Dry or green wood?

[Pat]

What is the good humidity to work on wood? I' ve read that some people work on wet wood to do a nice job. But isn't it gonna shrink and crack when drying? It might sound a stupid question, but I'm really a novice in carving, but I do have notions about wood properties. I also know that over-dried wood might split as well. Is this important or negligible details?

Thank's for any answers.

[pallin]

You have already hit on the two factors in this question: (1) how the dampness affects the carving process, and (2) what the wood does during and after completing the carving.
With very hard woods (oak, black walnut) the dryness adds to the difficulty of carving, but I still prefer to carve them dry. With softer woods (basswood, butternut), the dryness has less effect.
So, for me, the principal concern is what the wood does after carving. Green wood tends to crack and warp. For some projects that may not be important, but for much of what I do, it does.
In summary, it depends on what wood YOU use, what projects you're doing, and the eventual use of the piece.

[Eddy-Smiles]

Pat.... If you need more info go to the top to the search function and type in "wet wood" with the quotations and I believe that you'll find a bunch of previous thread where this was discussed.