Removing the White Wood: The Fourth Step in the Journey of Oud
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After the initial cleaning that removed the external impurities comes the finer fourth step in the journey of oud: removing the white wood. For the raw piece carries dark veins saturated with resin, surrounded by white wood free of it that has no aromatic worth. And removing this white reveals the essence of the oud and brings it closer to its final form. In this article we address this step that separates what is valued from what is discarded.
Why is the white wood removed?
The white wood is the part of the piece that has not soaked up resin, so it has no scent and no aromatic worth. It often forms the largest part of the raw piece, and its presence conceals the dark veins and adds to the piece's weight without adding worth to it. So these white layers are removed so that only the resin-bearing veins remain, or what is close to them.
And removing the white wood is not merely a lightening of weight, but an uncovering of the true worth. For the piece that looks large while laden with white may shrink greatly after removal, but what remains of it is truly its precious essence.
How is the removal done with precision?
The essence of this step is precise scraping: the worker follows the boundary of the color between the white and the dark, and scrapes the white in stages, careful not to wound the resin-bearing veins or cut into them. For every scratch in the dark part is a loss that cannot be recovered, and so the experienced take their time and scrape little by little, reviewing the color boundary at each stage.
The dividing line between what is removed and what remains is the color: the white is scraped, and the dark is preserved. And the more precise the worker is in reading this boundary, the more of the resin-bearing part is kept. So this step is one of the most sensitive steps of processing.
The difference it makes to worth
Removing the white wood is what turns the piece from a raw mass into a piece that can be evaluated fairly. For after removal, the density of the veins and the proportion of resin appear clearly, and these are the indicators upon which grading and pricing later rest. We spoke of the significance of color and density for resin richness in how does the gatherer judge the worth of a piece?.
And so the apparent weight of the raw piece is misleading before this step, and the true, reckoned weight is what remains after removing the white. This is what makes removal a pivotal step in determining the actual worth of the oud, not a mere cosmetic trimming.
From removing the white wood to drying
When the white layers are removed and the resin-bearing veins remain visible, the piece has come close to its essential form. But it still needs a step that preserves what has been uncovered: drying, which fixes the scent and protects the piece from spoilage. For removal uncovered the essence, and drying preserves it.
And thus removing the white wood has performed its role: separating the precious from the excess and uncovering the truth of the piece. And in the following axis of this journey we move to the fifth step: drying.
The largest part of the raw piece may be removed in this step, but all the worth remains in the smaller dark part. For the measure is not the size of the raw piece, but the amount of the resin-bearing veins in it.
Every piece had its white removed so its essence would remain. At Oud Treasure we bring oud directly from its sources in the islands of Indonesia. Begin with a sample by which you test the scent, the origin, and the grade.
Browse natural oudRequest a sampleThis article is the fourth axis of the journey of oud from the Indonesian forest to the Gulf customer's majlis, and it is preceded by the initial cleaning.
And for the significance of color and density for worth review how does the gatherer judge the worth of a piece?
