Flooring Cuts
Plain sawn is the most common and cost-effective cut. Growth rings are parallel to the board’s surface. This creates the grainy pattern you see most often.
Quarter Sawn
Quarter sawn is a specialty cut with a higher price tag than plain sawn. Logs are sliced into triangular quarters – like a pizza – and then cut quarter by quarter. Growth rings are perpendicular to the board’s face, creating a straighter-looking grain with more consistent coloring.
Rift & Quarter Sawn
Rift sawn wood can be manufactured either as a compliment to quarter sawn lumber or logs can be cut specifically as rift sawn. In rift sawn lumber the annual rings are typically between 30-60 degrees, with 45 degrees being optimum. Rift sawn lumber is very dimensionally stable and has a unique linear appearance.
Live Sawn
Live sawn milling is the most efficient way to cut a log into flooring planks and it is a newer milling method than the others. Each plank is cut straight off of the log in one direction without changing the orientation of the log. This method produces boards with a full range of angles of the log’s rings, also known as the log’s “grain”.