What are these marks from?

[jpricewood]

Originally Posted by Haasome

I'm not a wood anatomist, but my good friend is. He always referred to this figure in wood as "bear scratches" that were lines or striations on the tangential surface of wood resulting from indented rings.

You might be right. Found this quote from a wood specialty site.

Bear claw figure is a series of fairly straight lines that occur on flat cut surfaces because of one or the other of the two kinds of
INDENTED GRAIN. In maple, the bear claw is caused by the spiky kind of indentations and in Ponderosa pine it is cause by the normal kind of indentations. I have been told, but do not have confirmation, that bear claw figure in spruce is caused by the normal kind of indentations. In spruce, the figure on flat cut surfaces is significantly different than that on maple and pine in that the lines do not follow the direction up and down the tree but rather wander all over the place. In maple and pine, the bear claw lines are almost exactly aligned with the direction up and down the tree.

[BrunoBlack]

Originally Posted by jpricewood

You might be right. Found this quote from a wood specialty site.

Bear claw figure is a series of fairly straight lines that occur on flat cut surfaces because of one or the other of the two kinds of
INDENTED GRAIN. In maple, the bear claw is caused by the spiky kind of indentations and in Ponderosa pine it is cause by the normal kind of indentations. I have been told, but do not have confirmation, that bear claw figure in spruce is caused by the normal kind of indentations. In spruce, the figure on flat cut surfaces is significantly different than that on maple and pine in that the lines do not follow the direction up and down the tree but rather wander all over the place. In maple and pine, the bear claw lines are almost exactly aligned with the direction up and down the tree.

In any regard you've got a beauty there!