Figure (wood)

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 quite spectacular figure.

Types of figure include "bear scratches," bird's eye, blister, burl, curl, dimple, fiddleback, flame, "ghost," quilted, and spalted.

typically figured red gum table

mountain ash floor, showing some fiddleback figure