Woodcutting

Woodcutting (abbreviated as WC) is a skill that involves players chopping down different types of trees spread throughout Gielinor. It is one of the most popular non-combat skills in free play. For each tree, a minimum Woodcutting level is required, and a hatchet that is used to cut it.

As a player chops down a tree of a certain type, the corresponding type of logs will appear in their inventory. The player can then light the logs with a tinderbox (or with a bow if the player is a member who has completed Barbarian Training) to raise their Firemaking skill, cut them with a knife and make them into bows using the Fletching skill in members, or sell them to other players for money.

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

The first trees that could be chopped down were created in DeviousMUD, RuneScape's beta version. The forest was created 13 days after the beta's release; hence, Woodcutting was not released with the beta.

Trees
In order to chop a tree, a player will need to have a hatchet, previously known as an axe but was changed in 2009 to distinguish between battleaxes, pickaxes and axes. Hatchets are not to be confused with battleaxes that cannot cut down trees and are only used for combat, nor with pickaxes, which are used for mining.

The following 10 types of hatchets are available in RuneScape: Bronze, Iron, Steel, Black, Mithril, Adamant, Rune, Clay (Stealing Creation), Dragon, and the Inferno Adze. The Dragon hatchet, clay hatchet, and Inferno Adze are members-only hatchets; the others are not. Hatchets can be bought from Bob's Axes (located in Lumbridge), bought from the Grand Exchange, or smithed by players using the Smithing skill (except Black hatchets that cannot be smithed). (Hatchets can also be acquired from drops, trades, general stores, etc.) However, Bob only sells Iron and Steel hatchets. Bob's shop is useful for new players who would like to take interest in Woodcutting. Players will have to buy better hatchets from other players, buy them from the Grand Exchange, or smith the hatchets themselves; however, the Inferno Adze is a reward from the All fired up minigame. Note that the Dragon hatchet, like all Dragon items (excluding the Dragon platebody and Dragon sq shield), cannot be smithed.

To chop down a tree, players will need a certain Woodcutting level. 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 a hatchet. For example, a player will need a Woodcutting level of 41 to use a Rune hatchet. Also, if a player wants to wield a hatchet, then an Attack level is required. For example, a player will need an attack level of 40 to wield a Rune hatchet. In most cases, it requires 1 less level to wield a hatchet than it is to use it for chopping wood. An exception is the Inferno Adze, which requires level 92 Firemaking and level 61 Woodcutting to use, but it requires level 1 Attack to wield. It is recommended that players wield their hatchet so that they have one more space in their inventory, allowing them to carry more logs.

Trees are easy to find, as they are located throughout RuneScape. (The exception to this is Morytania or The Wilderness, where most of the trees cannot be chopped down; only examined.) To cut a tree, players have to find one and then left-click on it. When the player is done cutting, they can then set the logs on fire with a tinderbox to obtain Firemaking experience, fletch them if they are a member, or sell them to other players.

Free players can only cut regular, Oak, Willow, and Yew trees. However, even though there are no Maple trees in the free world, members can bring maple logs to free worlds and any player can trade them and burn them. These different types of trees are listed below.

Tree types
The "(m)" stands for "members-only" trees.

Machetes
To cut a jungle, players cannot use a hatchet. Instead, they need a machete, which must be wielded. There is no attack or woodcutting level required to wield any kind of machete.

Ordinary machetes can be bought from the general stores in Tai Bwo Wannai or Shilo Village. Opal, jade, and red topaz machetes are somewhat rarer, and can only be bought from Gabooty with trading sticks. All machetes are tradeable as well, and can be bought or sold on the Grand Exchange.

Jungle
There are three different kinds of jungles. There are light jungles, medium jungles, and dense jungles. When players hack a jungle, they receive thatch spars and initiate the Tai Bwo Wannai Cleanup minigame. 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 and have with them a hatchet they have the required woodcutting level to use. These trees can be found at canoe stations. These stations are located along the River Lum, in the following places.


 * Lumbridge: On the east side of the river near 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 make a new canoe from this station.

When the player has found a canoe tree at one of these stations, he/she can 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.

Saw mill
See article: Sawmill training

The Sawmill is members-only area in which members with a Woodcutting level of 80 or more can access an area in which players can produce planks from logs. The logs are obtained from log piles nearby, then converted into planks using the nearby machine. Then the planks must be cut by using the planks on a cutting table, a saw is required to do this. Using a crystal saw gives double the experience in comparison to using a regular saw.

Special Logs
Special teak logs and Special mahogany logs can be sold to the Sawmill Operator, north-east of Varrock or exchanged for a completely free conversion of the logs in your inventory into planks.

The free conversion requires 2 of the same type of special log.

2 special teak logs can be used to convert up to 26 teak logs into teak planks.

2 special mahogany logs can be used to convert up to 26 teak logs and/or mahogany logs into teak/mahogany planks.

If you have 1 special or 1 of each, the sawmill owner will only offer to buy your special logs.

Other
The woodcutting stumps on Neitiznot can be used to make special items out of the arctic pine logs native to the island. Players must have gotten to this part in the Fremennik Isles quest to use them.

