We put this list together to provide an overview of what causes our favorite types of wood grains (or figures) and what their names are.

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The Foolinahurry Blog
by korzen designs

Although wood grains can be similar, no two pieces of wood have exactly the same grain pattern. When we refer to the unique grains of the wood that we use in our artwork, we are actually referring to the “figure” of the wood. The figure, or appearance, of the wood is a result of both the grain and the way the wood was cut. 

We’ll save diving into the concept of pareidolia and how we both love to stare into wood figures as if they were a Rorschach test created by nature for another blog, but it was this love that propagated our curiosity and caused us to research wood figure names and causes.

These are some of our favorite figures to work with along with some visual examples:

Bird’s Eye

Bird’s Eye figures have small round spots that are said to resemble the eyes of birds. There are theories of what causes this, such as fungus and birds pecking at the tree, but so far there is no complete understanding of the conditions that produce it. 

Crotch

Crotch figures are formed due to the stresses on a tree.  Typically this is from a large branch stemming from the main trunk, but can also be caused by unusual growth, such as leaning or curving on a steep hill side. The strain on the tree causes the wood to compress so that it can support the stress. This compression causes the grains to twist and swirl producing the unique figures.

Knots

Knots are somewhat similar to crotch figures, but on a much smaller scale. They are formed by branches stemming from the main trunk of the tree, and like crotches, can distort the area around them into swirling and twisting patterns.

Swirl

Swirling figures are typically caused by the growth patterns in the crotch areas of trees which is sometimes referred to as “crotch swirl”.

Wavy

Wavy figures have a wavy pattern running the length of the tree trunk as opposed to the more common straight up and down patterns. Wavy figures are often confused with swirl figures, the difference being that swirls are commonly caused by crotch areas of trees where wavy figures are not.

Resources

There are many more types of wood figures, and if you’d like to learn more about them, we encourage you to check out The HobbitHouse. This is a great resource for both figure names and visual examples, as well as explanations on how different figures are formed.

Conclusion

We put this together as a starting point for those whom are interested in different types of wood grains (or figures) and what causes them. Hopefully this will save you the time of repeating the research that we’ve already done, and we hope that you find this information helpful. 

Do you have any theories on what could be the cause of Bird’s Eye wood figures?

Let us know in the comments!