Wood Description 9

Definition of Terms:
Weight: the number given to a wood is the average weight per cubic foot. The larger the number the denser and harder the wood is. The denser the wood the more brittle it becomes, making it harder to bend and carve. Advantages to hard woods are that finer detail can be achieved and the wood can be polished to an ultra smooth finish. Balsa has a weight of 8, Oak is about 45 and Ebony weights in at 80.
Figure: the term is often confused with grain. By definition, the figure of a wood refers to the pattern caused by color differences in the wood. The figure is also the pattern created by different types of grain.
Grain: is the direction in which the fibers of the wood are running. Types of grain are: straight, wavy, irregular, spiral, curly, interlocking and birds-eye. The fibers of interlocking grain have a weaved structure, thus making the wood strong and less apt to split and suitable for bending. Irregular grain is caused by an interruption in the growth of the tree by branches or crotches. For ship building irregular grain is used for natural curved members such as knees.
Texture: a woods' texture is directly related to the suitability for carving and the fineness of detail which can be achieved. Texture ranges from coarse to medium to fine and to ultra fine. In ship building, coarse and medium textured woods are suitable for heavy timbering such as hull framing and deck beams. Fine textured wood is used for planking, moldings, rails ect. Fine and ultra fine texture is for carving small fittings and delicate parts. Texture is also uniform or uneven. An uneven textured wood has different size cell cavities giving the wood hard and soft spots. When machining or carving a piece and it suddenly breaks, it is because you hit a large cell cavity or a soft spot. Uniform texture is like cutting a soft plastic like material.

	Sycamore Weight: 38 Grain: normally straight and interlocked. Figure: the wood has a wide range of figure, from an unusual flaky or lace pattern on quarter sawn wood to fine lines on flat sawn wood. Color is a pale whitish yellow to a light honey color. Heartwood has a slight brown to pink tint. Texture: Properties: the wood will take extreme bending and retains its bent shape. Moderately hard, stiff and strong, will resist splitting. A stable wood in use. Machines to a highly lustrous surface. Use: main use for this wood is hull framing, timbering, planking and bent members such as deck clamps and main wales. It also can used for trim work and deck furniture.
	Tambouti Color: chocolate brown to a dark golden brown with deep brown streaks. Detail Description
	Tulipwood Color: very light cream color with bright thin streaks of pink or sometimes with a few colored streaks. Detail Description
	Walnut Weight: 45 Grain: varies from straight to all kind of wild figures. For model building straight is selected. Figure: when freshly cut, the wood is purplish-brown turning to a chocolate brown with simple figuring of darker brown streaks. Sapwood is a light tan. Texture: is uniform and moderately coarse. Properties: a very nice working wood with power tools right down to a carving knife. Very stable and it will not shrink or expand once in use. For its weight, Walnut is exceptionally strong. Use: decorative planking, carvings and moldings. Well suited for hull timbering and framing. American Black Walnut is in such high demand on the world lumber markets, and the timber has been so freely exploited, that supply is rapidly diminishing year by year.
	Willow Weight: 28 Grain: straight. Figure: heartwood is a light reddish brown, sapwood is a light creamy pink color. Texture: uniform and moderately fine. Properties: light in weight but strong and shock resistant. Stable in use, resists splitting. The wood takes a smooth finish. An easy wood to work with using hand or power tools. Cricket bats and artificial limbs are made from this wood. Use: solid hulls, masting, deck and hull planking. Suitable for timbering where a lot of hand cutting of joinery work is used.
	Zircote Color: deep brown with streaks and variegations of black. Detail Description

Yew

Weight: 48
Grain: straight to variable.
Figure:when fresh cut the wood is a bright tan to brown, exposure to air and light turns the wood to a warm even amber color. There are fine brown streaks in the wood from the grain pattern.
Texture: very fine and smooth with a close grain.
Properties: for an evergreen tree the Yew is quite heavy, dense and hard. Yew works very well with hand and power tools. The wood can be worked to a highly polished lustrous surface. Yews claim to fame is its strength and elasticity, being used as long bows in England and manufactured as archery bows in the U.S.. The durability of the wood is very high and resistant to insect and fungal attack. There are chairs made of Yew in the Hornby castle dating back to 1550. The Yew tree is small, maybe 20 feet, with a short trunk of 8 to 12 inch diameter, so the lumber is rare and available only in small pieces.
Use: because the wood is so flexible and takes extreme bending, it makes the perfect hull planking and anywhere that bending is needed. Because the grain and texture is so fine, the wood can be carved or turned into the most delicate fittings.