As you can see on
this piece right now
I have it
pretty finely sanded.
I have it up to 1,000 grit right now
And it's pretty nice and smooth
but I don't have any finish on it yet.
There's no oil, there's no stain - nothing on it.
So what you're seeing here right now
this is what Butternut looks like
in its raw and natural form,
just having been shaped.
You can see on the back
what it looks like when it's not sanded down yet.
I really love carving Butternut - it's my favourite wood to work with, to be honest.
The Butternut trees around New Brunswick
they're in a tricky situation.  There's a specific type
of canker...
Within 90 years, less than 10% of
the Butternut trees in this province
are still going to be alive.
So whenever a city arborist finds trees that
are far along with this canker, they cut it down,
try to keep things in control.
That's another reason why I have been using Butternut.
