David Fritz wrote on Nov 10
th, 2018 at 9:20am:
Don, I'm not sure I understand what you mean by side grain. I've always called the difference in the growth rings summer growth and winter growth, with the summer growth having more open grain than the summer growth.
Is "side grain" one or the other of the above or something else? Thanks for helping me understand.
This is a confusing point, and I suspect casual language adds to the problem.
End grain: If you are at the top of a tree, looking down toward the ground, you are looking at 'end grain'. The same can be said if you are at the end of a branch and looking back toward the trunk of the tree. That is, the basic fibers in the timber run from the bottom to the top of the tree and tend to act like straws that draw water and nourishment from the roots up to the crown of the tree. The most common analogy is to think of wood as a bundle of soda straws - 'end grain' is like looking into the
end of that bundle. "End grain' is also sometimes called 'short grain'.
Everything else is referred to as either 'long grain', 'side grain' or 'face grain'. In the analogy, 'long grain' is like looking at the side of the bundle of straws. The term 'long grain' is fairly descriptive and easily understood. 'Side grain' and 'face grain' are more confusing and tend to refer to the surfaces of a milled board. However, wood turners use 'face grain' describe turnings in which the basic grain structure of the timber is perpendicular to the axis of rotation, regardless of the shape of the original blank from which that turning was created.
The thing that David is referring to related to summer growth versus winter growth has to with the pattern created when cutting the annular growth rings. Some timbers display dramatic growth rings, while others do not. And the way the timber is milled has a very significant impact on how those growth rings. So-called 'flat sawn' timber shows off the growth rings, while 'rift sawn' timber disguises the growth rings.
As you shape wood by turning it, you have the opportunity to expose layers of growth rings - its the combination of the basic circular shape of those rings and the way that the circular turning is formed that creates the patterns that can be enhanced by the surface treatment that Wil asked about in the original post.