Is there any way to tell?

[Small Slick]

My wife and I are building a log cabin. We plan on putting large beams vertical on the inside of the gable end wall that will extend floor to ceiling in the great room about 16' tall.

We have ample supply of Maple on our land. Is there any way to tell if a maple has figure while still a tree? 

John

[Ianab]

You may be able to see some sort of "ripple" in the bark if a tree is highly figured. So if you do see figure showing through the bark, then it's probably a good one. But with a lesser figure it's harder to tell, so it's still a bit of a lucky dip what you will find inside.

Ian

[Ljohnsaw]

And...  If it was highly figured, would it not be worth a whole lot more as boards then a post?  Maybe you could just wrap a normal post with figured boards - you'd get more posts that way from one tree  ;)

[backwoods sawyer]

 

 
This log had figure  when opened up.
 

 
Most all the figure is relatively close to the outside of the logs so it is not like you would get all figured wood if you milled the log up. Have fun while finding the right sized log with the right amount of character to expose.