In wood, figure refers to the appearance of wood, as seen on a longitudinal surface (side-grain).
Description

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
A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached husk, hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and ...
and, in part, due to the cut, or to innate properties of the wood.
Types
A few of the tropical
hardwood
Hardwood is wood from Flowering plant, angiosperm trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostl ...
s, like the
rosewoods, may have a unique figure. Types of figure include:
* angel step
* bear scratches
*
bird's eye
* blister
*
burl
A burl (American English) or burr (British English) is a tree growth in which the grain has grown in a deformed manner. It is commonly found in the form of a rounded outgrowth on a tree trunk or branch that is filled with small knots from d ...
* curl
* ribbon curl
* dimple
*
fiddleback
*
flame
A flame () is the visible, gaseous part of a fire. It is caused by a highly exothermic chemical reaction made in a thin zone. When flames are hot enough to have ionized gaseous components of sufficient density, they are then considered plasm ...
* wide flame
* ghost
* pin stripe
*
quilted
*
spalted
* tiger stripe
Wood
Wood-related terminology
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