keys, wedges and treenails, gate-posts and doors, and superior joinery.
Railway-sleepers are best made of young oak, as it is denser, and the Austrians say such sleepers last from seven to ten years if not treated, and for as long as sixteen years if treated with zinc chloride and other preservatives.
On the Continent heavy oak is used in machines, for axletrees, spokes, stamps of mills, anvil-stocks, hammer-handles, etc.
Oak is much used for carving of all kinds, large furniture, paneling, parquetry, for the felloes, spokes, and axles of wheels, and for other parts of wagons, etc. In cooperage it is much used for the staves, etc., of casks, measures, sieves.
Split oak makes excellent palings and shingles, and oak vine-props are only second to those of chestnut. Walking-sticks are also made of oak, and even water-pipes have been used, but they taint the water.
