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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



A WEIRD AND FANTASTIC EFFECT 



Large table top made from eight pieces ot Persian walnut 

 veneer cut from a burl. It requires little imagination to see in 

 this innumerable faces and grotesque objects. 



light. The term "silver grain" is also applied to the fig- 

 ure produced by the rays. Examination of an oak desk, 

 filing cabinet or piano, will disclose a wide variation in 

 the appearance of the rays, depending largely on the- 

 pflane at which they are exposed by the saw. Thus they 

 tr83r. be wide or narrow, long or short, straight or curved. 



Tiiese various figures are sometimes given names by the 

 trade, such as "splash figure," "pencil stripe." "herring- 

 bone," etc. 



There is another kind of figure which may be brought 

 out prominently in certain kinds of woods, mostly those 

 of tropical origin. This is variously known as roe, rib- 

 bon grain, feather grain, etc., and appears as narrow to 

 broad longitudinal stripes, alternating light and dark. 

 This is due, not to actual differences in color, but to the 

 way in which the light is reflected by the different layers 

 In woods such as these the grain is not straight nor does 

 it run in a single direction; instead it is in alternating 

 spirals. Thus if a specimen is split into a series of tan- 



METHOD OF QUARTER SAWING 



Showing clearly the means employed to cut through the log 

 radially, or in lines radiating from the center, to get the grain 

 effect so popular and familiarly called "quarter-sawn". 



THE WAVY GRAIN VALUED BY CABINET-MAKERS 



A panel of curly longleaf pine showing "Landscape Grain", so 

 called because of its resemblance to a contour map. 



gential planes at various depths it will be noted that the 

 grain at one depth is growing in a left-hand spiral around 

 the trunk, at another depth is growing in a right-hand 

 spiral, while between the two it becomes straight. In 

 the case of lignum-vitae the writer found that these 

 spirals do not extend around the tree, but weave back 

 and forth giving a lazy-S appearance on the exposed sur- 

 face of a log. When these layers are cut through radially 

 part of the fibers slant in one direction, part in another 

 and the variation in amount of light reflected and absorbed 

 causes the light and dark appearance, just as the luster 



