THE BLUE BOOK OF PIANOS

The Very Best Guide for Piano Buying and Selling a Piano

Whether you're in the market for a new or used piano, we provide these informative, easy-to-read Buyers Guides. You'll learn everything you need to know about the piano you want -- and without weighing you down with mind-numbing techno-babble. There's more to a piano than just the type and size. We will explore what features you may want to consider before you buy. 

In the past the trademark on its fallboard was your assurance of its distinction and musicianship. A piano is a precision engineered musical instrument. Its enduring qualities of tone and stability have been further guaranteed by the company that produced it. The Who, Where, Why, When and How are very important.  

There cannot be many products as ill-suited to modern assembly-line manufacturing techniques as the piano. Each piece of  spruce... for the soundboard, each batch of rock maple that becomes the pin block (or wrest plank) that holds the tuning pins in place, each set of hammers — all are marginally different from one another and the vagaries of each of a piano's 10,000 components have to be accommodated and allowed for by succession of watchful, sensitive human beings. 

Every piano has an individual character all its own. This pedigree that sets it apart, even from other instruments of the same make and style, is inevitable. No two trees ever grow exactly alike. Grain and densities differ between different species and between individual trees of the same species. Ivory  tusks and plastics  differ in color, grain and density. Wools, from which hammer and damper felts are made, vary in texture and length of fiber. Such variations are present in all materials from which pianos are made.

The piano is not the only thing that has an individual character of its own. No two markets are exactly alike. No two dealers exactly alike, each dealer sets his own price on his pianos. There is no set formula for discounts. Quality is never about price. Nothing is ever bought or sold unless the value exceeds the price.

 The biggest discounts are not on the most expensive pianos, the big discounts are on the oldest inventory  they  cost less, usually purchased by the dealer before the most recent price increases, they are the most "shopworn", and generally speaking, old inventory is usually worth less. A general rule is that usually new pianos go up in price, as you would anticipate, with size. Taller verticals, and longer or larger grand pianos, will, naturally, sell for more than shorter ones. Recognized brand names will command premium prices, although with all these brands there is still going to be competition between dealers for your dollars.

You are paying the time the dealer has put into preparing the piano for sale on the showroom floor; costing anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, depending on his  overhead, and what he's had to do to make the piano presentable, the service you receive as a customer before and after the sale, the move, the warranty, etc.  In addition, even though two competing dealers may offer the exact same brand and model of piano, there are often significant differences in the tone quality and touch of the two instruments. No two pianos are ever exactly alike. No two dealers are exactly alike either.

One of the most important services a dealer renders to a buyer of a new or rebuilt piano is the "first service" which should take place within a few months after the piano is delivered. New and rebuilt pianos have two things in common: The strings, being new, are still stretching (which means more frequent tunings are required for the piano to continue to sound good) and hammers and other felts are settling and being "broken in" (necessitating touch-up adjustments such as "regulation"  or "voicing.")

The years from 1900-1935, saw a revolution in the piano business. The invention of the automobile and the radio had a tremendous influence on the way people lived. No longer able to afford living in spacious homes, they moved to small apartments. The whole social pattern of living took a mighty flip-flop. One result was that the old upright went out like a light, to be replaced by the spinet-type piano. During the depression we developed the two sizes of verticals one 40,' high, the other 45"-which we manufacture today. The trend turned all manufacturers to making spinets. Today, by units, about 95 per cent of the market are small verticals. The market for grand pianos has remained fairly stable and in the last few years has been on the increase. With the tremendous changes it has brought about in our way of living has come a terrific competition for the few luxury dollars that are left over. There is a constant pressure to buy this, that and the other thing. The social evolution changed the piano business.

PIANO TYPES AND SIZES

Grand Pianos:

The reasons for the preference which most people show for a Grand to an Upright piano are probably aesthetic and psychological. A Grand looks better in a room, and the pianist is more favorably impressed by the “view” when he sits down to play a Grand, compared with an Upright, which usually stands with its back to a wall. Another advantage is that the top, when raised, deflects the sound to player and room.

