Envision milling a big leaf maple tree and finding impeccable fiddleback, burl or curly designs. That’s what Les Dougherty encounters every day on 80 acres where he lives in Oregon’s Coastline Range. “It’s like opening presents,” he states.

The figured wood varieties Dougherty and his wife, Susan Curington, offer through their business, North Woods, is as rare as it is lovely, says woodturning instructor Tom Hastings. “I’ve been all over the country,” says Hastings. “It’s some of the best I’ve seen. I call Les and tell him what I’m looking for, and he sends it.”  Based on the style and dimensions of the wood block , the piece may end up as a bowl or a vase in Hastings’ showroom on the Oregon Coast.

Common wood figuring includes:

• Burl patterns, which are created by unusual growths on trees that produce deep, rich patterns disrupting the natural wood grain. Burls are often darker in color than plain wood, with many whorls and flecks.
• Spalted figuring, recognizable by its characteristic dark lines woven throughout the grain of the wood. Spalting is caused by a particular variety of pigmentation fungi, which stains patches of the wood without compromising its durability.
• Curly, Fiddleback, and Flame patterns, found primarily in maple varieties, featuring a wavy grain texture that reflects light in a way appearing almost three-dimensional.

Figured wood is especially valuable for craftsmen and woodturners who use woodturning blanks, pen blanks, and wood burls to create incredible works of art from natural wood.

A lot more recently, Dougherty and Curington ran a successful construction business, building high-end homes throughout the Northwest and Oregon Coast . With the recent end of the building boom, Curington has focused on her painting, while Dougherty finds enjoyment working with his portable sawmill. Exploring the woods of their property, he found more and more pieces of attractive patterns in the wood, and he knew there must be other woodworkers and woodturners who would see the value in such one-of-a-kind products. With characteristic entrepreneurial spirit, he and Curington founded North Woods, Inc.

“Figured wood like this is not common. You have to take advantage of it,” says Hastings.

People with an eye for the finest quality in figured wood can do just that, discovering their own treasures in the many varieties of wood from the fertile northwestern United States.