In wood, figure refers to the appearance of wood, as seen on a longitudinal surface (side-grain): a "figured wood" is not plain. The figure of a particular piece of wood is, in part, due to its grain and, in part, due to the cut, or to innate properties of the wood. A few of the tropical hardwoods, like the rosewoods, may have a unique figure.
Figured Woods Explained
Wood figure references the shapes & patterns comprise wood. Similar to fingerprints, no two woodgrains are completely identical.
However, figured typically refers to woods with a distinctive or attractive appearance. Often this refers to the wood’s color, grain or chatoyance. Chatoyancy wood often commands a premium. Significantly, figure is broad term that applies subjective observations based on what woodworkers find unique.
I have over 20 years of experience in the figured hardwood lumber industry. Accordingly, I’ve seen the issues that result from overmarketing a wood’s figure. Conversely, I’ve benefitted from lumber sellers’ failure to recognize figure in their own wood inventory!
Figured Lumber Markets are Complex
Figured hardwood sells at a premium over unfigured hardwood. Often, the premium is commiserate to the level of figure. Additionally, since figure is related to uniqueness, buyers are often at the mercy of sellers who may have more information regarding scarcity and supply than buyers.
Grading Figured Hardwoods
Many woodworkers are surprised to learn there are no uniform grading standards for figured woods. When searching for figured wood to buy, you may see the following grade categories:
- A or 1A
- AA or 2A
- AAA or 3A
- AAAA or 4A
- AAAAA or 5A
- Master grade
- Exhibition grade
- Instrument grade
These grades seem official but are actually proprietary. This means that the wood seller assigns these grades based on criteria of their own discretion.
This is in contrast to the National Hardwood Lumber Association (NHLA) grades which uniformly define the amount of allowable defects within each lumber grade (FAS, #1C,#2C, 3A,#3B, etc.). The NHLA is the governing body for these hardwood grades. However, the NHLA grades only apply to wood yield and clarity. The NHLA does not address figure density.
Buying Figured Wood
Based on my experience buying figured hardwoods, there are 3 ways to confidently buy figured woods:
- Grade figure yourself. Go directly to the wood seller and do your own grading. Basically, make your own proprietary grades and evaluate the figured lumber yourself. I strongly recommend this option for woodworkers when it is available. This removes any misunderstanding about what you are buying. Of course, this requires that the wood buyer is 100% clear about what they need!
- Use a figured wood supplier’s proprietary grades. Some sellers have pretty well defined & consistent figure standards. Accordingly, you can rely on those grades to know what you’re buying. Ask the seller to email you their internal grading standards. This is a very reasonable request. Also, if the figured wood seller has a flexible return policy, that’s also a good sign. However, don’t assume that one wood vendor’s 3A grade is equivalent to another seller’s.
- Disregard figure grades, ask for pictures, instead. This is a very practical option, especially in 2023. High definition digital images are easy to send. Also, this method bypasses grade disputes involving terminology variations. In my opinion this is the next best option to selecting figured woods on-site, in person.
Wood Figure Terms
When buying figured lumber, there are terms for different figuring. Here again, definitions are a bit subjective. However, the table below lists how I define the most common wood figure terms, based on my experience buying figured hardwoods.
| Wood Figure Type | Figure Definitions |
|---|---|
| Bird's Eye | Small, swirling patterns that look (shockingly!) like the eyes of a bird. Typically found in maple but occasionally seen in other species, as well. Because it's a disease-borne figure, it is considered a defect by the NHLA. However, most woodworkers now consider it a value-added defect, as they do spalt. |
| Quilted | Quilt or quilted is a figure pattern that looks like a bubbly fabric or layers of quilted fabric. It's often used to make high figure electric guitar tops. quilted is most commonly seen in West Coast or Big Leaf Maple. | Fiddleback | This wood figure is similar to flame. However, fiddleback is used when the flame is particularly tight and uniform. This gives the wood a consistent bumpy or wavy appearance perpandicular to the grain - similar to speed bumps in the road.However, it is only an optical effect. The figured wood is actually smooth. Traditionally, this is what violin makers specify as appropriate for the back of a fiddle. |
| Burl | Burl or burly figure describes circular growths or clusters of underdeveloped buds within the tree. ` |
| Pomelle | This figure is similar to quilt but has more of a tight blistered texture rather than wide quilt. Typically, this is seen in darker tone woods like Sapele and Mahogany. However, I have seen birdseye maple where the eyes have more of a blistered appearance. Perhaps this is what pomelle figure looks like on a white sapwood! | Ribbon | Same as Ribbon Stripe. | Ribbon Stripe | Ribbon-like patterns that run parallel with the grain of the wood when sawn in quarter-sawn or rift-sawn grain orientation. | Pecky | Small pin-size circular holes caused by either disease or physical puncture via bird beak. Similar to birdseye, this is sometimes considered a defect, other times a figure. | Instrument | Instrument-grade figure is a catch-all term for very high level figure - that which is appropriate for instrument building. Due to the high level of labor associated with luthiery, builders have little incentive to use lower grade wood. Material cost savings can easily be dwarfed by the cost of discounting an inferior instrument. | Exhibition | Similar to Instrument-grade, Exhibition figure is a subjective term used to describe wood with unique high level figure. It is not associatied with any figure pattern (curl,flame,quilt,etc.) in particular. | Rope | Thin twisting figure lines that run parallel with the grain on quartersawn or riftsawn boards. Ropey patterns are usually associated with light white color tone woods such as avodire, Korina, White Limba and Primavera. | Character | Character is used interchangably with Rustic. Typically describes hardwood that is not clear but has useable structurally sound defects. | Mottle | Sporadic & inconsistent cross grain patterns across the face of the board. Mottle looks like a warped or distorted version of rope or ribbon figure. |
| Rustic | A broad term that includes almost any hardwoods with defects, by NHLA standards. Basically, rustic is euphemism for containing defects. However, rustic usually implies the defects are usable for a specific purpose and thus, are value-added verses discounted. For example, rustic hardwood flooring usually allows unlimited knots but the knots must be structurally intact or easily fillable at the jobsite. |
| Chatoyant | Chatoyant or chatoyancy describes a cat's-eye or 3D-type effect when an optical reflectance is seen in certain figured woods. Basically, when light hits the wood at a certain angle, the figure pops. This effect is most prominent in woods with a dark color tone such as Koa, Big Leaf Maple, Sapele, Mahogany, Makore, etc. However, some lighter woods like Primavera show high levels of chatoyancy, as well. | Flake | These are bright prominent streaks or flecks that appear in wood with a quarter-sawn grain orientation. Flakes do not run parallel to the grain and only appear when the grain is close to 90 degree with little varation. Ray flakes are typically associated with white oak. They are visisble in other grainy species like red oak, but not to the same extent. |
