Off the top of my head, perhaps it's charred, then sanded, leaving the
darker softer areas obvious.

Some of us char wood then wire brush the char away to make it look like
barnwood.

"xrongor" wrote in message
...

"davidmc" wrote in message
om...
the SWMBO was at an antique show today and saw a piece of furniture
that was labeled "flashed oak." She said it was striped, with
extremely strong contrast between the light and the dark stripes as if
it were zebrawood. Is anyone familiar with this? Why is it called
"flashed"? And is it the result of the type of oak used or is it a
type of finish (and if the latter, how do you do it?) I haven't seen
any references to this by googling the web or this newsgroup.

maybe this is some sort of 'flame' in the wood?

randy