What is/causes this ghost image?

[angboy]

Can anybody explain what causes the sort of ghost image on some woods that I see when I've finished them? This longwood pen seems to have it- you can see what looks almost like a faint image on the top layer of the wood, that doesn't match the grain underneath, and is actually almost the opposite of the wood. I think it looks pretty neat, but I just don't understand where it comes from? (I'm sure there's probably some long word to name it!)

 

[wudwrkr]

Angela,
I believe what you are seeing is referred to as "curl", "chattoyance" or figure within the wood. This gives the wood an almost 3D or iradecence<sp?> effect. There are some woods that can have high amounts of curl like maple or koa and really sets it apart. I'm not clear on how this happens, but I believe it has to do with the growth patterns for the wood.

I happen to prefer woods with this property.

 

[Randy_]

DSA: Who makes that kit[?][?] I like it!![^]

 

[angboy]

Originally posted by Randy_
<br />DSA: Who makes that kit[?][?] I like it!![^]

Randy, it's a PSI kit:

http://www.pennstateind.com/store/pklongpens.html

You can see from their picture, it comes with a rubber gripper that you can put on the bottom part, or you can do the wood, like I did. It goes together kind of strangely. The first one I did I messed up on and was about to give up on them, but this one came out right. There's a portion of the long blank that doesn't have tube in it when you turn it, and you have to mill it down to an exact length and you don't have the tube to tell you when to stop. The first one I did I tried getting that part right using a tape measure and I probably ended up close to 1/8" off. But this second one I used the calipers on, and I kept having to take it out of the vise, measure, go back and do a little more... So it's somewhat tedious to get that part to work out right, but I like the kit a lot too! And I have complete confidence that you won't have as much diffituly as I did! [][]

 

[Randy_]

Thanks. I'm a little leary of those kits because of the platings. I hate to spend a lot of time on a kit and have it come back in a short time with the plating all gone. I have pretty much gone to using only rhodium and TiGold kits. I bought a few Sierras with satin finishes; but they haven't been in use long enough for me to know how they will hold up??

 

[alamocdc]

Angela, I'm with Dave. It's curl, as in curly Maple, curly Poplar, curly Koa, etc. As you rotate the pen in your fingers it will change and almost appear to move. Curly woods are much sought after by woodworkers and also cost more. Some, like Maple, are more common than others and you'll see curly woods used in fine furniture. It looks like this one has a lot of curl. Nice job!

 

[RogerGarrett]

This reminds me of a story that a local woodshop owner (David) told me.

One of his friends purchased an older house that was beautifully maintained - with lots of old oak floors, trims, cabinetry, staircases, etc. He was complaining to David that he couldn't understand why, after all the beautiful wood used to finish the inside of the house, the original builder used "defective" oak in the wide trim pieces at the top of the walls adjacent to the ceiling - which was loaded with what looked like filled worm holes, striping, etc. He lamented that he would have to paint all of that wood.[]

David went inside to look at the nearly perfect, old growth quartersawn wood used..........[:0][][]

Glad you are finding out about curly wood!

Best,
Roger Garrett

 

[Dario]

Angela,

You mean only now you've learned about the curls? [:0] You probably think I am sending you defective wood all these time then [].

BTW the images are created by the growth rings. They are curly so it changes form even though the barrel is almost straight outside. On straight grained, evenly spaced growth ring wood...these may appear like the rings of Saturn viewed at an angle. Hope this makes sense.

 

[angboy]

Originally posted by Dario
<br />Angela,

You mean only now you've learned about the curls? [:0] You probably think I am sending you defective wood all these time then [].

BTW the images are created by the growth rings. They are curly so it changes form even though the barrel is almost straight outside. On straight grained, evenly spaced growth ring wood...these may appear like the rings of Saturn viewed at an angle. Hope this makes sense.

Don't worry Dario- I didn't think that. [] But I'm still not sure if we're all talking about the same thing. I thought the curly part was the ring sort of things that are parallel or on the same orientation as the centerband. But I'm talking about the figure that runs the other way, from tip to nib. On this pen, it looks kind of a like an exclamation point that has the dot about half an inch above the centerband. Is that the same thing as curl? Or are the curls the rings running the other way, which sort of make it look rippled?

 

[Dario]

As I mentioned...what you are seing is the growth ring but had the figure because of the curl.

 

[Penmonkey]

What you are seeing is... YOUR PAST, PERSENT AND TO COME!!!!! Ok, thats just a bunch of... never mind.
Nice pen. Is that pink ivory?

 

[angboy]

Originally posted by Penmonky
<br />What you are seeing is... YOUR PAST, PERSENT AND TO COME!!!!! Ok, thats just a bunch of... never mind.
Nice pen. Is that pink ivory?

No, it's red dyed curly maple! (Dario I had a hint on this one, the person I got it from had labeled it that for me! [)] But seriously, thanks for patiently explaining this to me.)

 

[buzzb]

Angela, I think in this case I would probably agree with Dario's last post that the exclamation point is caused by the growth ring. Normally with no burl the ring would be pretty uniform and it would turn out looking like laminated wood (dymandwood) which wasn't cut on the diagonal. So it would be like a squashed circle, uniform and symmetric. But with the burl even though your curve is uniform the growth ring isn't, that is it "ripples" back and fourth so does not appear uniform on your curved surface. In this case the lighter colored ring either dipped down or up so when you turned it you exposed the darker ring giving the "space" between the exclamation line and the dot