Traditional chair making involves the use of freshly cut—or “green”—logs. Green logs are absolutely saturated with moisture. This makes the wood significantly easier to split and shape. Post and rung chairs are assembled with a combination of the green wood for the posts (the uprights) and bone-dry wood for the rungs (the horizontals). As the posts dry the fibers shrink and lock tight onto the rungs. It’s the other way around for windsor chairs; the legs and posts are dry and the seat still slightly green.
But green wood is not just used for chairs. I also do all the initial shaping and carving of bowls and spoons while the wood is still green and soft.
A literal windfall — this is where it all begins 
Start the split with a wedge 
Extend the split with a second wedge 
Leap frog the wedges to continue the split 
Now we see what we’ve got to work with 
The halves become quarters 
Time to switch to the froe — which is a long wedge on a stick 
Jam the piece in a break and use the long handle of the froe to lever it open 
Et voila 
One more split with the froe to get rid of the pith and squirrelly juvenile wood 
Dress up the billet with a hewing hatchet 
Then saddle up the shaving horse and grab a drawknife 
Sharp drawknife + green oak = pure bliss 
Follow the natural bends in the wood to maintain the long grain fibers and capture the full strength of the piece