Unfortunately, this preference brought about the production of miniature Grand pianos which are inferior in tone and touch to a good Upright and are described in the trade as “Small Grand Pianos”. The action in such models was cut down in size and price, and the strings are too short; in fact, the minimum size for a Grand seems to be 4 ft.10 in. if the instrument is to be considered as a serious rival to a good Upright.

Sizes and Types: The standard width of a grand piano is also about 5'. The length varies from 4½' to 9½'. The total floor space allowance for the smallest grand should be at least 5' wide by 6½' long, including bench space. Grand pianos are measure by the length from the very front of the keyboard to the farthest end of the piano along the spine, with the lid closed. The smallest Steinway is 5 ft. 1 in. (The size stated is always the over-all length of an instrument.) There are several types of grand pianos, based on piano length:

Tonal Quality - The soundboard and strings of a grand piano are positioned horizontally inside the piano case. When you press down a key, the hammer of the key hits the strings from below to produce the sound. The movement of the hammer falls back with the help of gravity, which makes the sound of repetitive notes crisp and allows the pianist better control of the keys. The size of the soundboard and the length of strings influence the tonal quality of a piano. Larger soundboard and longer strings produce greater volume and resonance of tone.

However, if you are considering a Small Grand, you should also look into a higher end of a Full-Size Upright.  Some verticals actually have larger soundboard and longer strings than most  small grand pianos.

Recommendation:

Since the tonal quality and the volume of the piano depend mainly on the size of the soundboard and the length of the strings, you want to start from the largest vertical or grand piano you can afford. You also need to consider the space you have. The sound of a Small Grand can get lost in a large open room where a Medium Grand in a small room can be too loud. If money and space were no obstacle, I would have the following order of preference for a home:

Ideally if you were planning to purchase a grand piano, you should consider one at least 6' long. And if you were considering a vertical, it should be at least 48" tall. You should look into a higher quality Full-size Upright (i.e. 52" Steinway) if you were considering a "Baby" Grand (anything smaller than 5')

PIANO SIZE CONVERSION CHART
METRIC TO STANDARD   SIZES
Including Asia, Europe, Russia, China, Malaysia, Indonesia
Compliments of the "Original" Bluebook of Pianos. 

Vertical (Upright) Pianos:

A craze for very small size also afflicted Upright pianos. With the result that miniature models appeared which could only be classed as toys. The height was reduced by lowering the position of the action in relation to the keyboard, so that the lever was pulled up by the key instead of being lifted in the normal way. This type of piano sold as a “Spinet”. When compared with the small Grand pianos condemned in the previous paragraph, these miniature Uprights sink to about the same depth of tonal and acoustic banality. I can appreciate the demand for small pianos for small rooms, and in small orchestras where space is limited and the player must be able to see the leader, but I cannot see the sense of mutilating the tone and touch of a piano merely to reduce the height by a further three or four inches.

A vertical piano is any piano with the strings in a vertical position. Vertical pianos come in four sizes: Spinet, Console, Studio, and Upright. The size is measured from the floor to the top of the lid. The spinet piano measures less than 36" tall. The console measures 40 to 44" tall. The studio or "professional upright" measures 45 to 50" tall. The largest of the vertical pianos is the upright, which measures over 50" tall.

Sizes and Types - The standard width of an upright piano is about 5' and the depth is between 2 - 2½'. The total floor space allowance should be about 5' wide by 5' deep, including bench space. The height of the piano makes no difference in the floor space needed but it makes a major difference in the quality of sound the piano produces. The height of a vertical piano is measured from the floor to the top of the piano. There are four types of vertical pianos, based on piano height:

Spinet Pianos

The spinet piano is the smallest of the vertical pianos. The spinet piano has what is called a dropped action. The piano action is the part of the piano that transfers the force of striking the key to the hammer striking the string. In appearance the spinet and console pianos are very similar. Some technicians charge more to work on spinet pianos because they feel they are more difficult to repair. There are more working parts in a spinet piano than a console but a qualified piano technician should be able to service the spinet piano at no additional charge.

