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

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"

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I have never done a stairway from locally harvested woods, but here are my concerns. I have worked with "green" lumber for many projects. The problem with using full logs or branches is that they will dry and crack/split over time. I would suggest if at all possible, that you get the larger logs sawn as soon as possible. If you want natural edge, just be sure you saw thru the pith or center of the log. Sawing the logs into quarters is even better. This will prevent the splitting of the log as it dries. Look around for someone with a portable sawmill. The logs should be sawn when as green as possible. Cut the end grain as smooth as possible and paint over to prevent excessive end checking. Same sized cut logs should be stacked together and supported with weight on top of the stack to minimize warping as they dry. Some species of wood are much worse than others. Hope this gives you some ideas.

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.

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