Woodworker's Journal

Figuring Out Figure

here a piece of wood is sliced out of a log affects the figure it will present (see the illustration above). And the figure of the wood, often called the grain pattern or just the “grain,” strongly affects the appearance of your project. Within a single board you can sometimes find sections of flatsawn or cathedral grain, riftsawn and quartersawn grain. In addition, a board may often contain both heartwood (generally darker in color) and

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