Console Pianos

The console is the most popular of the vertical pianos. The action of a console piano sits directly on top of the keys and as with all vertical pianos the hammers sit in an upright position. Once the hammer strikes the string and the key is released a spring pulls the hammer back to its original position, ready to strike the string again. The action of a vertical piano is usually not as "quick" as the action of a grand piano.

Studio Pianos

The additional height of the studio piano gives it a richness and tonal quality comparable to those of many grand pianos. The location and feel of the action is also different in a studio piano. Many of the newer studio pianos mimic the feel of a grand piano.

Upright Pianos

The tallest of the vertical pianos is the upright. Today this term is usually used to refer to the older, tall pianos - Grandma's piano. There were many wonderful upright pianos made in America in the 1920 - 1940's. If properly preserved these old pianos are some of the most esthetically beautiful and durable instruments ever made. The key is "properly preserved". If not properly maintained an old upright's only value is as a large piece of furniture, beautiful to look at but nerve racking to listen to.

Summary:

 

You know, a fine piano is a work of art. Therefore, to treat it rough, carelessly or negligent it is to commit a crime against a beautiful piece of expensive craftsmanship. To pay a lot of money for a fine piano and then allow it to go to ruin for lack of expert care is not merely aesthetically wrong it is bad business.  If a piano is neglected, if it be allowed to go through from one season to another, say, from Spring to Winter, without tuning, it will probably, at the end of that time, be consider-ably lower in pitch than it was originally. It will have gone through a rise, followed by a fall, and the fall will be greater than the first rise.

 

No matter what any salesman may say, no matter how finely the piano may be made, no matter, in fact, what the physical circumstances or the price or the domestic conditions may be, there is no such thing as a piano standing month after month in tune. The better the piano, the more frequent and careful tuning it should have.  In order to understand why a piano goes out of tune, it is first necessary to remember that the whole instrument is always under a varying stress. The strings are stretched at an average tension of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred pounds apiece; so that the iron plate, together with the heavy wooden framing, carries a strain totaling from eighteen to twenty tons.  "Now, this stress is not constant, for the reason that the steel wire is highly elastic. The soundboard is merely a thin sheet of spruce a three eighths of an inch in thickness.  If It properly constructed, the whole hoard becomes something like a highly elastic spring. The more elastic it is, the freer and more agree able will he the tone emanating from the piano.

 

SENSITIVITY TO ATMOSPHERIC CHANGES:

 

Unfortunately, this very construction is extremely sensitive to all changes of temperature and barometric pressure.  In summer time, throughout the greater part of the country, there is much moisture in the air most of the time, and rain is frequent. Wood, under these conditions,  swells up; nor will any kind of coating protect a wooden soundboard from these influences. On the contrary, when the heat is on during the colder months, the air in rooms becomes much drier,  owing to the evaporation of moisture and failure to keep on hand open vessels of water, flowering plants or other moisture retainers or evaporators. Consequently, the moisture in the soundboard rapidly passes off, the hoard shrinks, the strings slacken down, and the pitch drops.

 

Now, it is perfectly evident that even where conditions are not extreme, and even in climates which have only a comparatively short range, this process is continually going on.  "Every change of a degree in temperature, or of one tenth of an inch in a barometer, has its effect. The soundboard of the piano, then, is always slowly rising and falling through short distances, and constantly, therefore, suffering variations in its ability to hold the strings up to proper pitch.  On the other hand, if the piano be neglected and unless it be tuned at least once every change in season, say four times a year, during Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, it will not stay in tune.

 

 ??? IS YOUR PIANO IN TUNE TEST ???

