Figure (wood)

In wood, figure refers to the appearance of wood, as seen on a longitudinal surface (side-grain).

Description

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. Types of figure include:

Woodworking

Overviews

Occupations

Soft	Cedar (Calocedrus, Cedrus) Cypress Douglas fir Fir Juniper Larch Kauri Pine Rimu Spruce Yew
Hard	Afromosia Alder Andiroba Anigre Ash Apple Aspen Avodire Balsa Beech Bilinga Birch African Blackwood Australian Blackwood Boxwood Bubinga Camphor Cedrela Cherry Chestnut Cocobolo Cumaru Ebony Elm Eucalyptus Hazel Hickory Hornbeam Idigbo Imbuia Ipê Iroko Jarrah Jelutong Lignum vitae Linden (lime, basswood) Lovoa Merbau Mahogany (American, African) Maple Meranti Oak Padauk Pear Plum Poplar Purpleheart Ovankol Ramin Red Quebracho Rosewood Rubberwood Sapele Teak Totara Utile Walnut Wenge Willow Zebrano
Engineered	Cross-laminated Glue laminated Hardboard MDF OSB Particle board Plywood Wood-plastic composite

Tools

Abrasives Axe Adze Burnisher Chisel Drawknife Drill Fence Float Gimlet Gauge Impact driver Janka hardness test Jointer Mallet Milling machine Mitre box Rasp Router Shaper Sandpaper Square (Carpenters, Combination, Miter, Speed, Try) Thickness planer Timber-framing Veneer hammer Vise Warrington hammer Winding sticks Wood scribe Workbench
Clamps	Band clamp C-clamp F-clamp Flooring clamp Gripe Holdfast Mitre clamp Pipe clamp Sawbuck
Saws	Backsaw Bandsaw Bow Bucksaw Chainsaw Circular Compass Coping Crosscut Frame Fretsaw Hand saw Jigsaw Keyhole Miter Ripsaw Scroll Table Veneer Whipsaw
Planes	Bedrock plane Block plane Chamfer plane Compass plane Finger plane Fore plane Grooving plane Jack plane Japanese plane Jointer plane Moulding plane Razee plane Rebate plane Router plane Scrub plane Shoulder plane Smoothing plane Spokeshave Surform

Geometry

Joints	Birdsmouth Biscuit Box Bridle Butt Butterfly Coping Crown of thorns Dado Dovetail Finger Groove Halved Hammer-headed tenon Knee Lap Mason's mitre Miter Mortise and tenon Rabbet/Rebate Scarf Splice Tongue and groove
Profiles	Bead Bevel Chamfer Ogee Ogive Ovolo
Surface piecing	Binding Edge banding Intarsia Marquetry Oystering Parquetry Purfling