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THE APPEARANCE OF WOOD
In general, there are three principal surfaces or sawing methods of wood: the crosscut surface, the radial surface and the tangential surface. The crosscut surface is any surface that is perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the trunk. The radial surface is any vertical surface passing through the longitudinal axis of the tree and through the center of the trunk. It is also called quarter sawn wood. The tangential surface is any surface that does not pass through the longitudinal axis of the tree, but runs parallel to it. When sawing is performed in tangential direction, we speak of flat cut wood.
WOOD GRAIN
The grain of wood is the structure relative to the longitudinal axis of the tree. This is observed on the longitudinal surface. Different grain structures can be distinguished, namely; straight grain, interlocked grain, spiral growth, curly grain, wavy grain and irregular grain.
TEXTURE
The concept of texture indicates whether the wood is divided into large or small elements. The nature of the texture is determined by the diameter of the vessels, the height and width of the rays, the diameter of the fibers and the growth ring width. The following veins can be distinguished; a fine, moderately fine, moderately coarse and coarse texture.
DRAWING
The drawing of wood refers to the visible appearance of the wood resulting from the different tissues together with the nature of the grain direction and the texture. For example, Ruby has almost no drawing. The wood is almost always straight and has little color. Oak, ash, teak and cherry wood display a flame pattern on the tangential flat cut surface.
COLOR
The natural color of the wood of a certain tree species can be changeable, not only between trees of the same species, but even within one trunk the color can differ. The color of the wood can change after cutting down the tree and after processing the wood. The loss of moisture plays a role in this. There are types of wood where large changes in color occur under the influence of light. In addition to light, oxygen also influences the color. Light wood types become darker over time and dark wood types lighter.
