Wood grain

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Wood grain describes the alignment, texture and appearance of the wood fibres. This is often important in its effect on woodworking techniques (e.g. against the grain). In describing the alignment of the wood in the tree a distinction may be made. Basically the grain may be:

straight
spiral
interlocked (roey grain)

Maple burl, not to be confused with bird's eye maple

In addition there are a few special grain alignments, altogether occurring rarely, but more in some woods, known as "bird's eye", "quilted" and "fiddleback", "curly" or "tiger".

In describing the application of a woodworking technique to a given piece of wood, the direction of the technique may be:

with the grain
against the grain
across the grain

Sketch of A—Quarter-sawn & B—flat-sawn

In a wider sense, the term grain may also be applied to the orientation of the cut, the way a given piece of wood has been sawn:

flat-grain: flat-sawn or plain sawn,
edge grain: quarter-sawn or rift-sawn or straight-grained, and
end grain.

Strictly speaking, grain is not the same as the "figure" of wood.

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