Hello Experts,
I took a carving class last year in Austria and during the class there was an hour of “Theory” to start the day. During the morning that we discussed wood and gluing blocks and the difference between gluing for carving and gluing for cabinet making our instructor made an off hand comment – a good “Zimmerman” – the Austrian name for the person who specializes in hanging wood panel walls – always hangs the wood in the direction it grew – so the top of the tree is up. I was concentrating on the ring patterns and gluing so I forgot to ask him the question:
How do you know which end of the board is up? Can you assist me on this one?
Thanks again and best regards from Italy,
Jim
Replies
I think that your teacher related an anecdotal factoid. On some boards it would be possible to look at the annular rings and see some taper but on most you could not. In any case it would require a very long board. Further, the exercise would be a "waste of sweetness on the desert air" to quote Gray. Nothing would be gained by doing so and many the panel is hung with the grain horizontal. What we are to do now? From what cardinal direction are we viewing the original tree and do we hang the resulting board with the left or right side up? I guess it would depend on political persuasion.
With best regards,
Ernie Conover
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