Silk
© Frank Ford, 2/26/01 Photos by FF
Here's a photo of some nice spruce:
With a highly polished lacquer finish, this spruce has an iridescent quality. Most woods have this kind of glow.
This spruce top has the classic "silk" figure often seen in perfectly quartersawn spruce:
It almost looks as though the grain is a bit "out of focus" as you gaze at it. In fact what you're seeing is the appearance of medullar rays, little structures that radiate out through the center of the tree, passing through the annual growth rings.
Here's a closeup, so you can see the medullary rays that appear almost as a fabric weave in the picture above.
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