Rustic Furniture. Few Q's about drawknives and wood types.?

Question

Will be working with logs to make a few pieces of rustic furniture and railings. Mostly in the 3 - 8" diameter range.
Looking for advice on length of blade and curved vs straight. I will be trying to leave a few bits of bark on the wood for character.
My wood source will be a 16acre piece of land we purchased. A small area will be cleared out for a tiny cabin. Is this greenwood okay to use? Or will downed branches and trees be better d/t them being drier wood?
Tree types on the land include (to the best of my limited knowledge) sugar maple, striped maple, beech, poplar, white pine, spruce, white birch. - mixed great lakes forest in Ontario. Would you recommend any types of wood over the others?
Any advice would be great.
If you have any experience with tenon cutters, I do have an another Q posted here about them as well ! ! ! hint, hint
THANK-YOU

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

yep hickory is the best, popular next, , I make chairs out of 3 inch, saplings
a standard 12 inch draw knife is fine, use green wood, when it drys it helps tighten the joints, use any type of wood, ,but stay away from the soft ones.
made my own tendon cutter, 3/4"

Source(s):

maint man

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

Thanks again.

Answer 2

The hardwoods might hold up better once cut and fashioned, and it seems you have at least 3 species of those. The conifers might be easier to work.

The issue is really, if you have time, cut your selected pieces and dry cure them somehow. Unless a DOWNED piece is still green, it's likely otherwise dead. The GREEN however, used immediately is subject to warping, splitting, etc.

Without knowing if this furniture is for interior or exterior use, it should still be allowed dry/cure time, before being worked. Certainly you can, as I mentioned, select pieces you intend specific to what pieces of furniture you'll eventually create. The tooling of dry/cured will also be a bit easier.

Steven Wolf
Just my two "sense"

Curved or straight blade saws hardly matter as much as tooth size, and KERF, especially if one is using hand tools.

Source(s):

45 plus years as a contractor