Disston Crucible 1917

THE CRUCIBLE HALL OF FAME

MR. J.W. ANDERSON

Millmen will never know Mr. J.W. Anderson personally because he doesn't sell goods, or travel through mill territory. The work he does is not even of value to millmen. But at the some time his is such an unusual, and yet important, employment that we believe his picture and a short description of his work will be of more or less interest to the readers of the Disston Crucible.

Then, too, Mr. Anderson has a sort of fellow feeling for the millmen, because while he started life as a farmer, he also owned a small sawmill at one time. But all this has nothing to do with Mr. Anderson's business, which you are now probably curious to know about. Well here it is:

He is an Apple Log Explorer!

That leaves you as much in the dark as ever, but we will explain just what this means. In the manufacture of saw handles various kinds of wood are used. It has been found, however, that Apple wood is the favorite for hand saw use. It is soft and easy to the hand, and possesses great durability. The demand for it, therefore, is very large, and not at all easy to supply. A good live orchard bearing bountifully every season is a paying proposition, and as it takes some years for an Apple tree to begin to bear, the owner of a good Apple orchard is not inclined to sacrifice his trees for saw handles. It requires constant search from end to end of the Apple growing districts to find suitable trees, and no little business ability to conduct the negotiations for their purchase.

This is Mr. Anderson's "job" -- to find proper trees to supply our steadily increasing demand for Apple wood to make into saw handles. His early life as a farmer, during which time he devoted a great deal at attention to Apple growing, fitted him for the special work which he took up in later years.

There are only certain sections of the country were Apple trees grow to a sufficiently large size, and while Mr. Anderson's travels take him as far as Oregon, it is mainly in the East that he obtains the best trees for his purpose. Trees under thirteen inches in diameter are very seldom bought. Mr Anderson recently succeeded in locating and purchasing a tree in Adams County, Pennsylvania, which was thirty-eight inches in diameter and perfectly healthy. This was an unusually large size.

Only live, healthy trees are of any use, and it takes an expert to pick them out. In addition to his early experience with Apple trees, Mr. Anderson has now been engaged in the business of exploring for Apple logs about twenty years. He tests the quality of the trees while standing by sound, and by the appearance of the bark. And he seldom makes a mistake.

Mr. Anderson is still greatly interested in the scientific growing of Apple orchards and has an orchard of his own now, consisting of 110 acres in York County, Pennsylvania. In the excellent likeness of him which accompanies this article he looks more like a Mexican revolutionary leader than a plain business man. This was taken in front of the Balancing Rock, Colorado Springs, while on one of his exploring trips.

Before beginning his country wide hunt for Apple logs, Mr. Anderson was familiar with Disston Saws. He says: "I ran Disston Saws for twenty-five years in oak, etc, and never had to have a 'saw doctor' for one of them."

APPLE LOGS

Of course, it is generaly recognized that the Disston plant is a sizable institution and that a great many saws are made in it, but it is doubtful if the real magnitude can be grasped without some visual assistance. For instance, the frontispiece and center spread illustations of this issue show portions of the Disston lumber yard. The logs shown are apple wood and they are coming in carload lots almost constantly from all sections of the East. This wood will eventually become handles for part of the Disston hand saws (most Disston hand saws have apple handles, but not all of them. Beech, rosewood, mahogany, cherry and gum also are used.)
It will be three years, however, before handles are made from the logs in the photographs. First they will be cut into boards of suitable thickness and stacked up in the lumber yard to season for that period of time.
It is interesting to realize that the manufacture of saw handles is in reality commenced, probably long before any of the metal from which the steel of the blades will be made, have even been mined.

This purpose of this article is not to describe technically the production of hand saw handles, but rather to call attention to some of you other mill men that Henry Disston & Sons also are members of the fraternity. Not so big in point of volume as some of the rest, but all this handle lumber and quantities besides which goes into the construction of many other Disston tools is manufactured in our own mill.
The point we wish to emphasize is that while Disston saws are designed and constructed along scientifically accurate lines, the theoretical is constantly checked by the practical in actual saw-mill service, in our own plant as well as in the field.
It might be said in passing that as in so many other mills, Disston saws are used here exclusively with entire satisfaction.

apple logs

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