Being a fan of George Nakashima, I started sketching something with a solid walnut slab for the top. But where can I get such a piece of lumber? Research begun….

One of the first websites I came across was Goby Walnut who sells some of the most incredible walnut slabs I’ve ever seen. Some of the slabs for sale are so large that I guess you could build a twelve seat dining room table from a single slab, take the offcuts and build the coffee table to match.

Call me a city guy, but I had no idea that walnut trees could grow this large!

According to the Wikipedia, walnut trees can grow up to 40 meters tall but I guess the person who wrote that has never seen the one pictured on the right. Without reaching for a ruler, I’d say its probably taller!

This one is probably as high as the apartment builing I used to live in. What’s that guy doing up there?? Is this how they practice bungee jumping in the country side?

Demonstrating a rare depth and dimensionality, Fiddleback Maple is one of the world’s most-prized hardwoods. The Fiddleback Maple figuring is occasionally found in other hardwoods, including walnut, koa, ash and, rarely, other domestic and imported hardwoods.

Fiddleback Maple is also known as ‘Flame Maple’, ‘Tiger Maple’, ‘Curly Maple’, or ‘Tigerstripe Maple’. Fiddleback Maple exhibits a dramatic change in the individual stripes or lines. As the incident angle of the light is slightly altered, the dark stripe becomes a light stripe, and the light stripe becomes dark. This visual phenomenon is known as ‘chatoyancy’ in the gemstone world, and its most dramatic form is seen in catseye chrysoberyl.

In the United States, most use the terms Fiddleback Maple and Curly Maple synonymously. Fiddleback Maple boasts a three-dimensional series of alternately bright and dark stripes that shade into one another as the wood is slightly moved, thus producing an illusion of actual waves. Changes in brightness result from differential light reflection. Relatively high absorption by exposed fiber ends produces dark bands; reflection and diffraction from fiber walls cause bright bands. Because the fiber walls are curved sharply and act as concave or convex reflecting surfaces, any change in angle of view or incident light makes the apparent waves seem to shift. Again, the same light stripe becomes a dark stripe and vice-versa.

While the precise cause of the Mystery of Fiddleback Maple must remain, at present, unknown, the result is well-known, greatly esteemed, and eagerly sought by wood aficionados as Fiddleback Maple- one of the world’s most transfixingly beautiful exotic hardwoods.

in: http://www.figuredwood.com/products/