The Basic Facts You Never Learned About Selecting Wood

Grain:

Grain refers to the overall alignment, texture and various patterns that appear in your wood. And because every tree has distinct grain patterns and markings, each piece of wood from that tree will have its own unique design.

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According to Popular Woodworking:

The single-most important factor in the appearance of any woodworking project is the selection of the material. This isn’t what species to use or what color of finish; it is the choice of which board goes where. The wrong grain pattern in the wrong location can make even the most finely crafted piece look like junk. While appearance is always subjective, there are traditional approaches to grain placement and orientation that are based on how wood behaves over time. In the grand scheme of things, these arrangements also appear harmonious to our eyes. This is similar to music. You may want to write a non-traditional song, but the best-sounding notes and chords will be those that have evolved and been used for centuries. Good furniture design, regardless of style, calls for arranging the wood in ways that make sense both visually and structurally. The key to understanding how any individual piece of wood will appear and function stems from where that piece of wood was when it was in the tree. It is rather simple to discover that by examining not the face, but the end of an individual board.

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