pecky wood figure

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PECKY

A form of "defect" or "character" (depending on how you look at it) in wood where there are numerous spots or elongated areas throughout the wood caused by localized decay.

It may also be caused by infection of the grown rings in which case it is best shown in rotary cut veneer because that cutting technique follows the growth rings. The term is also sometimes applied to a similar appearing figure that is an abrupt color change caused by localized injury such as actual bird pecks, and can look like a sparse bird's eye figure.

Pecky can also look a lot like wormy, in that it shows long fingers of hollow areas instead of just spots and those look just like worm track. This is particularly true of pecky cypress.

In pecky cypress the fungus eats/rots out large channels in the wood that look like fat worm-holes. The fungus only attacks live trees and once a tree is cut down, no more peck occurs. The channels travel more or less up and down the tree so flat cut AND quartersawn planks show elongated channels, not holes, whereas a tree cut perpendicular to the length will show holes, not channels (e.g. the log end below).

In hickory and pecan, the pecky figure is generally in the form of spots that look as though they could have been caused by a bird's pecking at the tree. In birch the wood is not generally called "pecky" but rather has its own designation of "Karelian" or "Masur" birch and is a burl form. "Karelian" just refers to a region between Finland and Russia.

Examples: