To a common person, all lumbers are cut the same given the similarity of most tools used for the purpose.
In reality, however, lumbers found sold in home centers and lumberyards actually differ in cut, only seen by those who are aware of those differences.
Often, how the lumber was cut, in relation to the face of the board, defines its behavior when used as a material for furniture.
In acceptable wood worker terminology, furniture makers refer to how a lumber was cut as “grain structure.”
Part of what sets a professional furniture maker from a non-professional is on how the people pay attention to the grain structure of the wood to be used, yet are not necessarily selective about any of them.
On the contrary, professional furniture makers make use of all cut variations for different sections of every project.
Grain structures are produced with the following methods:
- Flat Sawn (FS)
This is the most common used method in cutting off lumbers yet is also one that is least in being dimensionally stable.
Common usage of a flat sawn lumber involves making table tops and floating panels with the intention of warping and cupping yet is often regarded as visually striking at most.
Furniture makers who understand wood movement and can make adjustments about it will find a flat sawn wood to be ideal for any furniture-making project.
Specifically, flat sawn boards are those whose annual rings are parallel, if not just being close to being parallel, to the face of the board. - Rift Sawn (RS)
You know that a board has undergone rift sawn if the annual rings are at a 45 degrees’ angle to the face of the board.
Furniture makers make use of this type of board as leggings because of the exact similarities of each board’s grain structure from one another.
Otherwise, rift sawn boards are used for rails of boards and stiles. - Quarter Sawn (QS)
Of all the mentioned cuts, the quarter sawn is to be considered as the most dimensionally stable.
Quarter sawn boards are identified if the annual rings of the board are perpendicular or at any degrees higher than 60 to the face of the board.
Similar to a rift sawn board, quarter sawn boards are used for stiles while also used for panel doors, case sides, and rails of frames.
Otherwise, a quarter sawn boards are used when making drawer parts.
One common issue with using quarter sawn boards is that it appears to be boring, yet something which appeals to some.