Grade & Cut

Grade:

All lumber (wood) contains character markings including knots, mineral streaks and other naturally occurring irregularities.  Selection, commonly referred to as the “grade” of a floor is a universally referenced attribute of flooring that reflects how significant the amount of character markings appear in a given floor.  Manufacturers commonly blend universally accepted terms for grading with more custom terms in order to describe and differentiate the appearance of floors in their offering.

Examples of Grades:

Rustic: “Rustic” grade, reflects the standard approach of utilizing all viable areas of the lumber which results in floors with the most accurate, natural diversity of appearance and character.

Country: Slightly more dramatic than “Rustic” grade, Country grade highlights diverse character markings and cracks to give the finished floor a dramatic, natural look.

Prime. As the name suggests, “Prime” grade flooring is curated to allow for only occasional, very small knots, with minimal sapwood and far fewer character variations than Rustic grade flooring

Aussie Select. Virtually character marking free, “Aussie select” has a very consistent appearance. Virtually imperfection free, Aussie select is punctured by occasional dark gum veins parallel to grain.

Cuts:

The direction in which lumber is cut will also dramatically affect the appearance of the floor. Specialty cuts can bring out unique attributes of a wood including straighter grain patterns, reduced variation and other elements that create a unique final appearance of a floor.

There are three types of cuts that are Are most commonly used for building hardwood floors.

Plainsawn: The most common approach uses all of the lumber and provides the greatest diversity and variation in the finished floor

Quartersawn: A specialty cut that brings out the straighter grain patterns in the wood along with highlighting flecking or rays in the surface. This cut is also considered more dimensionally stable then the standard plainsawn cut.

Riftsawn: Considered the most premier “cut”, riftsawn cuts produce flooring with very linear grain patterns and few character markings.