Curly wood

Curly Walnut









"Curly" wood is the result of an anomaly of growth that occasionally occurs in trees. In a tree producing curly wood, the grain does not grow straight from root to crown (as it more or less does in normal tree) but rather propagates in semi-regular waves, with amplitude and frequency of approximately 3/8". When the wood is worked and finished, light hitting the surface is reflected differently by the highs and lows of these waves of grain, creating a distinctive pattern and appeal.
Curly maple is also called Tiger maple and Fiddleback maple, "Tiger" because of its velvety and almost iridescent striping, "Fiddleback" because it is often used on the backs of stringed instruments for its eye-catching figure.