Woodcutting

Woodcutting (commonly called WC amongst players) is a skill that involves players cutting down different types of trees spread throughout RuneScape. For each tree, a Woodcutting level is required, as well as an axe, which is used to cut it. The current minimum to be ranked on the hiscores for woodcutting is 66.

As a player cuts a tree, a certain type of logs will appear in his/her inventory, depending on the type of tree. The player can then light the logs with a tinderbox (or with a bow after a player has completed Barbarian Training) to raise the Firemaking skill, cut them with a knife and make them into bows using the Fletching skill in pay-to-play, or sell them to other players.

Woodcutting is also a very popular skill, as selling the logs given by the higher level trees to other players can make players a great amount of money. It is also relatively easy to raise compared to many other skills.

Trees
In order to cut a tree, a player will need to have an axe, also known as a 'hatchet' or a 'woodcutting axe'. Axes are not to be confused with battleaxes, as battleaxes cannot cut down trees and are only used for combat, nor with pickaxes, which are used for mining.

Axes can be bought from Bob's Axes (located in Lumbridge), or smithed by players using the smithing skill (as well as drops, trades, general stores etc.). However, Bob only sells bronze, iron, and steel axes. Players will have to buy the higher level axes from other players or smith the axes themselves. To cut a tree, players will need certain woodcutting levels. For example, a player will need a woodcutting level of 75 to cut a magic tree. A certain woodcutting level is also required to use an axe. For example, a player will need a woodcutting level of 41 to use a rune axe. Also, if a player wants to wield an axe, then an attack level is required. For example, a player will need an attack level of 40 to wield a rune axe. Players are recommended that they wield their axe so that they have more space in their inventory, allowing them to carry more logs.

To cut a tree, players have to find one and then click on it. Trees are easy to find, as they are located all over RuneScape. (The exception to this is Morytania, where most of the trees cannot be chopped down.) When a player has found a tree, they can then click on it to chop it. When the player is done cutting, they can then light the logs on fire with a tinderbox to obtain some firemaking experience, fletch them if they are a member, or sell them to other players.

Free players can only cut regular trees, oak trees, willow trees, and yew trees. However, even though there are no maple trees in the free world, members can bring maple logs to free worlds and both free players as well as members can trade them and burn them. These different types of trees are listed below.

Tree types
Italicized tree types refer to those that are members-only.

* These trees are identified on the minimap by the icon.

Jungles
Members can also cut small jungles in and around the small village Tai Bwo Wannai. Cutting down jungles is also part of the mini-game Tai Bwo Wannai Cleanup.

Machetes
To cut a jungle, players cannot use an axe. Instead, they need a machete.

Players will often need trading sticks to buy higher-level machetes. There are four different machetes, each one having a different price. The normal machete can be bought from the general store in the village, while the other three have to be bought from the NPC named Gabooty, who is usually located in the centre of the village. A player can trade with him to see his store.

Machetes can be wielded at any attack or woodcutting level.

Jungles
There are three different kinds of jungles. There are light jungles, medium jungles, and dense jungles. When players cut a jungle, they receive no logs, unlike cutting trees. Jungles are members-only.

Canoes
Members can also make canoes, which are used to travel on the River Lum, which goes from Lumbridge all the way to level 35 Wilderness. However, a certain woodcutting level is needed to carve the canoe tree into certain types of canoes. Canoes are useful when wanting to go from Edgeville to Lumbridge, etc.

How to make canoes
To make a canoe, members have to find a canoe tree. These trees can be found at canoe stations. These stations are located in the following places.
 * Lumbridge: On the east side of the river a bit south of the house where Goblins respawn.
 * Champions Guild: On the east side of the river west of the wheat field.
 * Barbarian Village: South of the eastern bridge on the east side of the river.
 * Edgeville: On the east side of the river near the guard post.
 * Level 35 Wilderness: At the lake south of the Moss Giants. Players cannot go south from this station.

When the player has found a canoe tree at one of these stations, he/she must then cut the tree down. The player then has to click on the fallen tree and select what type of canoe he/she wants to make. When the player has made the canoe they want, he/she then can click on the canoe to push it in the river. When in the river, the player can then click on the canoe and select where he/she wants to go.

Canoes can only go to a certain number of stations away. Higher level canoes can go farther than the lower level canoes.