 

THE TRUTH ABOUT STAYING IN TUNE:

 

From the layman's standpoint, two  tunings a year should be sufficient. The tuner knows, however, that if he had time to tune his own piano as often as his ears tell him, he would tune it once a month at least. From a strictly scientific point of view, it is probably true to say that no piano ever made has stood in tune, without a drop or a rise, for more than twenty four hours, unless it were maintained at constant temperature and at constant barometric and hygroscopic conditions."

 

 

TONE QUALITY

 

The three essentials to a good piano are tone, touch and durability. The average ear may distinguish tone and know when the instrument pleases.  Tone is the medium of the pianist's art. It is to the musician what color is to the painter, language to the poet. Hence it is all  important that the tone you produce should be beautiful in quality, and as far as possible overcome the one great inherent defect of the piano by cultivating a good singing tone. Yet the majority of people are curiously vague on this subject; if asked how they set about getting tone, few can give a clear or rational explanation. 

 

To begin with, each key, or note on a piano can be played or expressed in twenty-five degrees of touch or volume if you wish. Otherwise the sound of the piano would be expressionless, with no degree of loud or soft, an absolute contradiction to the purpose of the instrument. In the following remarks, therefore, I intend to examine the theoretical as well as the practical aspects of tone reproduction. It will not matter if anyone fails to accept my views; I shall be fully satisfied if only they inspire reflections of their own on the subject.

 

I cannot emphasize enough the impossibility of learning to play piano unless you have a piano to practice on. My reasons for this are based on the fact that strong muscles in the finger can only be developed through exercise on the piano. When playing the twelve major scales and twenty-four minor scales through five octaves ten times, which can be accomplished by a good pianist in about forty minutes, the thumb is used 7,200 times, the second finger is used 7,440 times, the third finger 7,200 times, the forth finger 3,460 times, and the little finger only 180 times. The purpose of playing the scales in this manner is to strengthen the fingers through exercise,  in no case can the amount of weight it takes to depress each key be duplicated on any electronic keyboard.

 

The first great factor in tone production is weight. Thus I shall endeavor to make it plain to you by inviting you to take part in a few simple experiments.  First of all take a rubber tipped lead pencil. Hold the pencil vertically over any key on a piano at a height of two or three inches, and then let it go suddenly. The pencil drops instantly of course, but it does not cause the note to sound. Hold it about twelve inches and let it go; still no sound as it strikes, hold it at any distance you want, or even throw it with force at the keyboard, you will still not get a sound, because the pencil is too light, and neither dropping it or increasing its impetus, or adding force to its decent will supply its lack of weight to create a note on a piano. But if you hold the pencil in your hand and depress a key even very slightly, the weight from your arm will cause the piano to sound the note. Next, select some object weighing six to eight ounces, such as a bar of and than even before, a fuller tone.

 

Two important inferences can be drawn from the above experiments,  first tone cannot be produced at all without the application of weight to the keys. Secondly, the greater the weight brought to bear on the keys the fuller the tone will be, not so on the electronic or portable keyboard, whenever a sound was made, it was made without expression or volume except as preset by the volume control. The word Piano means soft, the word forte means loud, put them together and you have PIANO-FORTE, the instrument created by Cristofori, called so because of its capacity of being played loud or soft. When a string is struck by the hammer, there is not just one sound, but a succession of sounds which overlap each other and blend together in such a manner that only the keenest ear can separate them.

 

Though the string cannot sound a lower tone than its fundamental, it can and does sound higher tones. These higher tones, which are called harmonics, result from the fact that immediately after the whole length of the string has swung back and force to produce the fundamental tone, it divides itself in the middle and each half vibrates separately, the fundamental having ceased.  Each of the halves vibrate twice as fast as the whole string did before and because of this higher frequency, the supplemental sound which they produce is one octave above the first, or fundamental, tone. This secondary sound is known as a second partial since it is a partial of the first tone.

 

Following in very rapid succession, the string replaces each rate of oscillation with a higher one as the wire divides itself into shorter and shorter vibrating segments with faster and faster frequencies. For the fourth partial, the wire vibrates in four sections, at four times the rate of the fundamental. The seventh would be in seven sections and its frequency would be seven times as high. The seventh partial of A440 for example, will actually vibrate at the rate of 3,080 cycles per second. 

