What does quarter-sawn mean?
Quarter-sawn (quarter sawn, or quarter cut) wood has been cut at a right angle to the growth rings (figure 1).
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| 1. Quarter-sawn (A) and flat-sawn (B) |
Why is quarter-sawn wood of better quality?
Antique connoisseurs and furniture designers alike prize quarter-sawn wood for two main reasons.
Quarter-sawn wood is more stable than flat-sawn (or plain sawn) wood: quarter-sawn wood is less likely to warp due to changes in humidity levels and causes fewer problems should shrinkage occur. These qualities are especially prized by instrument-makers.
Secondly, quarter-sawn wood is aesthetically more attractive: the straight striped grain lines are shown off to a maximum. Quarter-sawn sapele produces grain lines with ribbon-like patterns (figure 2). In the case of oak, the wood shows a prominent ray fleck pattern (figure 3).
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| 2. Illustration of ribbon-like grain of sapele |
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| 3. Ray fleck pattern of oak |
Quarter-Sawn Wood & Arts and Crafts
Quarter-sawn wood was also important in the Arts and Crafts movement (also called the craftsman movement in Canada according to Wikipedia) a design period that began in Britain in the 1800s and lasted until the early 1900s).
The Arts and Crafts movement emphasized the intrinsic value of construction materials and an idealized relationship between the craftsman and the end user. As a reaction to ornate styles of the mid 1800s, Arts and Crafts sought to rehabilitate the artisan in the face of mechanized production methods brought on by the industrial revolution.
In the eyes of the proponents of the Arts and Crafts movement, quarter-sawn wood was more than an aesthetic element. It was a symbol of the bourgeoning middle-class and its, well, middle-class values:
(...) quartersawn wood is (...) seen as an acceptable compromise between economical but less-stable flatsawn wood and the expensively-wasteful riftsawn wood (...) (Quarter Sawing - Wikipedia).
The "acceptable compromise" embodied in quarter-sawn wood is an enduring hallmark of the middle class - and remains, even today, a touchstone of quality common to contemporary antique collectors throughout Canada and Europe.
by Stephan Hardy for Delaquis Antiques
Sources: Wikipedia, Charlotte Jarusek, Wisegeek.
