1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing decorative hollow tubing and more particularly to decorative hollow tubing used for manufacturing furniture.
2. Description of the Related Art
Furniture is often constructed from decorative cylindrical structures. For example, bamboo and other grasses and woody plants have long been utilized to fabricate furniture and other articles. The appearance of such furniture and other articles is so pleasing as to have inspired many attempts to simulate bamboo and the like when rendered artificially from materials other than those of natural plants. Table legs are often formed in shapes which are cylindrical in nature and which may include shapes of various radii extending from the longitudinal axis of the table leg.
One of the unsolved needs of the furniture and other industries wherein it is desirable to provide decorative cylindrical tubing, such as simulated bamboo stalks in a realistic rendition of nodes and culms which characterize natural bamboo, while fabricating the decorative cylindrical tubing from inexpensive yet strong and durable tubular stock material. Many prior art attempts to manufacture such decorative tubing such as simulated bamboo depend upon inscribing nodes into tubing or, alternatively, deforming the stock material such that simulated nodes project outwardly from the tubing. Both approaches fail to achieve realistic effect.
Casting can realistically provide decorative cylindrical structures but cast construction, particularly from metals, has undesirable attributes. One is that resultant cylindrical structures are relatively heavy, being solid rather than hollow, compared to worked tubing. Although hollow castings can be produced, this greatly increases difficulty and expenses of manufacture. Another is that the cost of fabricating suitable dies providing the desired ornamentation is extremely expensive. A further problem is that cast metallic structures are usually brittle and unsuitable for fabricating furniture, which represents a broad use of such hollow decorative cylindrical structures. Brittleness leads to ready breakage and also prevents imparting mild curvature during fabrication to straight sections of decorative cylindrical structures. Although the product could be cast in the final desired configuration, this will likely increase the number of expensive dies required to fabricate a set of related articles of furniture. Still another problem with casting is that cast construction is difficult at best to weld, which may be required when fabricating assembled products such as furniture, in which sections of decorative cylindrical structures intersect.