Esteemed craftsmen of KKF:
I recently got an end grain walnut board and I have some questions about an apparent defect in the back right corner, which is either a natural defect in the wood, itself, or else an issue with the workmanship (radiusing and sanding).
To start off, here is the general appearance of the board:
As a baseline for comparison, here is the front right corner, which does not have a defect:
You can see that the edges leading up to the corner are chamfered, and that the corner is chamfered/radiused a little more aggressively, probably to prevent a sharp corner from being a magnet for damage.
Here is another shot of the front right corner for comparison's sake. Again, you can see the chamfering on the edges leading up to the corner, and the way that the corner is radiused:
Okay with the comparison shots out of the way, here is a shot of the back right corner, which is where I see the issue:
I don't know exactly how to classify what I'm seeing. It looks like either there was some sort of depression or defect in the wood that took it beyond the plane of whatever they used to chamfer the edge, or else it was radiused too aggressively. You can also see that the grain is a lot rougher and more "open" in the depression, either because it is an area where the wood was of lesser quality, or else because the depression prevented that section from being sanded and finished in the same manner as the rest of the board.
Here are some additional shots of the defect from various perspectives:
And finally, here is a close up of the grain in the depression:
Based on all that, here are my questions:
1) What do you think happened here? Is this the result of a natural defect in the wood that escaped notice? Or does this appear more to be the result of over-radiusing?
2) In either case, is this liable to worsen such that this should be considered a non-cosmetic defect? Or is this just a cosmetic issue?
3) Is it a functional problem that the grain is different in that area? Or could I merely "spot" sand to even out the grain/finish?
Bottom line, I am trying to determine how to characterize this issue in terms of natural defect or workmanship, and whether the issue is functional or just cosmetic. If it's just cosmetic, I'll probably just sand that spot and keep as is, because it is pretty minor and located at a spot that doesn't affect usage. Chalk it up to some rustic wabi sabi character. Also, I don't want to deal with shipping it back unless it's a functional issue.
Thanks for your thoughts!
I recently got an end grain walnut board and I have some questions about an apparent defect in the back right corner, which is either a natural defect in the wood, itself, or else an issue with the workmanship (radiusing and sanding).
To start off, here is the general appearance of the board:
As a baseline for comparison, here is the front right corner, which does not have a defect:
You can see that the edges leading up to the corner are chamfered, and that the corner is chamfered/radiused a little more aggressively, probably to prevent a sharp corner from being a magnet for damage.
Here is another shot of the front right corner for comparison's sake. Again, you can see the chamfering on the edges leading up to the corner, and the way that the corner is radiused:
Okay with the comparison shots out of the way, here is a shot of the back right corner, which is where I see the issue:
I don't know exactly how to classify what I'm seeing. It looks like either there was some sort of depression or defect in the wood that took it beyond the plane of whatever they used to chamfer the edge, or else it was radiused too aggressively. You can also see that the grain is a lot rougher and more "open" in the depression, either because it is an area where the wood was of lesser quality, or else because the depression prevented that section from being sanded and finished in the same manner as the rest of the board.
Here are some additional shots of the defect from various perspectives:
And finally, here is a close up of the grain in the depression:
Based on all that, here are my questions:
1) What do you think happened here? Is this the result of a natural defect in the wood that escaped notice? Or does this appear more to be the result of over-radiusing?
2) In either case, is this liable to worsen such that this should be considered a non-cosmetic defect? Or is this just a cosmetic issue?
3) Is it a functional problem that the grain is different in that area? Or could I merely "spot" sand to even out the grain/finish?
Bottom line, I am trying to determine how to characterize this issue in terms of natural defect or workmanship, and whether the issue is functional or just cosmetic. If it's just cosmetic, I'll probably just sand that spot and keep as is, because it is pretty minor and located at a spot that doesn't affect usage. Chalk it up to some rustic wabi sabi character. Also, I don't want to deal with shipping it back unless it's a functional issue.
Thanks for your thoughts!
I agree it doesn't look bad at all and does actually add some charm. So if it's not functional in any way then I'm happy! 
Which seems insane to me that anybody would let something like this slip by any kind of quality control or final check they have. Like it’s super minor, but also super easy to fix before sending it out.
