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RAYS

All of these pics are of quartersawn wood, because that's the only kind of cut that fully shows rays. Rift cuts will sometimes show considerable ray figure, as you can see in the bowl pics at the bottom of this page. The woods that I am familiar with that show the most prominent ray figure include lacewood and red and white oak. Very likely, there are many others. Rays and ray figure are sometimes also called "buttons" or "button figure" and even more rarely as "snowflake" or "snowflake figure".


Lacewood has the most prominent rays of any wood I am familiar with, but even for lacewood, the rays in this board are amazing.


more common examples of ray figure in lacewood


One piece of red oak from my collection and two web pics of white oak, all showing the ray pattern in quartersawn oak. Quartersawn wood is not only more attractive (usually) than plain cut, it is also much more stable and it is stronger. If it weren't for the large amount of waste involved in true quartersawing, probably all oak would be cut that way.


A bowl made mostly of rift cut red oak that provides outstanding examples of (1) how rift cut can product attractive partial ray patterns, and (2) how ray patterns shift as you move the wood in the light. Click on either of the detailed pics to get an enlarged pair. You have to look only for a moment to realize that these are pics of the same piece but taken from different angles and that the ray pattern that is dark colored in the first pic is light colored in the second pic, showing the full range of color change that occurs in ray figuring.

Also note how the oak itself changes color quite a bit between the two pics. That is not always as pronounced as in this case and that's because this is actually compression wood. That has nothing to do with the ray patterns, but it does mean that the wood is considerably more dense than normal oak and therefore has a higher surface luster, which in turn leads to the more prominent changes in coloration with movement in the light. Red oak is a very porus wood and plain cut red oak normally has very low surface luster, but crotches and other compression wood (particularly when quartersawn) can have a moderate luster as you see here. This is all hightened by the polyurethane finish.