Willow logs



Willow logs are logs which can be cut from willow trees using the Woodcutting skill. The experience to coins ratio is 75:10, making it one of the best money making items in free-to-play. Cutting willow logs from a willow tree requires a hatchet and level 30 Woodcutting, and grants 67.5 Woodcutting experience per log. Therefore, a full inventory will grant you 1890 experience. Players can burn willow logs using the Firemaking skill and a tinderbox. This requires level 30 Firemaking, and grants 90 Firemaking experience per log. In addition, members trained in the art of barbarian firemaking can light willow log fires with a bow instead of a tinderbox at level 35, also yielding 90 experience per log. They can also create pyre ships from willow logs at level 40 along with level 40 crafting a tinderbox or bow, a hatchet, and chewed bones or mangled bones, giving 22.5 crafting experience and 90 firemaking experience.

Willows are a very effective way of getting to 99 firemaking, not to mention affordable as well. It is estimated that it takes no more than 150,000 willows to get from 30-99 firemaking. This adds up to just over 2.2M, however this process can take quite a long time to complete and so some players tend to avoid it.

Members may also use the Fletching skill and a knife to carve willow logs into unstrung willow shortbows, unstrung willow longbows or willow stocks. This requires levels 35, 40, and 39 Fletching and grants 33.3, 41.5, and 22 Fletching experience, respectively. Willow logs are also the tertiary ingredient in infusing Beaver pouches. As well as this, they can also be used to travel to Varrock using the Balloon Transport System.

One of the unique things about willow logs is that when the school year begins around the beginning of September, the supply of willow logs dramatically increases because of skillers coming back to play, and the price of ashes increases somewhat. When the two phenomena are combined, the price of willow logs can sometimes be less than the price of ashes. For example, buying willow logs at the current price of 11 gp and collecting the ashes and selling them for the current price of 45 yields a 88.8% profit. However, selling the ashes may take some time because of the limited demand. But the demand for them has already increased, so picking up ashes can be a good tactic for lower-levelled players to make some money.

Another way to make profit with Willow Logs is using the Low Level Alchemy granted 30 times a day from Explorer's ring 2: each use gives 16 coins per log (higher than its GE cost) and 31 Magic Experience, resulting in 480 coins and 930 Magic Experience.

Market
Before the creation of the Grand Exchange, they used to sell for 20-30 coins each. However, since they require such a low level to cut, there was an oversupply, which is why they rest at the much lower (30%) price they do today. This used to make them very hard to sell on the Grand Exchange, but now there is a great demand for them for people training Firemaking and Fletching. Willow logs used to be about 30gp in 2009 summer. Then they suddenly fell to a price of 6gp. It is gradually getting higher and higher again.

Bot use
Prior to the 10 December 2007 update, players would often have macroing software control their accounts and would often be seen chopping down willow trees (most notably the ones south of Draynor) in order to get their levels up to chop down Yew Trees. Macroing was against rule 7, now known as 'Macroing or use of bots' under the Honour section of the new Report Abuse system. Players (bots) that had successfully cut large quantities of Yew logs would often be sold by the owner for gold, or be used as is in Real World Item Trading.

Trivia

 * Although Willow Logs require a higher woodcutting level, they cost less than both regular logs and oak logs, coming from the high supply of them due to the high amount of people constantly training by cutting them. This is also because logs come only once at a time, and both logs and oak logs are used in construction, while willow logs are only used for firemaking and low level fletching, and give mediocre experience compared to the favoured maple logs.
 * Willow Trees only grow by bodies of water, such as ponds, lakes, rivers, and seas, as in real life.
 * Although Yew trees yields more experience when cut, more people tend to chop willow for the experience. most notably the willow trees at draynor because it is closer to the bank and there is a limited amount of yew trees for F2P players.
 * Black people are cooler than white people.