What can you expect to see in the grain of your flooring?
Picking up where we left off we will now explore what kind of grain patterns you can expect to see in your brand new or centuries old flooring.
Let's start with types of grain in wood.
TYPES OF GRAIN
The way trees grow creates a distinct grain direction. The direction of the grain will always be parallel to the length of the longitudinal cells. How the board is sawn will determine the look of the grain.
End grain. This is when a board is cut across the grain and perpendicular to the grain and growth rings.
Flat grain or tangental grain is revealed when you cut the wood parallel to the grain direction and tangental to the growth rings.
Radial grain is also cut parallel to grain direction but also directly through the radius of the growth rings. This cut will reveal quarter grain.
Flat grain and quarter grain are also known as long grain
This leads us to discuss the types of sawing the mill will do when preparing your flooring. Here are the general types of sawing.
Plain sawing is the most commonly used method. This method produces the largest volume of usable lumber. Put simply the sawyer will saw boards from one side of the tree or log and then turn it a full 90 degrees and saw several more. They will then repeat this process until the log is fully sawn. The boards from plain sawn wood show flat grain on the face and quarter sawn on the edges.
Quarter sawn
Quarter sawn logs are literally logs first sawn into quarters which are then cut into boards. The mill can cut boards from the two flat sides or they can choose to make parallel cuts to the quarter revealing quarter grain on the plank face and flat grain on edges.
Live sawn
This method is also known as through and through sawing. Live sawn method produces the widest boards possible out of every log with mixed grain. The boards will have flat grain at the center of the plank and quarter sawn near the edges.
Call us to talk about all the great options with our flooring in live saw, quarter sawn and even good old plain sawn!
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