Green Wood or Dry Wood???

[sbarnhardt]

Hi,

This is probably going to sound like a dumb question, but dumb is as dumb does. Or something like that.........

I've got a project in mind that would involve scrolling slices of wood from limbs and/or limb sized trunks of trees.

I'm a little familiar with how green wood carves better, but does that hold true for scrolling?

What do you think??

[jttheclockman]

No it doesn't. In fact you want wood that is dry and stable especially if you are going to put alot of time into it with fine details. It is a real bummer if you put all that time into it and then when it dries it cracks and gets ugly looking. Leave green wood for carving and turning. Now with that said I have seen people scroll indian faces in slabs of woods and things like that. But here again those slices have been left to dry.

[CanadianScroller]

You can buy slabs like that from Walmart or Michael's.
They are a little tricky to dry on your own.
It is worth spending a few dollars to have them predone

[Neal Moore]

Green wood

As a rule, the basswood slabs found at craft stores and Walmart are pretty dry and suitable for cutting or pyrographics. Fresh cut wood is a horse of a different color. When wood dries the moisture wants to escape through the end grain which causes checking and cracking. That's why the ends of boards are sealed with pariffin or other sealers to force the moisture to escape through the circumference while drying. Because slabs are almost 100% end grain, the log is dried and then sliced into slabs. If you scroll a green slab all your fretwork will probably crack and fall out. The only "wet" wood I ever carved was tupelo. Never had a problem with it and the drier it got the harder it became.