Advantages
Some of the main advantages of using green timber are linked to cost, sustainability and satisfaction.
A conventional wood-turner buying a piece of timber from a timber merchant, is not just paying for the timber itself, but the cost of its processing: its felling and extraction from the woodland, its conversion into market sizes and its seasoning. The price also naturally reflects all the hidden costs of transport, plus of course a healthy mark-up to cover wages and profit.
Conversely, the cost of raw timber at source (i.e. the tree growing in the wood) is minimal and quite often free! The green wood turner keeps his eyes and ears to the ground and can often locate timber that has been freshly felled or is in the process of being felled.
Aah, the tell tale sound of the chain-saw! Much of the timber being felled in our woodlands is not being felled commercially but for woodland management objectives, to bring long neglected woodlands full of over mature trees, back into some kind of order. This benefits wildlife, amenity use and woodland diversity, and woodland managers are often pleased to see their timber put to good use and will let it go to a good home for little or no cost.
Useful groups to contact regarding such timber include local councils, woodland and wildlife trusts and conservation groups. Similarly, local tree surgeons often come across quality timber which they may sell at firewood rates.
The green wood turner can often find quantities of excellent, straight grained timber, amongst trees that a timber merchant would reject as uneconomical to process. Such trees may well still yield one or two straight sections that can be put to good use.
One of the most satisfying aspects of green-wood-working is that you can be intimately involved in all aspects of production, from felling the tree and extracting the timber, splitting turning and seasoning it, through to the final assembly and finishing and even the sale of the final product. I figure that there's not many jobs nowadays where you can do all that!
As well as the huge factor of this reduced cost, it is also wonderfully satisfying to be involved in these early stages. It greatly increases the interest in a finished piece (both to myself and the prospective buyer), to know the provenance, not just of the piece, but of the very timber it is made from.
So now you can see that green wood turning is environmentally friendly! It does not rely on imported materials, but uses local timber which after turning is naturally seasoned. It uses little transport, no electricity and is cheaper, quieter and healthier than more modern methods. As such, it is a green and sustainable activity.
