Furthermore, to avoid tedious and unsatisfactory attempts to match the finish of the unrestored parts, the wood used for the new parts should be old, unless its mating parts must also be replaced. The last and most important rule is axiomatic, yet the one most often violated. For Rule IV it can be simply stated that no "improvements" in style are permissible. When the repair is so extensive that no patterns are available from which to model the new work, simplicity should be the keynote. Sources of Old Wood. Old buildings and discarded furniture are potential sources for the old wood so useful in restoration work. More specifically, a really old house will often yield oak boards from its floors, handhewn timbers, wide pine boards from floors, ceilings, or walls, and in some cases, sections of undamaged panels and moldings. Handforged nails and rough greenish window glass are also valuable byproducts of careful house wrecking. Even dilapidated old barns, upon investigation, often reveal their quota of handhewn beams, wide boards, and homemade nails. Other sources for old pine and oak, as well as for tulipwood, are the discarded "sixboard" chests. Kitchen tables of fifty years ago can usually be relied upon for worn pine or tulipwood tops. Drawer sides and backs, and sometimes fronts, can often be salvaged from wrecked chests of drawers, bureaus, and sideboards. Old maple for small turnings is fairly difficult to obtain, unless found in the side rails, and sometimes the ends, of old beds. Ash is another scarce item, some times found in rake handles, more often in the large, turned posts of spinning wheels. The rims of large spinning wheels are usually constructed from curved ash or oak, which can be converted into chair splats without further bending. Tables constructed between 1840 and 1850 frequently yield fine boards of cherry, while black walnut is readily available from Victorian furniture. Old mahogany veneer is fairly easy to acquire. From these brief notes it should be readily apparent that the search for old woods involves a certain amount of persistent reconnaissance. Dogged burrowing into the depths of secondhand furniture shops eventually rewards the patient searcher, often at bargain prices, and attending country auctions often pays off in unexpected treasures-in addition to affording a liberal education in furniture craftsmanship. Veneer. The earliest American Chippendale, Hepplewhite, and Sheraton chairs, ballandclaw foot tables, lowboys, and highboys were constructed from solid "Santo Domingo" mahogany. Later, large, fiat, top, and front surfaces were veneered, the legs and frames still being assembled from solid wood. Nearly all American veneer was applied to a foundation of pine, whereas in England oak was the popular base wood. In 1700 walnut veneer was used in slices V\o in. thick, and by 1850, mahogany veneer was sometimes produced as thin as Vao in.