mapfluke Posted August 30, 2017 Report Share Posted August 30, 2017 This one violin has got me asking so many questions... I think this should be the last one. I have read a few topics on medullary rays in here but I have not seen curved/warped rays until I saw the back of my violin. Is it caused by the way the violin was carved, exposing some rays in places and not exposing them in other places? Is there any significance to their shape? And is this a sign of nice quality wood? Thank you all again for your help on all of the topics I have started. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Carlson Posted August 30, 2017 Report Share Posted August 30, 2017 38 minutes ago, mapfluke said: This one violin has got me asking so many questions... I think this should be the last one. I have read a few topics on medullary rays in here but I have not seen curved/warped rays until I saw the back of my violin. Is it caused by the way the violin was carved, exposing some rays in places and not exposing them in other places? Is there any significance to their shape? And is this a sign of nice quality wood? Thank you all again for your help on all of the topics I have started. Wood, in this case maple, can have undulations in the cell structure running either horizontally, vertically or both. It is normal that the radial rays don't show for the entire width of the plate as the tree growth would have to match your arching perfectly. From the fact that they appear or disappear has to do with light, large waves oriented approximately parallel to the center joint and therefore the radial rays are only parallel to the arching surface for a part of the time at intervals. Some wood sources used by the French makers, including JB Vuillaume, show a fair amount of this characteristic. It is not exclusive to the French makers. Here in Italy it is sometimes called "acero farfalla" or "butterfly wood". It is a charcteristic even more prominent in some other woods like mahogany. In fact I tend to refer to this feature as a "mahogany effect". Below, it's easy to see the vertically oriented ripples. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caerolle Posted September 2, 2017 Report Share Posted September 2, 2017 Mmm, I guess I am going to be that horrid person that makes a zombie thread (took me a few days to get the time to mess with the lighting). I saw this thread when it started, and it reminded me of an odd pattern on the back of my violin, and I wanted to share some photos. It's like some kind of swirly stuff. Probably experienced people have seen it a lot, but kind of weird to me. The spot is in the upper left of the back. Hope this is of some interest. If not, sorry! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mapfluke Posted September 2, 2017 Author Report Share Posted September 2, 2017 Just to make sure we are all talking about the same thing, I am describing the lines that run perpendicular to the grain but I am not talking about the flame. I'm pointing out the fine, thin lines that seem to appear randomly in spots on maple backs. This image that Bruce has posted in a past thread displays these line very well. Just wanted to clarify before any confusion began. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caerolle Posted September 2, 2017 Report Share Posted September 2, 2017 Yes, that is what I am talking about, too. There are a lot of rays around the area I am talking about, but the area I have zoomed on has like these eddies in it. Not that I have seen the back of that many violins, but looks unusual to me. I only put the pic of the whole back in there to show the overall location of the weird area. The flame is not particularly spectacular, was not really about that. One interesting thing about the whole back to me, though, is how the grain breaks up the flame so dramatically. I have not really noticed that in other violins, either. This violin has some strange wood on the front and back both, to me. Carol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Noon Posted September 3, 2017 Report Share Posted September 3, 2017 On 8/30/2017 at 5:40 AM, mapfluke said: This one violin has got me asking so many questions... I think this should be the last one. I have read a few topics on medullary rays in here but I have not seen curved/warped rays until I saw the back of my violin. Is it caused by the way the violin was carved, exposing some rays in places and not exposing them in other places? Is there any significance to their shape? And is this a sign of nice quality wood? In addition to the things Bruce mentioned, there's also a factor in the slant of the rays, relative to the long grain direction. A slant means that as the tree grows, the tangential (flame) waves do not propagate radially, but change location along the grain, up or down the tree. Now, if the rays are truly radial features (which they appear to be), then they will squiggle too, as they follow the changing direction of the flame waves. In the photo, you can see that the rays cross into different parts of the flames, and the curve of the rays has some relation to the flame features. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Carlson Posted September 6, 2017 Report Share Posted September 6, 2017 On 2/9/2017 at 10:09 PM, mapfluke said: Just to make sure we are all talking about the same thing, I am describing the lines that run perpendicular to the grain but I am not talking about the flame. I'm pointing out the fine, thin lines that seem to appear randomly in spots on maple backs. This image that Bruce has posted in a past thread displays these line very well. Just wanted to clarify before any confusion began. Just to add to what Don already said, I'm posting two more photographs of the same violin. If you toggle back and forth between these photographs you can see how the light direction changes the appearance of the underlying wood and brings out or hides the medullary rays. It's easy to see the broad waves in the maple because there is not a lot of conventional curl or figure in this piece of wood. Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Carlson Posted September 6, 2017 Report Share Posted September 6, 2017 Mapfluke fell off the map. Or was it just a fluke? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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