The stock that we carry here on our web site is still considered "green." It has been sawn quite recently and still contains a high moisture content, and will need to be dried (for details on drying, go back to the main tutorials page and see our green wood turning tutorials). That being said, we are quite often asked...why do we not sell dried wood? The answers are quite simple:
- Ease of Turning
Green wood is far easier to turn than dried wood. When turning dried wood, small shaving and large amounts of dust are produced. Green wood, on the other hand, produces long shavings and very little dust. Green wood is not only more of a pleasure to work with, it also is better on your lungs!
- Color
Kiln dried woods will often lose most of their color depth during the drying process. This is excellent when producing lumber for cabinetmakers, as it provides a means of achieving more consistent colors from woods of varying trees which will all be used in the same project. For turners, however...part of the beauty of turning is taking a piece of wood and creating art from it! We want the most vivid colors and the most striking characteristics of each piece of wood to stand out. Green woods, slowly air dried, will allow you to achieve just that!
- Size
Ever been to any local lumber dealer or woodworking specialty shop and been able to find any lumber over 2" thick? In most cases you will not be so lucky. The thicker a piece of wood, the more difficult and expensive it becomes to dry it. Thick lumber must be carefully dried under very controlled conditions for greater lengths of time. By "turning" to green wood, you will be able to find much thicker stock. We normally stock many species up to 6" thick here, and occasionally have some that may be 8"-10" thick. Good luck finding something that thick that has been fully dried!
- Selection
There are many species of domestic woods that are not commercially available because of scarcity. Many trees, such as bradford pear, plum, apple, peach, mimosa, "rainbow" poplar, magnolia, mulberry (plus more) are not easy to come across. Many are ornamental trees found almost exclusively in yards and gardens. Because these woods can be so difficult to obtain, they are not commercially sawn or dried. On the occasions logs do become available, the pieces sawn from them are immediately wax sealed to prevent degrade...then end up being sold very rapidly.
So, why do we sell green wood? Because it makes the most sense for our customers! If you ever need help in learning how to dry your wood, we'll be glad to assist...in fact, if you check our tutorials section, you'll see that we already have information available to answer many of your questions.
For further wood selection tutorials, look below.
To return to the full index of tutorials, click here!
Beginner's Guide to Wood Selection
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