"Bear Claw" spruce vs good straight grained spruce

[Spruce]

Here in Europe in the violin-making world the term "hazel spruce" seems to be used for spruce that exhibits bearclaw. The German term is "haselfichte". I'm not sure that the terms hazel spruce and bearclaw spruce are describing the same property of the wood, but suspect that they probably are.

I just ran "hazel" and "hasel" through an English/German translator, to no avail...
I've never known what it refers to...anyone?
In Italy, it's called "Maschio" (spelling?), pointing to the belief that bearclaw only appears in male trees...
Not sure about that one, either...

I do know why we call it "bearclaw"...
The cambium of a good tree looks exactly like a bear has sharpened her claws on the tree...

[sprucetop1]

I should be seeing a pro. violin maker later this week who refers to bearclaw spruce as "spruce with hazel". This (highly skilled and experienced) maker was trained in Mittenwald, Germany in the 1950's. I'll see if I can get further info. on the origin of this term. For the moment, am baffled.....

[Perilous Deep]

Translated from wikipedia.de (usually quite reliable):

"The common name "Haselfichte" likely arose because the gently waving growth rings and the small, brown intrusions in the grain are reminiscent of hazelnut wood: the wood of common hazel (Corylus avellana) often exhibits moderate furrow formation on the surface of the wood. This serration, however, is not found in the cross-section (of hazelnut wood)."

A brief search didn't turn up any good images of the surface of hazelnut wood, but the description sounds very much like what Bruce posted above. Sounds like a plausible explanation of the name to me, but there's always a fair amount of cloudiness surrounding folk etymology.

[MikeEdgerton]

Growing up in Oregon we called hazel nuts filberts (a variety I suppose). I can't find any images of the grain that are large enough to show anything. However, it should be noted that every engineered floor plank manufactured with the Hazel name on it has a whole lot of bear claw in it

[Paul Hostetter]

I've known the German term haselfichte for a long time. It's simply the German term for what we call bearclaw.

Stefan Sobell makes incredible guitars with bearclaw Sitka. He has a whole model designation for them, the Steinbeck, which is basically his Martin Simpson model with specific materials: Malaysian blackwood (a true ebony) back and sides, wengé neck, and the bearclaw Sitka top (from Steve McMinn). Stefan feels there's a density to the figured spruce that affects the response. I've known other luthiers to say the same thing. No way to know for sure, but he's clear that the bearclaw Sitka makes a sound like no other spruce. All I know for sure is that my Steinbeck is one extraordinary guitar.

[Paul Hostetter]

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haselfichte

[HoGo]

I think it is the look of old dry branches of hazelnut tree that gave the name to the spruce. When the dry half-rotten bark peels off it leaves darker stringy pieces of cambium on the surface looking much like the haselfichte in the pic Bruce posted.
The wood of hazelnut is rather plain light colored with not much to see so no connection there.

[James Rankine]

I think spruce is a rather boring wood compared, to say, maple. I rather like the bear claw mark on my Tom Buchanan flat top mandola, though I can't say it played any part in the decision to purchase it.

[MikeEdgerton]

I felt compelled to post this picture of Spruce with Hazel. Carry on.

[Ivan Kelsall]

Paul - That is the most sensational guitar top that i've ever seen !!!. I'm begining to love my 'Bearclaw topped' Lebeda mandolin even more,
Ivan

[Timbofood]

Thanks a whole lot MIKE!
Had to clean the screen, should have known better.

[MikeEdgerton]

My pleasure, really Tim.

[Timbofood]

One of these days we have got to meet! A night of swapping lies and bad stories with a couple of other mandolin nuts, Whee boy!

[Bill Kammerzell]

Jim--I love this guitar. Back and sides are Honduras rosewood. I had purchased the rosewood and a red spruce top from John Arnold. While at Gerald's I saw this bear claw sitka top and we traded. This guitar really came alive when I put Martin Retro monel strings on it---wish they made a monel mandolin string!

Aren't the Sam Bush Gibson strings, Monel wound? Had four packs of these. Used them on all my mandolins and gave one pack away. Love the sound. Really bell like, especially on the high end.

https://www.stringsandbeyond.com/gisambumowom.html

[Bill Kammerzell]

Looks like Gibson discontinued Sam Bush Monel strings. Just bought some medium Monel Strings by Curt Mangan.