Seasoned Wood vs Green Wood… Other than “Why spoons?” and “What tools d
Seasoned Wood vs Green Wood… Other than “Why spoons?” and “What tools do you use?” one of the questions I’m most often asked is “Do you carve with green wood or seasoned wood?” so I figured I’d do a little post about it for anyone that’s interested (fellow carving fans most likely). The short answer is both but rarely do I get to choose. Because I primarily work with naturally fallen wood it’s not often that I find a piece that is still green (meaning freshly fallen with a high moisture content) despite regular storm chasing attempts. For my style of carving this lack of access to fresh, green wood isn’t really an issue because seasoned (dried) wood is generally more stable and so much better for detail carving. The high moisture content of green wood does make it much faster and easier to carve than seasoned but the wood fibres have greater elasticity, closing in on small cuts, and the wood is much more likely to warp or split as it dries (though there are ways to mitigate against this problem). Another point to add into the ‘pros’ column for seasoned wood is its tendency to be more characterful and colourful as a result of spalting (colour and texture changes caused by fungi growing through the wood fibres [visible in the end grain of the seasoned log in the first image]). I tend to use this colouring as both a guide for my designs and as a feature in the finished pieces. Illustrated in the photos are a seasoned English Oak log with spalting and a green Ash log displaying high moisture content in its dark colour. https://www.instagram.com/p/CHYEtwsjPTL/?igshid=wo4p5892a4pv -- source link