Quarter sawing

Quarter sawing or quartersawing is a woodworking process that produces quarter-sawn or quarter-cut boards in the rip cutting of logs into lumber.

Quarter sawing yields boards with straight striped grain lines, greater stability than flatsawn wood, and a distinctive ray and fleck figure.

However, since this produces a great deal of waste (in the form of wedge-shaped scraps from between the boards) rift-sawing is very seldom used.

[citation needed] Quartersawn boards have advantages compared to flat sawn ones: they are more resistant against warping with changes in moisture and, while shrinkage can occur, it is less troublesome.

In acoustic guitars, quartersawn wood is also often used for the sides which must be steam bent to produce compound curves.

This is partly for structural reasons, but also for the aesthetics of highly figured timbers being highlighted when sawn this way.

Quartersawn oak was a key feature of the decorative style of the American Arts and Crafts movement, particularly the work of Gustav Stickley, who said "The quartersawing method of cutting... renders quartersawn oak structurally stronger, also finer in grain, and, as shown before, less liable to warp and check than when sawn in any other way."

Cheaper copies of Stickley's furniture were sometimes made with the less-expensive ash stained to resemble oak, but it can be identified by its lack of rays.