General Woodworking

[Rrandy]

I've not found anything online but my searching is poor. Is there some guidelines for recognizing "curly" in standing timber? There are some trees on the place I could take down but I don't want to waste a tree blindly looking for figure. I have enough straight grained lumber. The tree would not be truly wasted but there is no sense in just cutting one down and hoping. If someone could answer that question or point me to some articles I sure wood appreciate it. Surely there are some hints or is it truly a mystical crapshoot to get figured wood? 

[Ted in Michigan]

Rrandy - Interesting question - and by the lack of responses, it would appear that everyone here is like me and doesn't know. My guess, though, is that it's your "crap shoot". There are some things that you could see just by observing a standing tree - for example - I saw a large redwood out west once that had been bypassed by the loggers. When I asked, they said the bark showed a "corkscrew" which was a reflection of the underlying wood - they figured it would be hard/impossible to get usable lumber from it. Burls and knots can be seen - but I've not heard of a method of identifying "curly" figure in a standing tree.

[wirebender]

Rrandy -

In our city park is an old tree (boxelder maybe?) that looks like it has warts all over the trunk and branches.  I'm sure that the grain is going to be very interesting when it is cut down.  Maybe curly, maybe a continuous burl or maybe just full of knots.

Dave.

[Rrandy]

Well I've got my eye on one tree that has 2 big ol' bulges in it. one of them is nearly twice the diameter of the main trunk. I'll have to examine the bark and see if there are any abnormal or different patterns different than the surrounding trees. I just hate to go cutting willy nilly looking for figure or other than straight grain, especially since I don't really need any lumber right now. Thanks guys.

[kelsochris]

Look for trees that are exposed to the prevailing wind.  I have been told that the expansion and contraction of the tree in the wind can cause curly figure.  Also you will usually find more curl in quarter sawn stock than in plainsawn stock.  You may also want to examine the bark for changes in growth direction. 

[jhechel]

I am not a sawyer but 9 times out of 10 the "bulges" you are referring to are burls if they are generally round in shape. These could or couldn't be solid wood depending upon what caused the injury to the tree while it was young. Insects or rot may have invaded the injured/burl area which may or may not be a defect depending upon its intended use. if these burls are somewhat knarly then then usually have holes in them and make for interesting turned vessels and decorative platters. The other thing they could be is an unusal scab that has grown over an odd shaped or damaged branch.

    When looking at the trunk of a "normal" tree look or bark that twists or spirals around the tree this is indicative of spiral and/or curly grain patterns.

    Another area of high figure is to look for crotch wood where the main tree trunk spilts into two or more other trunks. Don't confuse branches coming off the tree at an angle as a trunk split or you will just find weird shaped knots in your lumber.

   One main area to look for when choosing a tree or sawing your logs is whats called a "cats face" in the bark. These are created when the tree grows over a branch that has broken or was trimmed off. They look amazingly like the face of a cat (hence the name) and either have a roundish or arched appearance.  

good luck with coosing your lumber

John

[Fred Hargis]

One of the episodes of the David Marks show interviewed a sawyer that specializes in figured hardwoods. As I recall, he said it's not possible to identify figure without opening up the tree.

[Sawdustr]

Good Morning All,

I tend to agree with Fred on this one as it is hard sometime to see figure in a tree however as mentioned the burls will most definitely have some figure in them as well as the cat face appearance in some woods.

Some times as also mentioned a tree that's fighting the prevailing winds especially in a valley where the wind is coming through at times like a wind tunnel and as the sapling turns into a tree it will have resistant traits that may produce some type of figure.

However one might have to wait to see how the wood is cut either in a quarter sawn or rift sawn state for flat or plain sawn wood will hardly ever have figure with in it's grain, other than cathedral figure showing the direction of the grain.

[jhechel]

I forgot to mention that lumber cut from twisted, windblown, crooked, etc. trees has the potential to contain reactionary wood wich is quite prone to unequal movement. Thus the highly figured woods you seek may also be more troublesome to machine, dry, and use.

[tomsteve1967]

not possible until the tree is opened up. i do know firured maple tends to come from a sugar maple. burl is about the only noticable figure inna tree. after slabbing, you can look at the edge of the boards. it might show depending on how smooth the cut was. other than that, skip planing will show it.