MANKKY WOOD-WORK.—Th is name is applied to a new variety of ornamental wood work, which is manufactured by the Mulkey Decorative Co., of Williamsport, Pa. It de pends upon a novel invention in wood working which possesses a peculiar inter est. It is based upon the principle that wood can be cut crosswise the grain by 11104MS of rotary cutters, provided the cutters be driven at a high speed, and the work be brought up to them under a very slow feed. By giving the cutters different configura tions, channels or grooves of almost any de sired cross section can be produced ; and when these are combined, the most intricate geometrical patterns can be made in solid relief upon the surface of the wood. The machine on which this is done is very simple, and is represented in Pig. 7. It consists of a table, 1, having an opening, 2, and mounted on a suitable standard. In the standard is journaled a shaft, 5, which carries a rotary cutter, 4, which extends up through the slot, 6. On the table, and against a ledge, 7, thereon, rests the vertical bar of an arm, 12. This arm and its bar are loose, and may be slid along on the table in con tact with the ledge, 7. The work is fast ened on the under side of a guide (not shown), which receives the vertical pin, shown on the end of tl.e bar 12, and by means of which guide the plank to be oper ated upon by the cutter, 4, can be set at any desired angle to the cutter. The work man grasps the bar, 12, in his hand, and pushes it along, thus feeding the work to the cutter, 4, which is usually driven at a speed from five to six thousand revolutions per minute. In Fig. 8 we give a number of examples of the kind of work which is thus done. At 1, and
3 are shown specimens of simple cross cutting, the channels being made directly transverse the grain of a board or plank. One result of this cutting is the bringing out with great clearness of the grain of the wood, which, of course, is totally obscured when the timber is cut with the grain. Nos. 4. 7, 12, 13. and /C are examples of paneling made by inter secting grooves, producing figures in solid relief. Nos. 5 and 10 illustrate effects produced by curved grooves intersecting and combined. Nos. G, 14, and 15 are patterns produced by radial grooves. No. .17 is an ornamental trim produced by cross cutting a board on two sides, as shown in No. 1, for example, and then slitting the board longitudinally, the orna mental figure being afterwards produced by stamping, or any other convenient way, on the faces. 18 is simply a piece of ordinary molding, with a strip made exactly the same way as 17, but ornamented differently on its face, glued thereto. No. S is an open-work pattern produced from a board cut as in No. 1, then slit longitudinally, and then the several strips combined with the straight intermediate pieces, the whole glued together.
The ingenious basket-work shown in No. 11 is simply a board out as in No. 2, then divided into strips, and the strips glued together sidewise, so that the narrow elevation in one comes opposite the broad elevation in the other.
The number of patterns which it is possible to make in this way is almost indefinite ; and the cheapness of the work is one of its principal advantages. A complete panel, such as 17, is easily produced from the plain plank in the space of less than two minutes, and at a cost of a few cents.