drying before carving a shrub stump?

[jdomal]

I am a rank beginner. The December storms took out a beautiful euonymus shrub next to the house that was two stories tall. The trunk had intertwined and is lovely. Since I am a sculptor, I helped my husband cut it down carefully to preserve as much of it as possible. It's about 3 feet high and approximately 14" in diameter. I would like to carve it for the fall semester. I don't want to take the bark off because it is tight to the wood, attractive texture, etc. Will it be possible to do this? It was not dead when we cut it....just heavily damaged. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Jennifer

[Donsexton]

I am absolutely not for drying out logs before they are carved. If you are pumped for this piece of wood then carve it. Yes you will need to wait until it cures out to do your final finish. Carving a log by its nature makes relief kerfs in the green wood aiding in the wood not cracking. I can tell you if you have a very special log or piece of wood that is green and you cant carve it now you can do things to help it not crack. If you are in that position send me a private message and I will teach you how to nearly prevent a log from having deep cracks. It is allot of work and it takes ingenuity and some professional grade tools to do ant no secret coating or quick method.

[wood_rat]

Hi,
Iam interested in any info you can send on this.I dug up some Lilac stumps,Real interesting shapes.Trying to envision what is in them.When the time is right they will tell me.
Thanks,
Pancho