Traditional Green Woodworking

Green wood working, is ,quite simply, a delight...Green wood cuts like butter with sharp well tuned tools.Pieces are readily hewn , shaped, planed, and carved while still reasonably wet..its about working with the wood, exploiting its strengths and weaknesses, to advantage.
From the earliest times of history,through the Viking and Saxon ages...through the Medieval period..and up to the late 17th and early 18th centuries.Wood was worked this way.
Taking a good look at old english furniture,you can see that
generally riven wood ,(predominately oak.) was used to make the frames and panels. Where long large width boards were needed sawn stock was sometimes used ,as well as edge joined riven oak.
“Riven” means that the rough stock is split, not sawn, out of the log. Since wood splits best in the radial plane, the first split opens the log in half, the next in quarters, etc... The width of the board is a radial face of the log, stemming from the center of the log toward the bark. This radial surface is the most stable. The shrinkage across the radial face of a riven piece of oak is minimal, so it stays flat and doesn’t change much in width as it dries.
The backs of almost all pre 18th century ,furniture and wall panelling, bear the marks of being hewn and rived.
Layout lines are still distinct on the surfaces of period work
Pegs project from the rails and styles of old furniture, showing that the framing members still contained substantial moisture when the piece was assembled.So that the pegs, cut flush when built,stand proud once the piece has fully seasoned.Iron fixtures and nails often stain the wood black,due to the iron reacting with the tannins in the still moist oak.