GLOSSARY

 

Bee's Wing
Bee's wing is a small-scale and very tight mottle figure referred as such due to it's similarity with what the wings of a bee looks like.

Bird's Eye
A few woods, most notably maple and a few others, can exist with large numbers of small round "defects" that do indeed resemble the eyes of birds. There has long been uncertainty as to what causes this but the accepted belief today is that it is caused by stunted growth or dormant buds.

 

Burl
A Burl is an irregular, spherical, wart like growth on the trunk, branches or roots of trees. Sometimes, it may completely encircle a limb or the entire tree trunk. The causes of burls are imperfectly understood but reasons suggest an injury to or an infection in the tree just below the bark.Continued growth follows the contour of the original deformity, producing all manner of twists, swirls and knots in the wood fiber. Usually, this results in wood that has a spectacular and fascinating grain pattern that can be used to great effect in woodworking, and sometimes it is also accompanied by the creation in the burl of dormant buds which create "eyes" that make the burl even more spectacular when worked. Because of it's beauty, and depending on the wood, it's rarity, it has become a precious item and many of the most prized possessions of early emperors and kings were made from burlwood

Crotch
Is the wood between two or more branches.  This area usualy produce beautiful and unique grain patterns because of the merging of the wood fibers...almost like how two streams meet, the turbulence created simulates that of the crotch.

 

Curl
Contortions in grain pattern and direction sometimes reflect light differently as one moves down the grain and this creates an illusion of undulating waves known as curly grain. The effect can be so strong your eyes may be deceived that a flat piece of wood has a wavy surface. "Fiddleback" is the term given to an extreme form of curly figure.

Figure
Figure is the color patterns and form of the grain in wood that gives it it's unique appearance. Many factors and/or characteristics go into making up the figure. Some of the terms that are associated with figure are marbled, fiddleback, curly, wavy, tiger stripe, bee's wing, spalting, feather, flame, bird's eye, and more.

Pommelle
A Pomelle is a type of wood figure that resembles or gives an illusion of a puddle surface during a light drizzle: it is a dense pattern of small rings enveloping one another. It is usually seen in the larger trees often of African species like sapele and bubinga. The term may be a bit confusing since the term pommelle originates from the french word meaning "quilted".

Rays
Ray cells radiate outward from the pith to the bark of a tree and carry nutrients laterally. In some woods, these ray cells are very pronounced and would appear as rays and ray figure on the wood .

 

Spalting
Spalting is caused by a fungus that is nourished by the sugar in the tree sap. After the fungus dies, either by digesting all of the sugar or by being killed by frost, it turns black or dark brown, causing interesting irregular lines in the wood. Spalting can be spectacular in light colored woods such as maple, alder, beech or birch.

Quilt
Quilted figuring somewhat resembles a larger and exaggerated version of pommelle but has bulges that are elongated and closely crowded. Quilted grain looks three-dimensional when seen at its best. Most commonly found in maple, it also occurs in mahogany, myrtle, and sapele, and less often in other species.