Grain and Texture in Wood. 25 



considers 'grain' as referring wholly to the ar^rangement or di- 

 rection of the wood elements, and employs the term 'texture' 

 when referring to the size, quality or fineness of these elements as 

 affecting the structural character of the wood. He further holds 

 that neither term has specific meaning without the use of some 

 qualifying adjective as 'fine,' 'coarse,' 'uniform,' etc. It ap- 

 pears to the writer that this use of terms brings order out of con- 

 fusion, and best of all coincides in very large measure with the 

 popular conception and usage of the terms. 



Some of the adjectives used to give 'grain' specific meaning 

 are : coarse, fine, even, uneven, rough, smooth, straight, cross, 

 spiral, twisted, wavy, curly, mottled, landscape, bird's-eye, gnarly, 

 and silver. All of these terms refer to certain arrangements of 

 the wood elements and several of them are dependent on the lay- 

 ers of growth. For example, 'coarse grain' means wide growth 

 rings ; 'uneven grain,' irregular growth, etc. 



'Straight grain' as applied to a tree occurs where the wood 

 elements are parallel to the axis of growth : as respects a board, 

 when the radial and tangential planes of structure are parallel 

 to its length. Sawn boards are often cross-grained even when 

 cut from straight-grained logs, while straight-grained sticks may 

 be split from a spiral-grained tree. 



The most common attributes of texture are coarseness and 

 fineness, evenness and unevenness. Coarse-textured woods have 

 many large elements or the average size is large as in Castanea 

 (Chestnut). Even or uniform texture applies to woods exhibit- 

 ing little variation in the size of the elements as in Jiiniperus vir- 

 giniana (Red Cedar). 



Following are instances of the use of both terms in describ- 

 ing woods: Finns strobns (White Pine), medium texture and 

 grain; Pinus taeda (Loblolly Pine), medium texture and coarse 

 grain; Sequoia senipervir*,ens (Redwood), coarse texture and 

 fine grain; Pinus edulis (Nut Pine), fine texture and grain. 



In summary, the writer contends that 'grain' should be em- 

 ployed in referring to the arrangement or dif,ection of the ele- 

 ments of woody structure, while texture should refer to the rela- 

 tive sise, fineness or quality of these elements. 