 

The ideal tone which is extremely difficult to attain is one consisting of the first seven partials of which about fifty percent of the total intensity would be the fundamental, with the balance divided among the remaining six in decreasing proportions up to and including the seventh. So, you see, the sound given off by a single piano string is not a simple tone such as we get from a flute, but is a very complex one such as e would get from playing several orchestral instruments together.

 

Each note is, in reality, a chord, the quality of which depends on getting the right answers to about thirty different questions such as the location of the hammer line, the size and thickness of the sounding board, the material used in the sounding board, the shape, the height, the stiffness of the bridges, amount of crown of the sounding board, the rigidity of the board, the down-bearing of the strings on the boards, the scale layout, the weight and shape and the hardness of the felt of the hammers, the proper setting of the strings against each of the 1400 bearing points, etc.

 

Now, double the above list, since it covers less than half the things which affect tone quality, and then multiply that total by eighty-eight and you will have some idea of why there is a difference in tone in pianos, why costs differ, and who only the better made ones continue to sound good long after the price is forgotten.

 

There is a common belief that a performer can produce tones of different quality by some special skill or technique in the way a piano key is struck or in the way it is manipulated after it has been depressed. This is not true, as no skill in required to play  a single note. If the force of the blow on the key is the same, the tonal result will be the same whether  the force is applied by a concert artist or a child. Once a key has been depressed, the performer loses all further control over the volume and quality of the tone of, that note.

 

While the manner of striking or holding down a key makes no difference in the tonal effect, the force with which a key is struck can make a difference. Tests have shown that the character of tone,  as well as the volume, is often affected by the force of the blow on the key. In other words, the harmonic mixture of the tone may vary with the volume; therefore, the overall tonal pattern of an entire chord can be affected by varying the force used on just one note in the chord. This explains why one artist might produce a more appealing effect than another artist playing the same composition on the same piano.

 

WHAT IS MEANT BY PIANO "TOUCH"?

 

The word "touch" applies to the performance of the piano as well as to the performance of the musician. When we say a piano has a good touch, we mean that the action has been so well made and so perfectly regulated that it responds instantly and accurately to any demands the most expert performer can make. When, in his later years, Beethoven played the piano, he could not hear the music at all. Pianos have been used and have been played well by people with almost every other type of physical handicap, but all who play must possess one thing in common: the ability to press down the keys. They have to have a sense of touch that tells them how hard to strike each note. The selection of notes and the tempo are determined by  the composer. These are fixed and can be readily grasped by the performer, but the composer can only indicate in a general way what force is to be applied through using such symbols as "pianissimo" or "forte".  These, however, are broad terms; the many shadings of volume in between the marked signs on the music are left to the intuition and skill of the pianist, subject to the capacity of the piano to respond.

 

A player piano can produce every note exactly as written by the composer and do it in perfect tempo, but it still sounds mechanical because it lacks the third dimension of interpretive touch. A capable performer can strike a piano key with about twenty-seven different degrees of force.  

Since there is no way for the teacher or composer to communicate to the pianist just what force is to be applied to each note, it is clear that "touch" must be sensed, must be regarded as an art rather than as an exact science.

 

There is a common belief that a performer can produce tones of different quality by some special skill or technique in the way a piano key is struck or in the way it is manipulated after it has been depressed. This is not true, as no skill in required to play a single note. if the force of the blow on the key is the same, the tonal result will be the same whether the force is applied by a concert artist or a child. Once a key has been depressed, the performer loses all further control over the volume and quality of the tone of that note.

