The pleasures of turning green wood

Green turned oak, bleached and waxed.

There’s so much to love about turning green wood. Wood that is freshly cut, heavy and dripping wet. It’s tricky of course. The large pieces of oak that I love are really heavy and will move during the process of turning. The drying process has to be managed to ensure that pieces dry without cracking. One of the reasons my pieces are generally very fine. No more than a few mm thick.

But green wood is such a pleasure to turn. My gouges positively kiss the surface of the material. And it’s much nicer to sand. None of the horrible dust associated with working with seasoned material.

But the real reason I love working with green wood - particularly freshly cut oak - is the way in which it moves and changes shape as it dries. It’s magical, alchemical, creates the most beautiful organic shapes, and so is my favourite part of woodturning