How Do You Dry Wood For Carving?
If you happen to have a good black walnut, hickory or maple tree fall in your yard and want to use it for carving, you will want to know how to dry it. Some people will use green wood for carving, although this wood still has a lot of water in it. It may feel soft, and there is a good chance that it will shrink and even crack. Learning how to dry wood will save you a lot of aggravation in the long run. Cut the wood into the sizes you will use to carve. If you plan to carve small items like chess pieces, you will want to cut it up into smaller sizes than if you are going to carve a totem pole. If you are working with branches, try to cut only horizontally across the grain and save the vertical cuts for later. Remove the bark if possible. Some trees have bark that is very tight to the wood and it is very hard to remove, while on others, the bark practically falls off. As much as you can, remove the loose bark. This will allow the moisture to escape through the sides of the wood. Coat the