Other
Woodcutting has several other uses as well.

Random events


Random events are events that happen at random times. They were introduced to stop autoers, or people who use a program to do their work. Some random events include NPCs wanting players to do a task for them and rewarding them if they are successful or a monster that will attack the player. In woodcutting, there quite a few of random events.


 * Tree spirits: While cutting trees, a Tree Spirit may appear and will begin attacking a player. The combat level of the spirit depends on level of the player it is attacking, but it will always be higher then that player's combat level. The Tree Spirit's combat level varies from level 14 to 159. The player can either kill it or run away from it. If a player kills a Tree Spirit, it can drop some axes, herbs and seeds for members, bananas, runes, various miscellaneous items, or nothing.
 * Nests: If the player is a member, a bird nest may fall out of the tree they are cutting. Wearing a strung rabbit foot gives a better chance of getting a Bird nest drop while woodcutting. He or she can either pick up the nest and search it or just leave it on the ground, though it is recommended that the player search it. When the player searches it, they will be given a random item, such as a gem, jewellery, a bird's egg for Saradomin Owl, Guthix Raptor or Zamorak Hawk (the player needs 70 Summoning to have them as pets), some coins, or even a seed that can be used for farming, usually a tree seed. They can then use the empty nest with a pestle and mortar to crush it. Crushed bird's nests are an ingredient in Saradomin brew.
 * Ents: A tree can also turn into an ent. Players can notice this if the tree they are cutting starts shaking, has an angry face somewhere on its trunk, and a yellow dot on the mini-map where the tree is. As soon the tree starts showing the symptoms of an ent, players must walk away and wait for the tree to transform back into its original state. If the player keeps cutting the tree, the ent will break the axe. To fix it, players will have to take the axe back to Bob, the owner of Bob's Axes, located in Lumbridge, to get it fixed for a price.
 * Axe fixing costs:
 * Bronze axe: Free
 * Iron axe: Free
 * Steel axe: Free
 * Black axe: 10 coins
 * Mithril axe: 18 coins
 * Adamant axe: 43 coins
 * Rune axe: 427 coins
 * Dragon axe: 1,800 coins

Discontinued random events



 * Lost Axe Head: While cutting trees, a player's axe might split, causing the axe head to fly off. The head would land somewhere nearby, usually 3 to 10 squares away. When this happens, the player had to find the axe head quickly before someone else sees it and grabs it. When the player had found the axe head, he or she could then use it with their handle to put the axe back together. This random event is now discontinued due to player complaints and the addition of the Surprise Exam! random event.


 * Dr Ford: While cutting trees, a piece of wood could fall on a player causing them to get dizzy. With their vision blurred they had to guess how many fingers Dr Ford was holding up to get a fruit. Otherwise, they would be taken away. This event was removed due to various glitches caused by this random event. This event also used to exist in mining.

Making money
The logs gathered through woodcutting can be sold for profit, with higher-level logs usually selling for more money.

Selling logs to a general store is not usually very rewarding, as general stores give comparatively low prices, and are often already well stocked on free worlds. Instead, players should sell their logs to other players.

The most common place to buy or sell logs is at the Grand Exchange. A list of prices for logs can be found at the Grand Exchange Market Watch.

For some advice on making money through woodcutting, see the woodcutting section of the Money making guide.

Training

 * ''Main article: Woodcutting training

As with many skills, players often have to choose between time and profit when training woodcutting. Teak trees are fast experience, but they cannot be banked efficiently and are usually dropped or burned between inventories instead. Willow trees are also slightly slower experience with minimal profit. Maple trees are slower than willows, but slightly more profitable. Yew or eucalyptus logs sell for more money, but are slower in gaining experience, and magic trees are even more profitable, but the experience is very slow.

Players looking for faster experience should also use the highest axe available at their level. As such, it is recommended for members that will be doing long term Woodcutting to buy a dragon axe as soon as they reach level 61 woodcutting, as the rate of getting logs increases by 15-20%. This may be eschewed by a player that doesn't necessarily want a high level of woodcutting, because it has a high price compared to a rune axe.