 

While the manner of striking or holding down a key makes no difference in the tonal effect, the force with which a key is struck can make a difference. Tests have shown that the character of tone,  as well as the volume, is often affected by the force of the blow on the key. In other words, the harmonic mixture of the tone may vary with the volume; therefore, the overall tonal pattern of an entire chord can be affected by varying the force used on just one note in the chord. This explains why one artist might produce a more appealing effect than another artist playing the same composition on the same piano.  The word "touch" applies to the performance of the piano as well as to the performance of the musician, when we say a piano has a good touch, we mean that the action has been so well made and so perfectly regulated that it responds instantly and accurately to any demands the most expert performer can make.

 

WHAT IS THE RIGHT TOUCH FOR A PIANO?

 

There is a tendency to place too much emphasis on piano actions being made extra light so that small children can play without risk of tiring. Children do not remain children very long and if they learn on a piano with an abnormal light touch, they will have to readjust themselves later to a standard  touch which is not easy to do.  Though there is not too much that can be done to change the touch after a piano has been manufactured, it is not difficult or expensive to design a piano with a very light touch. It is impossible, however, to make one that way and have it responsive enough for really good performance.

 

If the touch is to light, the action will feel shallow and unresponsive because the keys, after being depressed and released, will tend to flutter and not return to playing position fast enough for good repetition. That is why professional musicians almost always want a definitely heavier touch than would be used if we were making pianos just for children to play, and why most piano makers compromise by having a medium touch so that the usefulness of the instrument will not be limited to just one type of performer.

 

The ideal touch is one that is capable of handling the fast repetition demanded by all good performers, yet light and elastic enough so that a child will not find it too difficult to play during his first year or two at the piano. It is better to have the action a little too heavy for perfect comfort the first year or two, in order to be right for the next fifty years.

 

STRUCTURAL AND ORNAMENTAL WOOD

 

The beauty we admire in finished wood is due almost entirely to the variation in the grain or texture -- in other words, its lack of uniformity of pattern. This variation is cause by contrasts in color due mostly to the way the fibers shaped themselves during the growth of the tree, and to the angle of the cut when the log was sawn.  Manufacturers of pianos and fine furniture go to great expense to preserve and by special finishing processes to emphasize this variation which is found in all fine woods, and without which the wood surface would be dull and uninteresting and might as well be painted. 

 

One of the problems of preserving the natural grain is the fact that wood, when given a clear finish, has a visual depth which causes light to be reflected from the surface of the wood rather than from the outer surface of the lacquer coating. This is how we are able to see the real beauty in the wood, but it makes perfect matching of the color or shade of adjoining pieces virtually impossible because the reflection of light is not uniform. It varies (in some instances to a considerable extent) according to where the viewer stands. Thus parts  which are well-matched when viewed from one direction, may appear mismatched when seen from the opposite side. Here, again, it is the nature of the wood and will always be there if we want to retain its natural beauty.  Caution: Tobacco and smoke stains and odors are difficult to remove.

Wood is used in piano keys and actions to provide strength with lightness of weight superior to any substitute. The use of wood for piano cabinets (as well as the costliest furniture) is due to a combination of qualities not found in any other substance. These include great strength for its weight, resilience to resist shock, ease of joining the parts together so they will not rattle or squeak or set up undesirable vibrations, and the matchless, permanent beauty of the finished outer surface.

 

One could read all the literature ever published on the subject and still not really know how to buy and process lumber for building superior pianos. That skill comes only from long experience. Most of the visible parts of a piano cabinet are veneered. (Veneer cutting methods) Only a small fraction of the cost of the total wood used can be seen. The quality of the hidden portion is determined by the policy of the manufacturer  which, in turn, is generally a reflection of the manufacturer's reputation, ability, experience and reliability.

 

VENEERS, CHIPBOARD, PARTICLE BOARD, SOLID WOODS & PLASTICS

 

Very few manufacturers offer a solid wood piano. The most expensive or better grade of piano will be made of a solid wood core with a five-ply lamination. These laminations consist of two veneers of cross-grain wood (usually poplar) on the bottom of the solid wood core, another layer of poplar on the top of the solid wood core, and a top layer of a matched veneer forming a very solid case construction.

