Imagine milling a big leaf maple tree and finding exquisite fiddleback, burl or curly designs. That’s what Les Dougherty experiences every day on 80 acres where he lives in Oregon’s Coast 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.” Depending on the size of the burl or curl, the piece may end up as a bowl or a vase in Hastings’ studio on the Oregon Coast.

Typical wood figuring includes:

• Burl patterns, which are produced by uncommon growths on trees that produce deep, rich patterns disrupting the natural wood grain. Burls are often a deeper shade than plain wood, with lots of 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, which can be seen most commonly in maple trees, featuring a wavy grain texture that reflects light in a way appearing almost three-dimensional.

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

The land managed by Dougherty and his wife, Susan Curington, contains a incredible selection of big leaf maple, madrone, white oak, cedar and Douglas fir, in an environment that has nurtured their family for many  generations. Their ancestors originally settled on the land at the end of the great depression with little more than a milk cow. Curington’s father re-planted sheep pastures with timber.

A lot more recently, Dougherty and Curington operated a business in the construction industry, producing beautiful custom-built homes . With the recent end of the building boom, Curington has focused on her painting, while Dougherty finds pleasure working with his portable sawmill. Exploring the woods of their property, he found more and more pieces of lovely patterns in the wood, and he knew there must be other woodworkers and woodturners who would see the importance 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.