Non-member training

 * Level 1 to 15 - Players can cut normal trees. There are many normal trees in the forest between Lumbridge and Draynor, and south of Varrock.
 * Level 15 to 30 - Players can cut oak trees. A good spot is east of Draynor Village's bank. Low level players should be careful here, as level 26 Jail Guards patrol the area. Other places are southwest of Varrock and northwest of Lumbridge.
 * Level 30 to 99 - Players can cut willow trees. A good spot is beside Draynor Village's bank, as there are 5 willow trees there, though it is often crowded during the day. If banking is not desired, good willow tree spots are also in northeast Port Sarim, south of Rimmington, or north of Lumbridge. This is the fastest experience to 99 for F2P players, as they are faster than yew trees, but give slow profit.
 * Level 41+ - It is recommended that players use a rune axe starting at this level, as it will give logs at a much greater rate than the axes below it.
 * Level 60 to 99 - Players can now cut yew trees. Yew trees in south Edgeville are the best ones to cut as they are closest to the bank. Good spots are behind Varrock castle, west of Lumbridge, and south of Falador. There are four yew trees west of Rimmington, but they are far from a bank. Yew trees are slower experience than willow trees, but give faster profit.

Members training

 * Level 1 to 15 - Members can cut normal trees. A good members' spot is south of Seers' Village.


 * Level 15 to 30 - Members can cut oak trees. A good spot is southeast of Seers' Village bank.


 * Level 30 to 99 - Members can cut willow trees. A good spot is northwest of Seers' Village where there are 6 willow trees. Another good spot is at the Barbarian Outpost. However, at the Barbarian Outpost, there is only a deposit box instead of a bank.


 * Level 35 to 99 - Teak logs are the fastest experience when woodcutting. One place to cut these is in the village of Tai Bwo Wannai. A player must pay 100 trading sticks to get in and must drop or burn all logs he/she cuts, due to the lack of a nearby bank. Another popular place is Ape Atoll. A monkey greegree is required, but players cannot receive random events while transformed into a monkey. A third place is southwest of Castle Wars. However, there is only one tree, and it is far from a bank.


 * Level 41+ - It is recommended that players use a rune axe starting at this level, as it will give logs at a much greater rate than the axes below it.


 * Level 58 to 99 - Members can cut eucalyptus trees. As a First Resort... is required in order to use the bank in Oo'glog. West of the city, there's a group of 4 eucalyptus safe from the aggressive ogresses that patrol the area. The experience and profit gained from eucalyptus is similar to that of yew logs; however, as the demand for eucalyptus logs is significantly lower, selling them is more difficult.


 * Level 60 to 99 - Members can cut yew trees. A good place is south of the flax field south of Seer's Village, and west of it, near the altar. However many players recommend to wait for level 70-80 before cutting yews since they are slow to cut at earlier levels.



Temporary boosts

 * An Axeman's Folly increases Woodcutting by one. This is brewed using the Cooking skill.
 * A Mature Axeman's Folly increases Woodcutting by two. This is brewed using the Cooking skill.
 * A brown Spicy stew randomly increases Woodcutting, Herblore, Farming, Fishing, Mining and Firemaking by 6 or decreases by 6, these can be made using the Cooking skill, only by P2P players who have beaten the Evil Dave section in the Recipe for Disaster Quest.
 * Equipping the Woodcutting skillcape or operating the skillcape will temporarily boost your Woodcutting level to 100. To obtain this cape, 99 Woodcutting is required.
 * A Beaver, a summoning familiar, invisibly boosts Woodcutting by 2.

Other items

 * Lumberjack clothing increases woodcutting experience by a small amount.
 * A Strung Rabbit foot increases the chance of a bird nest falling out of tree while cutting.

Trivia

 * In early history, only regular trees could be cut. The experience given was based on the player's woodcutting level, or 28.25 + level * 1.75. After fletching was added, it was briefly reduced to 12.5 experience, and then raised to 25. While Jagex compensated for this by adding one-click woodcutting, many players (especially free users) were upset that reaching a high-level woodcutting would take many times longer.


 * If you use a herring with a tree you will get a message saying "This is not the mightiest tree in the forest." This is a reference to Monty Python and the Holy Grail. In addition, if you use a herring on the doors of the Grand Tree, a message appears saying "It can't be done," referencing another line in the movie.


 * When the Dragon axe first came out, it cut logs at the exact same rate as a rune axe. This was updated later on, making the dragon axe the best woodcutting axe in the game.