X-Ray vision

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Butcher

Minister of Fire
Nov 2, 2011
530
N. central Ia.
Wish I had it. Been busting up 3 ash trees that are 65+ year old yard birds. Had I known what some of it looked like inside I woulda saved some saw logs for quarter sawing boards outta.
IMG_1964 (2).jpg
 
Wow that is really nice looking stuff! Would have made some beautiful lams for a bow.
 
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Beautiful. The last time that occurred to me was with some white oak. I almost wanted to cry.
 
Cool, never seen that on Ash before...
 
That stuff brings a high price from many different wood working folks. Don't matter if it's short, knife makers for example. Look on ebay.
 
Butcher all woods have some quarter cuts in them BUT since I have been making furniture, stripping and refinishing furniture I have not ever seen quarter sawed ash in my life. Maybe I haven't seen the right board since 1972. Neat looking wood anyway.
 
Wow. That's nice. I too have only seen oak looking like that. Maybe rare with Ash.
 
What you are seeing is Ray Fleck Or Medullary or Mudulla Ray ( all the same thing )
From web wood

Ray fleck is caused by the presence of large rays in the wood. The ray cells run radially, so they are not special on flat sawn lumber. In radially or quartersawn lumber, they are sawn parallel to their length, so they create an interesting pattern. It is obvious only in lumber with large rays.



You can see the lines in the end of a log, and the thicker, longer, and straighter will make the best qsawn lumber. The photo is of a red oak. The lumber has rays as long as 6 inches in the boards. I look for this in logs and look for logs over 18 inches dib for the most part. Sycamore, oaks, cherry, dogwood are a few that make good rays, along with beech and others. Reading the log is important and you want to saw even with the pith to keep the rays down the face of the boards.


- See more at: http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Reading_a_Log_for_Ray_Fleck.html#sthash.DTblzcRH.dpuf

Most wood has it to some degree the log must be Quarter sawn to show the ray
Birds eye maple and tiger stripe maple are some Cherry has a very beautiful ray but hard to find
After making custom hand crafted furniture for the last 20 years I have seen most of it and seek it out.
 
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Wish I had it. Been busting up 3 ash trees that are 65+ year old yard birds. Had I known what some of it looked like inside I woulda saved some saw logs for quarter sawing boards outta.
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Thats curly. Nothing do do with quarter sawn.
 
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the knife makers use stabilized wood. basically a resin epoxy impregnation under high pressure. You wood is nice but of little value to a custom knife maker as is.
 
They are called knife scales, I've bought them off eBay, some are epoxy impregnated, most are not.. I use them for other purposes that don't require the durability of the epoxy. The only thing that limits the use of beautiful wood is the imagination.
 
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Yea - I cut a lot of my own scales but without the aforementioned process shrinkage happens - unavoidable.

Stabilized and not stabilized - the skinner will have some shrinkage unfortunately.
 

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That's some nice looking stuff. I think "curly" ash like that is so rare, because ash tends to grow very straight and narrow.

I've seen a lot of nice character in the firewood falling from my axe; makes me cringe a little bit sometimes, but then I try to I think about how warm I'm going to be this winter.

I have a bunch of logs saved already for lumber - I'll be swimming in the stuff soon enough.
 
What makes the wood rippled like this?
Is it that the tree at some point started leaning, and the side under compression grows with this pattern?
Everyone I ask has no clue what makes wood do this.
 
What makes the wood rippled like this?
Is it that the tree at some point started leaning, and the side under compression grows with this pattern?
Everyone I ask has no clue what makes wood do this.

I think it comes from the areas of a tree where there is a bend. So yes the concave side of the lean.
 
That be curly maple, also known as tiger maple
 
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