Nests


If the player is a member, a bird's nest may fall out of the tree they are cutting. Wearing a strung rabbit foot gives a better chance of getting a bird's 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 highly recommended that the player search it. When the player searches it, they will be given a random item, either a plain gold or a sapphire, emerald, ruby, or diamond ring; a red, green, or blue bird's egg (can be hatched in an incubator with 70 summoning); a raven egg (can be hatched in an incubator with 50 summoning); or a tree seed that can be used for farming. These seeds can be worth quite a lot of money on the Grand Exchange such as Magic Tree seeds and Yew tree seeds. The empty nest can be used with a pestle and mortar to get a crushed nest, an ingredient in the Saradomin brew.

Discontinued Woodcutting Random Events

 * These events were removed as part of the 25 February 2009 Random Event Update.




 * 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 happened, the player had to find the axe head quickly before someone else saw it and steals it. (Dragon axe heads were often targets of thieves.) 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 was discontinued due to player complaints and the addition of the Surprise Exam! random event. Jagex determined that loss of the axehead was unfair to players and was discontinued around the time of the unfair trade limiting.


 * 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 it caused. This event also used to exist in Mining. These events were discontinued after a very short run. A problem arose in its performance, as it did not always work correctly.


 * Ents: A tree may turn into an Ent at any time. Players can tell if the tree they are cutting is an Ent if the tree starts shaking, has an angry face somewhere on its trunk, a yellow dot on the mini-map where the tree is, the name of the tree will be in yellow instead of a teal colour, and the tree is bigger than normal. 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 of Bob's Axes, located in Lumbridge, to get it fixed for a price. However, the Inferno Adze and Sacred Clay axe, obtained from the Stealing Creation minigame, cannot break. (Ents have been superseded by Evil Trees as a minigame (members-only).


 * Tree spirits: While cutting trees, a Tree Spirit would appear and begin attacking a player. The combat level of the spirit depended on the combat level of the player it was attacking, but it would always be higher than that of the player. The Tree Spirit's combat level varied from level 14 to 159. The player could either kill it or run away from it. If a player killed a Tree Spirit, it could drop some axes, herbs and seeds for members, bananas, runes, various miscellaneous items, or nothing at all. (Tree Spirits are still available in RuneScape, but only to members cutting trees in the Enchanted Valley.)



Making money
The logs gathered through Woodcutting can be sold for profit, with higher-level logs usually selling for more money. The most popular trees to get cut for money are Yew logs that sell for around gold each and Magic Logs for around  coins each. While far from a spectacular income (even with a maxed Woodcutting level, it is unusual to make more than about 150k gp per hour no matter what you chop--even less for free players), it is still is a good way to make gold. The most common place to buy or sell logs is the Grand Exchange. A list of prices for logs can be found at the Grand Exchange Market Watch.

For some advice on making money by Woodcutting, see the Woodcutting section of the Money-making guide.

Training
See Woodcutting training



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 up to 6 or decreases up to 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 Cape of Accomplishment or operating the cape while it is worn 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 two.

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.
 * A Sacred clay hatchet, from the Stealing Creation minigame, doubles experience per log (200%).
 * A Volatile clay hatchet, also from Stealing Creation, gives 2.2 times experience per log (220%).
 * When using a Sacred clay hatchet in conjunction with Lumberjack clothing you receive 140 exp per Willow logs that you chop down.
 * When using the Inferno adze to chop, the Flame gloves and Ring of fire increases your Firemaking experience by 5 percent. About 35 percent of the experience you get from Woodcutting also goes to Firemaking, due to the Inferno adze burning some logs.

Trivia

 * In early history, only regular trees could be cut. The experience given was based on the player's Woodcutting level: 28.25 + 1.75 * Woodcutting level. After the Fletching skill was added, it was briefly reduced to 12.5 experience, then doubled to 25 experience, per regular log. While Jagex compensated for this by adding one-click woodcutting, many players (especially free users) were upset that training Woodcutting would take much longer.
 * Players who use a herring with a tree 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. Players who use a herring on the doors of the Grand Tree get the following message: "It can't be done", referencing another line in the said film.


 * When the Dragon hatchet was introduced, it cut logs at the exact same rate as a Rune hatchet. This was updated later on, making the Dragon hatchet the best hatchet in the game, later on to be tied with the Inferno Adze.


 * There was a strange glitch in the game, where, if a player used the clap emote and then quickly tried to cut a normal tree, it will appear that they are clapping the tree away. Whether this was intentional or accidental is unknown. This is now fixed, but if you try it, another glitch is shown: after you are done clapping, you do not cut the tree at all, and it disappears.


 * Woodcutting animations were updated on 11 November 2008, so the chopping appears much faster and smoother.


 * Hatchets were referred to in-game simply as axes until an update on the 1 April 2009. The change was made to avoid confusion with other axes: pickaxes and battleaxes.


 * A glitch yet to be fixed: sometimes, when you lose connection while attempting to cut a tree, you will appear to be cutting the tree the wrong way after you recover.


 * The cutting animation for the Inferno adze differs slightly from animations made for any other hatchet.


 * A Hydra familiar's scroll ability Regrowth can regrow trees that are planted in farming patches after they have been chopped down.


 * If you have any sort of shield on while you woodcut, it will appear as if you have no shield at all.


 * It's a common misconception among players that if more than one person is cutting down a tree, then either one person will cut faster, and the other person will cut slower, due to overlapping. This is not true, however, as cutting rates AREN'T affected by quantity of players, only by Woodcutting level and type of hatchet. That being said, if more than one person cuts the same tree, the tree will still "die" faster, but the rate at which a person would normally cut a tree by themselves would still be the same.