Hey Jon,
Since this post really got the mental gears spinning, and a real challenge, I would really like to see the minds of the ever-thinking welders who get involved here, get some kind of process initiated to establish a "welding surface chart", or something to that effect. Since I keep my mental processing on "simple", because it is so much easier that way and generally works best, I feel a visual chart, depicting the various weld configurations by surface appearance would be a start. Just as a welding drawing indicates connecting weld specifications by established parameters, a surface chart would also indicate physical parameters for appearance. I do see, at times, non-welding engineers do not fully interpret the physical changes in metal when welding. There was a recent past post discussing length shrinkage after welding and the lack of engineering expertise to foresee this factor.
After researching my small welding library, I estimated there were close to 1000 photos of welds. I am sure in the vast arsenal of literature in the AWS, enough photos of welds that show physical attributes could be used to set up a grading/numbering system to indicate a surface definition that could be used by a manufacturing engineer to indicate a weld surface appearance that is acceptable for his project. I'm confident that the staff of AWS combined with weld engineers could provide a chart as this, and possibly have an addendum to the AWS Welding Manual.
I believe js55 is on the right track saying "AWS develop some surface description clarity", and it would entail physical dimensions of height and width, all that would be in the guidelines of a proper AWS defined weld. And I believe those guidelines were established for weld integrity, correct???
Anyway, I'm rambling, but the curiosity is really an itch.... I guess, as a welder, the appearance of a weld is quite important to most of us, as is the integrity of that weld. Gotta admit, nothing like looking at a 20' length of sweet bead on those big beams. Ok guys/gals... your turn... let's start something.....Denny