You could compile a list of many, many builders who do it one way or the other

I know see that I could have indeed made things worse with my question because I may not have asked it well enough (partially but not entirely my fault given the apprent disconnect in the way these terms are applied). A poorly asked question will give rise to just as much confusion when answered since different readers will understand the question and ensuing answer differently. For my part in that I apologize. Unfortunately, I cannot upload pics right now to illustrate my question. Let me try with text:

____|||____ this represents my understanding of the strongest orientation where the underlines (___) represent the plate and the pipe (||) represent the grain of the brace. Note that I am leaving the terms quartersawn and vertical grain out of the mix here even though until recently I would have use both interchangeably here.

This picture represents what I think of as the weaker orientation ____=____.

Thoughts?

The reason has less to to with what orientation is stronger under a stress test and more to do with the fact that there is less movement between the annular rings during times of RH fluctuation then the plane that is made along the face of annular rings in a flat sawn piece. Hence braces with annular rings that look like this ||| are more stable regardless of what they are called.

Like I said a while back I don't care what the cut is called as long as it looks like this |||||

If it looks like this === then I will rotate it to look like this ||| provided the dimensions allow for the proper brace height.

The reason has less to to with what orientation is stronger under a stress test and more to do with the fact that there is less movement between the annular rings during times of RH fluctuation then the plane that is made along the face of annular rings in a flat sawn piece. Hence braces with annular rings that look like this ||| are more stable regardless of what they are called.



BTW you know why I go fishing? Just for the Halibut.

Some flatsawn lumber is produced this way. I doubt this process has been used much since early 1900's.

But if flatsawn boards are the target, like a lot of furniture and panel boards, where the flower grain orientation is desired, a barrel cut is used, where the log is kicked at 90 degrees after each pass.

do a google search for 'rift sawn lumber' and see what comes up...the vast majority of definitions of sawing lumber are what I posted a pic of above...

rift board (term use in the link you posted) = rift grain =^ flatsawn

guess you didn't think I ferreted through a lot of results before I made my statement?

Apparently, you don't have to have much of an intellect to copy and paste.