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PZC Chatometry

A standard system to measure wood chatoyance

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  • What is Chatoyance?
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  • Case studies
    • Roasting Curly Maple
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      • Sunlight & Weather exposure on sweet cherry
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    • Finishing
      • Finishing Maple
      • Finishing Curly Maple
      • Finishing Curly Maple – part 2
      • Surface preparation on Curly Maple
      • Incremental grit and finishing on Curly Maple
      • Finishing Okoume
      • Finishing London Plane
      • Finishing Blonde European Walnut
      • Finishing European Ash
      • Finishing European Elm
    • Progressive grit sanding
    • Ultra-fine sanding
    • Raw Veneer vs fine sanded
    • Cleaning Black Walnut
    • Quartersawn vs Flatsawn
      • Quartersawn vs Flatsawn on London plane
      • Quartersawn vs Flatsawn on Red Oak
      • Quartersawn vs Flatsawn on European Beech
    • Runout Angle
    • Mud Curing on Osage Orange
    • No. 1 – Hawaiian Koa
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      • Large GIFs 7
      • Large GIFs 8
      • Large GIFs 9
      • Large GIFs 10
      • Australian species
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    • Fresh-cut wood
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Runout Angle

“Runout angle” is the angle between the fibers and the surface; in simple words, a face grain cut has 0° runout angle, while an endgrain cut has 90° runout angle.
This test was aimed at verifying the effect of runout angle on chatoyance and also on wood color.
An Okoume slab was cut into 10 samples with different runout angles (0°, 10°, … , 90°); on each of these, chatoyance was measured in 6 25x25mm areas.
This chart summarizes the results, showing that a face-grain cut maximises chatoyance and also that the color itself gets darker when going towards an endgrain cut. Due to this reason, even non-chatoyant wood pieces may appear heavily figured.

Pictures below report the appearance of three samples and their brightness chart.

0° runout angle – 16.2 PZC

Typical 2 peaks chart as expected from a face cut.

40° runout angle – 11.2 PZC

Single wider peak on a 40° runout sample, still with significant max/min ratio (about 1.5).

90° runout angle – 6.5 PZC

Almost disappeared peak (max / min < 1.2) on an endgrain cut (90° runout).

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