If you’re a woodworker who wants to experience a little challenge while honing your trade skills, you might want to try green woodworking. The difference between this and woodcraft as most people know it today is that the former makes use of freshly felled timber instead of the pre-cut ready-to-use lumber being sold commercially. If you have pieces of firewood or other fresh timber cut randomly and lying around your yard, you could get started right away on those and not have to go all the way to the store for the necessary material, though there are a number of specialty lumber retailers that also sell fresh timber.
Green woodworking is essentially the traditional way of doing woodcraft since the civilizations that first performed this trade did not have the luxuries of pre-cut lumber and power tools. These limitations, however, did not prevent them from making fully functional wooden utensils, furniture, dwellings, and other items essential to their daily living. Even today, many woodworkers resort to fresh timber to make everyday items such as kitchen utensils and small furniture for personal use though the really proficient ones manage to sell some of their original creations on the open market.
Only hand tools are used in working with green wood. Although it requires more effort, skill, and discipline on your part, the greater attention to detail will pay huge dividends in the end. You are confident of the outcome of your project because you have spent more time making it than you would probably have with power tools. You can also be sure that whatever material you use will be treated properly whereas you stand the risk of forcibly battering the material out of shape just for the sake of finishing on time when you use power tools. It even means less sawdust and noise, thus allowing you to work on your timber anywhere on your property without having to worry about making a big mess and disturbing the neighbors or everyone else in your family.
When you engage in green woodworking, you not only considerably improve your trade skills; you’re also helping the environment. You simply cut down a tree or two and get only the timber you will need for your upcoming projects as opposed to bringing in heavy logging machinery and cutting down trees by the dozen to produce piles of lumber, even if it is for large-scale commercial uses. Increasing reliance on fresh timber means less instances of wholesale damage to the planet’s already dwindling forests. Working with green wood also won’t require you to use power tools as much, and that could mean a considerable reduction on your electric bill.
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