How we grade our willow
Grade 1
A regular Grade 1 may contain up to 1.75 inch (44mm) of colour on one edge. It may have a small fault or small split in one end. It has a minimum of 7 grains and may have a few pin knots, a few specks or a cats paw mark (a hard place) and / or a small amount of wood missing on the front, back or both. Generally not enough wood missing to make it a hand made mens and too good to be down graded to a Grade 2. The grain may not be perfectly straight but in every case but it will be narrow grain (7 grains or more) but the grains may not be all exactly the same distance apart.
Further to the above there are specific specifications regarding number of grains and colour: 1% of all Grade 1 will be Specials. A Special is a cleft with 8 grains or more on the face with a maximum of 1 inch of colour, good, straight, even grain and no blemishes in the playing area. Up to 10% of all Grade 1 will contain 6 straight grains on the face.
Grade 2
A normal Grade 2 may contain up to 2.25 inches (57mm) of colour on one edge. It may have a small fault or small split in one end. It has a minimum of 7 grains and may have a few pin knots, or two cats paw marks (a hard places) and / or a small amount of wood missing on the front / back or both. Generally not enough wood missing to make it a hand made mens and too good to be down graded to a Grade 3. The grain may not be perfectly straight but in every case but it will be narrow grain (7 grains or more) but the grains may not be all exactly the same distance apart.
Further to the above there are specific specifications regarding number of grains and colour. Up to 10% of all Grade 2 will contain 6 reasonably straight grains on the face.
Grade 3
A normal Grade 3 may have light butterfly stain (at top or bottom of the cleft and not in the playing area of the face), speck, up to half colour with a minimum of 7 grains. There may also be pin knots and the grain may not be perfectly straight in every case. In a few cases customers will have to expect some faint blue colour.
Further to the above there are specific specifications regarding number of grains and colour. Up to 25% of all Grade 3 will contain 5 or 6 grains on the face.
Grade 4
These have over half colour with maybe speck or butterfly stain and the grain will not be straight in every case and some pin knots. We will however guarantee that there is at least 16 inches of wood without any butterfly stain in the face. Some may have full red colour, or dark blue colour and a small percentage (10% max) will have one faint stain in an otherwise clean face. The amount of butterfly stain will vary from month to month from less than 10% to 40%.
Grade 4 Butterfly
These are as a Grade 4 but also have a minimum of 7 grains with butterfly stains at both ends and maybe in the middle as well.
Weight
The weight of clefts is determined by the tree; where and how it grows, the density of the wood and also the moisture content.
We consistently dry to a specific moisture content and each customer has an equal share of the heavier clefts which can be up to a maximum of 20%.
One very good way we have found to reduce the weight is to naturally dry the clefts. Blades in Grade 1, Grade 2 and Grade 3 will be naturally air dried for a minimum of 3 months and finished off in our driers for approximately 4 weeks.
Size
Although all clefts are sawn to certain sizes we cannot guarantee that every one will be exactly the same, there may be small amounts of wood missing on some clefts in every grade.
THE ABOVE GRADING SPECIFICATION IS A ROUGH GUIDE ONLY SO CUSTOMERS KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT. CUSTOMERS CANNOT EXPECT EVERY SINGLE CLEFT TO BE EXACTLY AS THE ABOVE DESCRIPTION AS IT IS AFTER ALL A NATURAL PRODUCT.
PLEASE REMEMBER CLEFTS CAN BE UPGRADED AS WELL AS DOWNGRADED. There are some further points regarding quantities and grades. We will not sell Grade 1 / 1B on their own.
Middle Grades
If middle grades are required then this guide applies as there is a limited supply.
