How Wet Is Too Wet?

[Grethron]

Hello you lovely people.

I hear a lot about greenwood turning but how green can you actually turn?
Can I hack a chunk off a live tree and start or will it just split and fall in bits?

Cheers, Gav.

[Les Symonds]

The short and simple answer is, 'YES', you can turn green wood straight off the tree.
However...this is a massive subject with many books written about it. There are timbers to choose, methods to adopt and designs to choose from, all of which can have a positive or negative effect on your goal of turning green wood and not seeing it split.

One of my recent posts was a wet-turned ash bowl which i dried and textured...see http://www.awgb.co.uk/awgbforum/index.php/topic,4279.0.html
Les

[Derek]

I receive greenwood and to help I rough turn to help it dry quicker. Some will need you to cover everything around you as it will spray everywhere.

[Bryan Milham]

On the plus side, it's generally free, easy to cut, does not make dust and great for learning practice.

On the down side, you can look fairly silly stood at a lathe in rain mac and wellies! It can spray a fair bit of the Free water in the wood around, so be prepared to clean, dry and rub down with an oily rag your lathe bed and tools afterwards.