doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Question on tiger striped fiddleback

This is very straight-grained wood with no figure. It has long (mostly) parallel grain which makes it a very strong stock.

Figure is not the same as grain.

The grain is not appreciably different from the other gun, just no accompaning figure. Growing conditions vary. Steve

I'm posting three photos of a very nice piece of quarter sawn Turkish that I hope shows what "quater sawn" means. This particular piece is what I call feather crotch mainly because that's what I think it is. If you look closely at the end view you can see the annular rings that go from one side of the blank to the other. The two side views show how well matched this blank is from side to side. A blank cut "flat sawn" will have the annular rings in more of a vertical layout or at least some version of it. With a flat sawn blank the figure can either get better than what you see in the blank or it may get worse. Anyway here's the pics.

Doug, Very nice piece of wood! does it happen to be for sale? Bill

Almost everything has a price!

Except God, Family and Honor

That would be why I said "almost".

Some fiddleback trees are fiddled even in the smallest twigs. Some are only fiddle in compressed areas. The fiddle is always perpendicular to the growth lines. It does not decrease stock strength so it is fine in the wrist. Different finish techniques can bring it out better than others.
Pete

Here's a real nice quarter sawn maple stock on a custom made Jacob Dickert flintlock I own.

The picture of Quarter Sawn on Wikipedia in my opinion is not a good way for it to be done. To get the most quarter sawn wood, and the least, is to cut the log in half, then cut-side down and then cut 90 degrees to that.
A lot of wood is wasted this way, but for furniture that is the only way to go. White oak is most always quarter sawn.

The easy way to tell, like shown, is that the annual rings will be parallel to the sides, where as flat sawn, they are circular in shape.