Visual impressions of features in scots pine wood surfaces: a qualitative study

Wood has inherent aesthetic features that give the final product competitive advantage over other materials. The goal of this study was to describe and create understanding of people's feelings and attitudes toward wood in order to develop quantitative studies in the future. Ten persons with different backgrounds were interviewed regarding 27 wood surfaces made of Scots pine. Their impressions and feelings were documented and analyzed with a qualitative method. The result is a map describing what features people see in wood. Depending on the mixture of wood features, the impression will differ. Interviews made clear that people prefer different blends of wood features. There are two qualitative differences that are of importance for people's impression and valuation of wood: 1) the overall blending of wood features; and 2) divergent features that mismatch in the surface, i.e., natural defects or technical defects caused by the machine or the carpenter. It was found that divergent features are more important than the overall mixture of features. But if there are no defects that mismatch, the overall mixture will then be the key to a person's appreciation of a wood surface. Wood features can be seen as input data for interpretation and valuation by a person and visual impressions should be seen as output data from the valuation process. Input data are quite objective and can be measured automatically by scanning techniques. Interviews have to be used to measure the subjective output data. The results of this investigation point toward useful queries or measurements to be made in future qualitative or quantitative studies