 

Careful checking of the top lid and sides will enable you to determine the quality of the cabinet of the instrument. Because a piano has pressed wood does not necessarily mean it is not a good instrument. Some of the better manufacturers of furniture such as Thomasville, Lane, Drexel and Broyhill use particleboard in much of the furniture they build. Sixty years ago, a wise housewife would have chosen solid-wood furniture.. Machine manufactured veneers had the reputation of being a second-best product. Not so today! Veneered furniture gives you the best in wood furniture.  Wood veneering is the art of cutting, matching, and applying sheets of fine wood to a panel. The beauty of the surface is dependent on the skill of selecting and combining face veneers.

 

Advantages of Veneers: Today's veneered furniture panels are made of a core with slices of strong wood layered like a club sandwich, spread with strong chemical adhesives, bonded under heat and pressure into an almost indestructible unit. The sandwich may consist of three, five, seven, or any other odd number of layers. These thin sheets of wood are united so that the grain of each layer lies at right angles to the following one.  This cross-grain construction is the key factor in con-trolling the expansion and contraction of the wood panel, preventing warping.  Woods in general are strongest when the grain runs the long way: across-the-grain woods are weaker and shrink more readily. Again the process of reversing the grain on each layer helps equalize the stress.

 

It is this sandwich construction that makes veneered furniture stronger than solid wood furniture. It is less likely to split when driving nails into it or to break under stress. It also minimizes the likelihood of the furniture warping, as happens in over-heated modern houses. Veneered construction holds up to humidity, air conditioning, and the frequent changes from one to the other. Under such variations in temperature, solid-wood furniture is less durable.  Another great advantage of veneers is the variety of selection it gives the manufacturer. The selection of the prettiest grains, the best surfaces, does not have to be made from planks of wood averaging three inches thick as in solid wood, but from sheets of veneer only 1/28 inches thick.

 

Another great asset of veneer lies in the fact that it can be bent and molded to almost any curve desired. Designers are freed from the usual right-angle designs.  Furniture can be shaped into a drum or form more easily and at less expense than these or similar designs made of solid wood. In the construction of veneered furniture, solid-wood is used for legs and posts.

 

You, the customer, get many "end-use" benefits from veneered furniture, because the designer has more freedom to design, since the material is, to a large degree, flexible. He has the freedom to select the finest and most beautiful veneers to give your furniture simple or highly figured surfaces. And, as we mentioned, there are strength and durability in the finished product.

 

Figures in Veneers:  Within the rough bark covered tree trunk lies great, unexpected beauty.  The internal and external structures of a tree set the figures sometimes called patterns. These figures are not to be confused with grains, which are simply the size and arrangement of the living cells of trees. Figures depend on the type of growth rings, the type of grain, the prominence of knots, burls, crotches, swollen butts, and the color of the actual wood of the tree.

 

There are many popular patterns in wood. For example, there are plain, broken, rope, and ribbon stripe. More complex is the Mottle Stripe; broken by grain reverses, it waves and changes direction. This wavy and striated surface is popular in maple and mahogany.  The Fiddle back figure is also found in maple and mahogany. It is a strong, rippled, symmetrical figure, used frequently on the backs of string instruments. The Curly-figured veneer is self-explanatory. The irregular pattern runs across the grain in maple, birch, and mahogany.  Among the more intricate and striking patterns are those veneers cut from the vicinity of crotches. A Crotch is cut from a fork in a tree where the trunk of the tree and a branch join to form a "Y" or "U" shape. Burls and feathers are varieties of the crotch cut.

 

Burl is a wart like formation on a tree. Burl veneer has a high decorative value and is used extensively. Sometimes a  confusion arises between the burl and Bird's Eye figure. Both have an eyelike figure, but in burl the eye is surrounded by a series of clusters while in the bird's eye maple, each eye stands out separately.  Butt wood is taken from the junction of the larger roots and the trunk of the tree. It shows a crinkly, curly figure that's usually associated with walnut.

 

 

 

 

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