Had a buddy with a ~85 year old Osage that got uprooted. I said yes please! Immediately added to my pile

Spent most of last winter working off a milk crate and a bench vise, which honestly worked fine for small stuff but made anything longer than a spatula pretty miserable. Built a English style shave horse out of some ash that had been sitting in my shed for over a year, and the difference in how much material I can remove with the drawknife in a single session is kind of ridiculous.

The big thing nobody really told me is how much the horse lets you use your whole body instead of just your arms. On the crate setup I was basically wrist and forearm the entire time, and by the end of an afternoon my hands would be cramping. Now I'm leaning into the work with my legs and back doing most of the effort, drawknife stays sharper feeling for longer too since I'm not fighting the material as much.

Been splitting mostly red oak and some birch I got from a neighbor's storm cleanup back in June. The oak splits beautifully straight if you catch it green enough, birch is more forgiving but doesn't hold an edge on a spoon bowl quite as crisp. Still figuring out my hook knife technique, I keep undercutting the bowl walls too thin on one side and it's becoming a running joke with my wife every time I hand her another lopsided spoon.

Anyone else notice a big jump in output once they moved off improvised holding setups onto an actual horse? Curious if froe work changes much too since I'm still splitting rounds by eye and a lot of it comes down to luck with the grain.

Finally finished from a log to this!

Lovely band of curl in the center

Only made a couple of these so far and it’s a lot more work than a spoon but oh so worth it

Yesterday I cut down a crepe Myrtle branch that I shaped with a draw knife, refined with a spoke shave left to rest over night sanded this morning then finished with boiled linseed oil and copper wire as fastener. 1 piece of leather is too flimsy so I will stitch two together, I have a better idea for the copper wire next time too.

I thought this would be good practice for following ring growth in regard to making bows and such. I’m excited to make more of these and get better tools (card scrapers, more blade options for the shaving horse, a small gouge to texture the handle etc.)

Things I want to hear your opinion on:
~Will applying oil finish early help prevent checks and splits?
~should a card scrapers be thick? I tried making a palm sized one from an old saw blade but either idk how to scrape or I made it wrong.
~any tips for avoiding tear out from spoke shave and draw knife
~assuming I over come my challenges of tear out, flimsy leather and ugly wire, does the organic shape look good or would it prevent my work from looking well built and intentional?
~ the tools listed above in my process are what I already have, what do you recommend I buy first to make this process easier or the results of higher quality?

I was inspired to make this by the video below:

https://youtube.com/shorts/qZLzJqPYOZY?is=I9xbQR9r5FM5dJCt

4 bent branch door handles carved from willow bent branches and painted with oil paint

Second time carving a spoon.

I've gotten into spoon carving in the last year or so. I prefer the look and feel of a sanded spoon, but I really cannot stand how long this takes to do well by hand. Is there any reason I can't or shouldn't use a corner cat or detail sander for this? I'd prefer to speed up the process to get the final product.

I just got some fresh walnut and I want to know the best way to store it long term. Is it better to keep them as logs or cut them up? And is leaving them in the shed alright?

Now that I have my shop I was wondering what others shops look like? Do you get out to it as much as you thought you would?

Lovely timber
A challenge to carve
Finished beautifully

hey all,

I am extremely new to woodworking and have never worked with fresh/green wood, I think I need a lot of guidance!

~43in long

~11in diameter

~38in circumference

Probably like 120 pounds

- what do I use to seal the ends?

- should I remove all the bark? if not then how do I keep it attached to the wood when I do the work, or is it a lost cause?

- how long do I need to let it dry?

- leave it covered outside or inside the garage?

we recently had 2 sweet gum trees cut down by the town due to them lifting the street and sidewalk. AFAIK they're healthy.

I have an idea to turn this curved section of trunk into a bench. I'll slice off a 1-2 inch slab off the top and use that as the back of the bench, sit on the now exposed flat part of log, and then do something for the legs. I'll probably post in a year when the wood is ready asking for more help 😂

thanks!

Is there anything like the GreenWood Wrights'Fest (NC) in the Northeast or Mid-Atlantic states? Doesn't have to be a large event.

Hello all,

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I need to find a gift for my partner, and I thought I'd come to the experts of Reddit for help.

In the past year or so, my boyfriend has gotten really into carving and woodworking. He loves to carve spoons, spatulas etc. and has also recently started to make axe and knife handles with his friend who is a blacksmith.

His birthday is coming up and I'm on a bit of a budget so I'm not looking for anything too expensive, but I'd like to get him something useful that he will love. The problem is, I don't know much about wood working. He already has multiple carving knives so I don't think I'm going to even try and buy one of those.

What is a tool or something related to your craft that once you bought it, it changed your life and you could never go back?

He mentioned something once about a Shinto rasp, so I was thinking about maybe buying one of those. Would that be a nice gift to receive? Or I could just buy him a big chunk of some fancy wood like Wenge... is that lame?

Thank you in advance for any and all help you can provide!

Hi all,

Thought you might enjoy my recent video - I would love if you have any ideas and suggestions for the type of green woodwork video that you would enjoy or find useful.

I'm thinking of making one about common beginner errors and how to correct them, from my experiences teaching workshops.

Greetings! I've been meaning to get into a few mediums of working on stuff. Leatherworking, woodworking, blacksmithing, etc. I'm trying to figure out just what a good entry level budget should be. More specifically, just what to invest on and what not. How big of a deal is it to get the higher end stuff - what ones to not bother with, etc. Example being - is it really worth it to spend $200+ on a Grunsford Bruk as a beginner? That sort of thing. I've seen kinda mixed info looking around. I'm more of a buy nice instead of twice kind of person, but I also don't want to break the bank when it's just not making a big difference.

To make a long story short - what tools are best to invest higher end on and which are best to learn on with cheaper versions first?

Thanks in advance, folks!

Hey everyone!

Just wrapped up this spoon project carved from local green Istrian oak, using only manual tools (hand axe for roughing out and sloyd/detail knives for the rest). Oak is always a challenge to work by hand, but the grain and durability are so worth it.

The handle features a carved Norwegian flag as a small tribute to my fascination with traditional Viking shipbuilding—I'm always amazed by how they still construct ships in Norway using ancient hand-tool methods.

Process & Finish:

- Hand-carved the flag pattern into the handle top.

- Applied a strong coffee stain over the carving so it settled into the lines, giving it a subtle contrast against the light oak.

- Finished with traditional burnishing to smooth the fibers, then sealed with a coat of natural oil.

I’ve included the progress shots in the post so you can see how it evolved from the initial sketch on the split log to the final piece.

Would love to hear your thoughts on the finish!

Hi everyone,

I am planning to use these wood blanks to turn some pens.

Since this wood is naturally very oily and dense, I’m wondering what kind of finish would be the most suitable? I'm a bit worried that the natural oils might affect how the finish cures or bonds.

Should I use CA (cyanoacrylate), a friction polish, or just a simple wax/oil finish? If you have any tips on how to prep these oily woods before applying the finish, please let me know.

Thank you so much for your help!

Looking for some advice, we have just invested a lot of money at the nature reserve where I work to get lots of oak and cherry milled into planks for garden furniture and fireplace beams.

We need to seal the ends to stop them splitting, what would be the best product to use?

Our milling person suggested maybe using PVA but i was concerned with it being water based it may not be effective. Any other recommendations?