One of the first questions new turners ask is whether they should turn their wood green or let it dry first. The honest answer is: it depends. Most experienced turners use both depending on the project and the timber.

What Do We Mean by Green and Dry?

Green wood is freshly cut timber that still contains most of its natural moisture — anywhere from 40-80% moisture content. It’s heavy, wet, and soft enough that tools glide through it almost effortlessly.

Dry wood has been seasoned — air-dried or kiln-dried — to around 8-15% moisture content. It’s lighter, harder, and dimensionally stable. This is what you buy from timber merchants.

The Case for Turning Green

There’s a reason so many turners love working with green wood:

It cuts like butter. The moisture acts as a lubricant, and the softer fibres part cleanly. You can take aggressive cuts that would chatter badly in dry timber. The shavings come off in long, satisfying ribbons.

It’s cheap or free. Tree loppers, council clean-ups, storm damage — green wood is everywhere if you keep your eyes open. I’ve scored beautiful camphor laurel and jacaranda from neighbours happy to see it go somewhere useful.

It’s kinder on your tools. Edges stay sharp longer because you’re cutting soft, wet fibres. You can turn a full session without touching the grinder.

It enables natural-edge work. Those beautiful bark-topped bowls you see at exhibitions? They’re almost always turned green, when the bark is still firmly attached. Once timber dries, the bark loosens and falls off.

The Downsides of Green

Nothing in woodturning is without a catch:

Movement. Green wood will move as it dries. A perfectly round bowl turned from green timber will become oval, sometimes dramatically. Thin walls might warp or crack. You need to either accept the organic movement as part of the piece or use the twice-turn method (rough out, let it dry, then re-turn to final shape).

Twice-turning takes time. The standard approach for green bowls is to rough out thick, seal the end grain with PVA, then wait months for it to dry before the final turn. You need space to store blanks and plenty of patience.

Mould risk. In Sydney’s humidity, rough-outs can develop mould. Store them with good airflow — not in sealed plastic bags. I keep mine on open shelves with a small fan running.

Mess. Green turning throws wet shavings everywhere. They stick to everything and your lathe bed needs wiping down after every session.

The Case for Turning Dry

Dry wood has its own set of advantages:

Stability. What you turn is what you get. A dry-turned bowl stays round. This matters for functional pieces — if you’re making a fruit bowl for the kitchen, you probably want it to sit flat and look consistent.

Precision. Lids that fit, boxes that close neatly, components that join together — all of these demand dry timber. You can’t turn a fitted lid from green wood and expect it to still fit in a month.

Finish quality. Dry timber sands beautifully and takes finishes predictably. Oils, waxes, and lacquers behave as expected. Green wood needs to be fully dry before you can apply a lasting finish.

No waiting. You can go from blank to finished piece in a single session. For impatient turners (and I count myself among them), that’s enormously satisfying.

The Downsides of Dry

Cost. Dried turning blanks run anywhere from $15 for a small piece to $100+ for a premium burl. It adds up, especially when you’re learning.

Harder on tools. Dry Australian hardwoods like sheoak and iron bark eat tool edges for breakfast. You’ll be at the grinder more often.

More tear-out. Without moisture lubrication, you’re more likely to get torn grain on figured or interlocked species. Sharper tools and lighter cuts are essential.

Dust. Dry wood produces more fine dust than green wood. Your extraction setup needs to be solid.

My Approach

I do both, depending on what lands in my workshop. If a neighbour drops off a fresh log, I’ll rough out bowls that afternoon while the wood is still wet and easy to work. They go on the shelf to dry, and I revisit them months later for the final turn.

For small projects — pens, bottle stoppers, tool handles — I use dry blanks because I want to finish them in one go.

For anything that needs precision — boxes, pepper mills, anything with a lid — dry is the only sensible choice.

And honestly, some of my favourite pieces are the ones I turned green and let move. There’s a salad bowl on our dining table that started as a perfect circle and dried into a gentle oval. It has character. It tells a story about the timber and how it lived.

The best advice I can give is: try both. Get your hands on some green wood and experience that effortless cut. Then turn a nice dry blank and appreciate the precision. They’re almost like two different hobbies, and both are worth your time at the lathe.