company' !sa

rn of pre-finished wall paneling. quality product, we have 25 years consistently improved manufacture and widened the signs to satisfy the high 'estern builders and familiesgs.

lor Street, Los Angeles, 22 in the production of pre-finished wall paneling. Starting with a quality product, we have throughout our 25 years consistently improved our methods of manufacture and widened the scope of our designs to satisfy the high standards of Western builders and familiesand of ourselves.

7251 East Gondor Street, los Angeles, 22 RAymond 3-8271 in the production of pre-fir Starting with a qualityproc throughout our 25 years cc our methods of manufactu scope of our designs to sal. standards of Western builr and of ourselves.

7251 East Gondor Street, I' Rlymond 3-8271

Portland, Oregon, where it will occupy double the space previously used. The Crow company, which has been in business for nearly 40 years, is the publisher of Crow's Lumber Digest, Crow's Western Equipment a,nd Timber News, and 12 different technical marketing publications and direetories. The larger offices make possible a consolidation of the Crow publishing activities into one central location.

-Nafional Foresf Producfs Week Oclober 16-22-

Bob Dedman, well known in Oregon lumber production and sales fields, has joined the staff of Hampton Lumber Sales Company of Portland. He will be responsible for sales coordination of four Ilampton-owned and contract mills, and will work with Sales Manager Sy Rodakowski on general wholesale business as well. Hampton Lumber Sales is celebrating its tenth anniversary in the selling field.

-National Foresf Producfs Week , October 16-22-

The Sliding Glass Door & Window Institute announces the assocation's national "Bright Outlook" convention will be held in Dallas, Texas, October I through 12. Headquarters for this third annual gathering of sliding glass producers and suppliers will be the Sheraton-Dallas.

It's about time that the lumber industry take a few minutes out, climb to the top of a tall Douglas fir, and survey the scene below. What presents itself there will encourage several well-deserved (and self-administered) pats on the back.

It must have been a lumberman who said, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." Because among the scores of building materials and products used in the home, none has had as many imitators as wood. This imitation (and perhaps emulation) goes in two directions-imitation of wood's function and imitation of wood's appearance. We speak here of the latter.

Thumbing through any builder's magazine or manufacturer's catalog'ue, one is bound to trnd several listings of products that supposedly look like wood, or carry "a beautiful, wood-like vertical grain," or "challenge the user to tell the difference between our product and actual, natural wood."

Working from the floor up, we flnd vinyl and€ork tile with wood grain, linoleum im-

Would-be Woods

by RoIf D. Glerum

West Coast Lumberrnen's Association printed with simulated hardwood flooring strips (pegged, yet!) and asbestos tile squares made to look like wood blocks.

Exterior siding and interior paneling are ofrered in many patterns of wood grain, some even having a factory-made texture such as is supposedly found in rustic wood siding. Through the use of photography, laminated plastic manufaeturers have come out with counter tops and work space areas with countless varieties and colors of wood grain.

And. of course. there is now adhesivebacked plastic sheeting which, it is stated, will stick to almost anything and give it the appearance of wood.

On the roof, composition and aluminum shingles have been manufactured which, the manufacturers claim, give the roof the appearance of actual shake shingles, both to the eye and to the touch.

Vlrh.at has brought about thls lnflux of non-wood materlal wlth a so-called wood appearance? Why are these people trytng to copy tur the fectory that whlch ln fact can only be aohieved ln the forest? The reason, pure and slmple, ls that they are tr5rlng to give thelr customers what they wantwood.

Throughout history, sought-after items have always had several common qualities -they are not man-made, they contain inherent beauty and, most important, they are rare. Here. then, is the crux of the matter, the reason behind the lumber industry's good fortune.

Wood is not rare, because it is absolutely the only building material with the power of reproduction. Yet, it is still sought after because of its natural source and its irrefutable beauty and warmth.

The people who try to imitate wood are not pirates or plagiarists. They are, however, opportunists who know a good thing when they see it, and do their best to capitalize on it. F or this no one can blame them, least of all the lumber industry. Call it indirect advertising, if you will, serving to keep wood and its inflnite number of uses in the public mind.

Nevertheless, the lumber industrY must not allow ltself to become complacent. \ile are always strlvlng to make our product better, through the use of new finlshes, new uses, boliler deslgn and the exclting a,nd hardlY touched field of thnber fabrlcation.

Competing building material manufacturers are also carrying on a tremendous prog:ram of research and development, but bear this in mind: in many instances this research is being done with the hope that their product will look more like wood!

No thing is as true as the real thing. A laminated plastic table top may look like wood, but it feels like glass. An aluminumshingled roof may feel like wood, but it looks like only one thing-an aluminumshingled roof.

In the future, some manufacturer no doubt will come up with a solution which he thinks has a cedar odor and will impregrrate it in plaster-walled closets.

In any case, it should be pointed out to the consumer that if he wants something that looks, feels and acts like wood, and if he is not willing to settle for anything else, he definitely is not going to find it in imitation or substitute material. He must use wood, and that is the only course he has to follow.

It is up to the lumber industry and all who are a part of it to keep him on that course.

PosTs

-National Forest Products Week October l6-22PICTUR,E

Dictionary Of Building And Construction Terms

Anyone engaged in building construction, architecture, or maintenance well knows the need for a good command of the very special and technical language that is used in the trade. The brand new book, "Building and Construction Terms," by Benjamin Lipowsky and Murray Bersten, (Arco, illus., $3.00 Paper; $5.00 Cloth-Pub. Date: Aug. 22) is designed to simplify this terminology by presenting it all as a picture dictionary. It is available from the publisher, Arco Pubtishlng Co.,4E0 Lexlngton Avenue, New York 17,