GB2321426A

GB2321426A - Processing of Wood.

Info

Publication number: GB2321426A
Application number: GB9725766A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Mark Roger Wilkinson
Original assignee: WILKINSON MARK FURNITURE Ltd
Current assignee: WILKINSON MARK FURNITURE Ltd
Priority date: 1997-01-28
Filing date: 1997-12-04
Publication date: 1998-07-29
Anticipated expiration: 2017-12-04
Also published as: GB2321426B; GB9701694D0; GB9725766D0

Abstract

A method of processing wood in which the wood is cut with a machine saw which has at least one tooth out of line with the other teeth, and wherein the planks are moved past the saw with an irregular movement imparted to the planks to create an irregular pattern of roughness on the surface of the wood. The cut surface is then sanded.

Description

PROCESSING OF WOOD The present invention relates to the processing of wood, and in particular to the generation of a surface effect on the plank or similar piece of wood, and a wooden body formed by assembling together such planks or pieces.

There are many known ways of processing wood, such as sawing, sanding, etc. All create different surface effects. The present invention seeks to generate a surface effect which appears rough, but it does not feel rough.

Before discussing the present invention, some terms need to be defined. When a piece of wood is cut, the saw necessarily moves from one edge of the wood to another.

The direction of such movement from one edge of the wood to the other will be referred to hereinafter as the "overall" direction of movement. Of course, during the cutting operation, other directions of movement of the saw are involved. For example, the blade of the saw may move from side to side, or the saw may rotate about a suitable axis. These directions will be referred as the direction of cutting. Note that, for each of these directions, the present text is concerned with relative movement. It does not matter whether the wood is stationary and the saw moves, or the net position of the saw is fixed ( ie the saw does not move in the overall direction of movement)and instead the wood moves in a direction opposite to the defined direction of the 'overall' movement.

In the present invention, wood is cut with a machine saw with at least one tooth which is out of line with the other teeth. In the cutting operation, the overall movement of the wood relative to the saw is not uniform with time. Instead, the wood is moved in an irregular way. This creates a roughened surface with irregular variations, giving the effect of a random pattern.

However, because at least one tooth of the saw is out of line with the other teeth, splinters and other undesirable irregularities are created in the surface, which must then be removed by sanding.

Preferably, the surface is sanded in a plurality of different directions, with the first sanding direction being against the overall direction of movement of the wood relative to the saw. This removes the majority of the splinters from the surface. Subsequent sanding directions are preferable inclined to the left and right relative to the first direction of sanding, and the final direction of sanding is opposite to the first. This reduces the roughening achieved to the sawing to the point at which the surface has an irregular pattern, due to the irregular movement of the wood relative to the saw, but which does not feel rough to the touch.

Preferably, the saw is a band resaw, which is fed by hand. The operator then moves the wood in an irregular manner to create the irregular patterning achieved by the present invention. In particular, the wood may be moved to cause a relative movement of the saw in the overall direction of movement, moved in the opposite direction for a short time, and then moved further in the overall direction. This is why the term 'overall' direction is used; at particular time the relative direction need not be in the 'overall' direction. Alternatively, the wood may move only in the overall direction, but at varying speeds of movement. A similar approach can be applied to other surfaces of the wood. Sanding is preferably carried out by a nylon brush arrangement, or by an arrangement known as a "flailer" which combines strips of sandpaper and nylon bristles.

An embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawing in which the sole figure shows a series of wood panels processed according to the present invention.

In the embodiment of the present invention, planks of wood are cut with a circular band resaw which has at least one tooth, possibly a few teeth out of line with the other teeth. The planks are moved past the saw by hand, with an irregular movement imparted to the planks to create an irregular pattern of roughness on the surface of the wood. The degree of irregularity is determined by the number of teeth which have been moved out of line, and by the irregularity of movement itself.

Then, the cut surface is sanded in four directions.

The first direction is opposite to the overall direction of movement, the second and third directions are inclined relative to the overall direction at opposite angles to this, and the fourth direction is the same direction as the overall direction of movement. The result is that the initial roughness is smoothed out, but the pattern of roughness imposed by the original cutting operation is reduced to an irregularity with no localised rough patches.

The accompanying drawings show four panels 10, 11, 12, 13 formed by this process, which can be secured together to form e.g. a door or other wooden surface.

Panel 10 shows the four directions of sanding, assuming that the overall direction of movement is in the direction of arrow A in the drawing. The first sanding direction, shown by arrow B, is opposite to the overall direction of movement. The second direction, shown by arrow C, is inclined to the right, extending diagonally across the panel from the top left-hand corner to the bottom right-hand corner in the drawing. The third sanding direction, shown by arrow D, is inclined in the opposite direction relative to the first sanding direction, and so is from the top right-hand corner to the bottom left-hand corner, in the drawing. The final sanding direction, shown by arrow E, is directly opposite to the first sanding direction.

Thus, for each panel 10,11,12,13, patterns of roughness (shown schematically at 15), are created on the surface of the wood. This process can also be applied to the top and bottom edges of the panels 10,11,12,13, and also to the outside edges of panels 10 and 13. Rounding the corners of the panels 10,11,12 and 13 adds to the "weathered" effect thus produced. The result is one or more wooden panels which have the appearance of roughness, but which are not rough to the touch because of the sanding operation.

Claims

1. A method of processing wood, including the steps of: cutting the wood with a machine saw, with at least one tooth which is out of line with the other teeth, the overall direction of movement of the wood relative to the saw not being uniform with time; and sanding the cut surface.

2. A method of processing wood according to claim 1, where in sanding the cut surface includes sanding the surface in a plurality of directions, with the first sanding direction being opposite to the overall direction of movement of the saw relative to the wood.

3. A method of processing wood according to claim 2, where in the sanding steps subsequent to the sanding of the surface in the first anding direction are carried out in directions which are inclined to the left and right relative to the first direction of sanding, and where the final direction of sanding is opposite to the first direction of sanding.

4. A method of processing wood according to any one of claims 1 to 3, in which the saw is a band resaw which is fed by hand.

5. A method of processing wood according to any one of the preceding claims in which sanding is carried out by a nylon brush arrangement.

6. A method of processing wood as herein described with reference to the drawing.

7. A wood panel processed according any one of claims 1 to 6.