Many wooden objects, especially furniture from southern Germany from around 1500, have inconspicuous wooden strips pressed into the wood. Running diagonally or horizontally to the grain, they add structure to the surface. These strips are not traces of working or finishing the wood, but rather a mode of decorating the surface which has been neglected until now. They were applied to bestow upon the object a precious appearance and possibly even to make the wood, as a material, draw into the background. Presents objects and groups of furniture with these strips, the types and manner of strips, results of technical examination, and attempts at reconstruction. Evidence is becoming stronger that the strips were intentionally used as a decorative element. The tool employed was most likely a toothed flat bar iron drawn over the wooden surface while at the same time being pressed in.