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BEE'S WING

A small-scale, very tight, mottle figure is sometimes referred to as "bee's wing" figure due to the similarity with what the wing of a bee looks like. East Indian satinwood is extremely well known for having this figure, and it also occurs occasionally in narra, mahogany and eucalyptus. So when is a figure "block mottle" and when is it "bee's wing" ... well, pretty much whenever a particular dealer decides that's what they want to call it.

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Examples:


santos rosewood bee's wing veneer


red eucalyptus block mottle veneer that I guess in a stretch COULD be called bee's wing


eucalyptus block mottle veneer that only in a salesman's pitch could even remotely be called bee's wing (but was on one vendor's web site)


eucalyptus bee's wing veneer


makore and narra block mottle veneer that vendors called bee's wing