Restorations

[Pete_Sheeran]

Feltwad,
Beautifuly figured wood is a joy to the crafts man to work on.  It can also be a pain to deal with the change in grain when shaping or carving.  The last two stock photos are quite striking.  The last is cut from near the center of the "crotch"  and produces the distinctively beautiful "flame" pattern.  The mid photo of the set looks like it is cut from farther out from the crotch where you don't get the flame figure, but still fine figure.  Sometimes the same style figure comes from wood near the outside of a large limb where compression grain distorts the pattern.  If the grain pattern is distorted at 90 degrees to the longitude grain, it can form regular waves in the pattern along the length of the board , what is commonly called "curl".  In this country, fiddleback is a term sometimes used to refer to that curl, especially in maple.  Those who deal in wood for stocks usually reserve the term fiddleback for "instrument grade" curl that is very close in the wave amplitude and very regular along the length of the board.  The very first photo at the start of this thread showes that quality.  It looks to be that regular and close wave amplidtude curl, great stuff!

Thanks Pete