be classed among shrubs. When dry, it is by no means a bad wood to turn, and will take a good screw thread, and make excellent chucks.
Acacia is an excellent wood. It is of a yellowish brown colour, tolerably hard, and will take a good polish. It is most certainly to be set down among the woods valuable to the turner.
Sycamore is white, very soft until old, when it becomes much harder. This is also a turner’s wood, and used extensively for wooden bowls, backs of brushes, turned boxes, and what is generally called “turnery.” A little of this will be useful to the young mechanic. It will make excellent bread platters, stands for hot water jugs, and such like.
Holly.—The Christmas garland, with its red berries decorating even the poorest homes in midwinter, is a tree well worth the attention of the young mechanic. It is his substitute for the more precious material ivory, and from it he will turn the white draught or chess men, boxes, and many small articles. But it is necessary that this material should be perfectly dry, and to get it in perfection, carefully preserved to insure its whiteness, it will be generally necessary to procure it ready for the lathe at some lathemaker’s, or at first-class cabinetmakers’. If cut green, it requires long seasoning, during which it shrinks considerably. In fact, it takes some years entirely to rid it of the great quantity of moisture which it contains. It is well worth procuring, nevertheless, for it is nearly as white and free from grain as ivory.
Many of the fruit-trees of our orchards and gardens supply good material to the turner. Apple, Pear, Cherry, Plum, and some others, are all more or less useful. The grain of the first is rather dark, the fibres often twisted. It looks well when polished.
Pear has a very fine, even grain, and is largely used for making the curved templates (or patterns of curves for architects and engineers); it will make good boxes, and is fairly serviceable to the turner. Its colour is light brown, but darkens by exposure.
The Plum has a wood veined very like that of the elm, but is a finer and better wood for the lathe. This is the wild plum, and not the grafted fruit-tree of our gardens, which is not nearly so good. The wild plum is excellent for small boxes, and looks well when nicely turned and polished.
Cherry is a very excellent wood, and naughty, fast boys, who take to smoking, like young Americans, when they ought to be filling their young brains with knowledge instead of narcotics, know very well that it is made into pipes and stems of pipes. Happily this is not its only use, for it is fit for many other purposes; and for light, elegant furniture, it is scarcely to be equalled. Dipped in lime-water, it darkens, and by doing this here and there, a beautiful mottled appearance is given to it. It takes an excellent polish, and should be among the stores of the young mechanic.
We now come to another soft, white wood. The Lime, which, as it is more even in grain, more easily cut in any direction than most woods, is greatly used by carvers and pattern-makers (i.e., those who make wooden patterns of wheels, or lathes, or machinery, which are to be cast in metal). [The pattern is pressed into damp sand, and then removed, and the melted metal is then poured into the impression thus made. If the sand is too wet, the process will not only fail, but the hot metal will be scattered on all sides, inflicting dreadful burns and injuries; but with care, the young amateur may make castings in tin or lead, as will be explained by and by.] Even with a penknife alone, very pretty ornaments may be carved from the wood of the lime, and also from that which follows.