From the RuneScape Wiki, the wiki for all things RuneScape

Contents 1 Trees 2 Tree types 2.1 Woodcutting experience 2.2 Hatchet types 3 Machetes 3.1 Machete types 4 Jungle 4.1 Jungle types 5 Canoes 5.1 How to make canoes 5.2 Canoe types 6 Saw mill 7 Special Logs 8 Other 9 Nests 10 Discontinued Woodcutting Random Events 11 Making money 12 Training 13 Temporary boosts 14 Other items 15 Trivia 16 See also

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. The current minimum requirement to be ranked (at rank 2,000,000) on the hiscores for Woodcutting is level 63.

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. As of 27 January 2010 there are 57,990 players with level 99 Woodcutting.

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, (which was 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 rest are available to all players. 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, dragon hatchets and the Inferno Adze, which cannot be smithed.) (Hatchets can also be acquired from drops, trades, general stores, etc.) However, Bob only sells Iron and Steel hatchets, along with Bronze hatchets. Players will have to buy better hatchets from other players, buy them from the Grand Exchange, or smith the hatchets themselves. The Inferno Adze is a reward from the All fired up minigame.

To chop down a given variety of 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 each 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 many 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

A Common Tree	An Achey Tree (m)	An Oak Tree	A Willow Tree
A Teak Tree (m)	A Maple Tree (m)	A Hollow Tree (m)	A Mahogany Tree (m)
An Arctic Pine Tree (m)	An Eucalyptus Tree (m)	A Yew Tree	A Magic Tree (m)
The one and only Cursed Magic Tree (m)	Choking ivy (m)

The "(m)" signifies "members-only" trees.

Woodcutting experience

Tree	Image	Level	Experience	Members?	Notes
Normal		1	25	No	Normal trees include dead trees, jungle trees and evergreen trees, as they give the same amount of experience and type of logs. These trees are the most common in RuneScape, as they can be found almost everywhere.
Achey		1	25	Yes	These trees are used for the members-only quest Big Chompy Bird Hunting, to make Ogre bows and arrows, as well as other ogre-related quests.
Oak		15	37.5	No	These trees are fairly common in RuneScape. They are nearby many cities, allowing quick access to a bank.
Willow		30	67.5	No	These trees are found near water. Some places they are found at include Port Sarim, Draynor Village, Lumbridge, south of Rimmington, Catherby and Seers' Village. A very common place for members to woodcut these is the barbarian outpost as there is deposit box and many willow trees nearby.
Teak [1]		35	85	Yes	These trees can be found in the Hardwood Grove by Tai Bwo Wannai, a village on member servers, a single tree in the woods south of Castle Wars, Ape Atoll, an island inhabited by monkeys, three trees found next to dungeon entrance, requirements are completion of monkey madness and having a monkey greegree. Players must pay 100 trading sticks, the currency in Tai Bwo Wannai, each time they enter the Hardwood Grove. They are also found in the Kharazi Jungle , Mos Le'Harmless and near the Ruins of Uzer. Players cutting Teaks will occasionally get a Special teak log, which they can take to the Sawmill for sale or free log conversion.
Maple [1]		45	100	Yes	Maple trees can only be found on members-only servers. However, the logs can be traded in and burned in free worlds by free players and members. Players can get 110 experience if they chop in Seers' Village and have a Seers' headband equipped and they can get 112 experience if they chop with the full Lumberjack clothing - where the hat is replaced by the headband, giving the most possible experience per log.
Hollow		45	82.5 or 357.7	Yes	These are found east of Canifis, a village on members-only servers. A successful cut on a hollow tree will net 82.5 Woodcutting experience. Players who receive a piece of bark with their cut instead receive 357.7 Woodcutting experience.
Mahogany [1]		50	125	Yes	These can be found in the Hardwood Grove by Tai Bwo Wannai, a village on member servers. Players must pay 100 trading sticks, the currency in Tai Bwo Wannai, each time they enter the fenced-in area where the trees are. They are also found on Ape Atoll, in the Kharazi Jungle and Mos Le'Harmless. Players cutting Mahogany trees will occasionally get a Special mahogany log, which they can take to the Sawmill for sale or free log conversion.
Arctic pine		54	140.2	Yes	These trees are found on the island of Neitiznot. These logs are more known for Firemaking experience than Woodcutting. They are also used to make Fremennik roundshields.
Eucalyptus [1]		58	165	Yes	These trees are found only to the West of Oo'glog and are near Level 69-99 Ogresses. Outside of the quest, they are used only in Firemaking.
Yew [1]		60	175	No	These trees give the most experience per log for free players. Free players can find these trees in Edgeville, south of Falador, north of Varrock Palace, in the Lumbridge graveyard and various other locations. Members-only spots are in the Seers' Village churchyard, west of Catherby, and other places. They are a good way for woodcutters to make money and gain experience.
Ivy		68	332.5	Yes	These grow on many walls of buildings around RuneScape, including the north wall of Varrock Palace and Falador walls, the east wall of the East Ardougne church, the south wall of Castle Wars, the north wall of Yanille and the lower wall of Taverly, North Wall Of Yanille. They give no logs, but they are used for fast experience at the expense of profit as they give the most EXP. Birds nests are often dropped of these tree's as a replacement of logs.
Magic [1]		75	250	Yes	These trees are members-only. Cutting these trees takes time as they give logs at a comparatively slow rate. These trees are found at the Mage Training Arena, Sorcerer's Tower, south-west of Lletya and just a tiny bit east of the Ranging Guild. There are also a few just north of the agility course in the Gnome Stronghold and at the eastern edge. Some players observe that, because of the decreased success rate, magic logs are not as good for experience or money (per time) as yews until Woodcutting Level 95 or higher.
Cursed magic [1]		82	275	Yes	These trees are members-only. They can only be cut after completing Spirit of Summer. There is only one cursed magic tree, found in the Spirit Realm's counterpart for Western Ruins.

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} These trees are marked on the Minimap with the icon.

Hatchet types

Hatchet	Level	Attack level	Picture	Notes
Bronze	1	1		New players receive this hatchet when they finish training at Tutorial Island or during the tutorial quest at the beginning. Players can also get a free bronze hatchet from Bob's Axes in Lumbridge and can be smithed. One can also be found outside Farmer Fred's house, north of Lumbridge, and in the chicken house, on the east side of the river (north west of the cows).
Iron	1	1		Iron hatchets can be bought from Bob's Axes in Lumbridge. They can also be smithed. Iron hatchets are better than bronze hatchets. If you are level 1-5 Woodcutting, these are recommended if you can afford it.
Steel	6	5		Steel hatchets can be bought from Bob's Axes in Lumbridge. They can also be smithed. Steel hatchets are better than iron hatchets.
Black	6	10		Black hatchets cannot be smithed, but are not rare monster drops and can be bought from players. Black hatchets are better than steel hatchets.
Mithril	21	20		Mithril hatchets can be bought from players or smithed. Mithril hatchets are better than black hatchets.
Adamant	31	30		Adamant hatchets can be bought from players or smithed. Adamant hatchets are better than mithril hatchets.
Rune	41	40		Rune hatchets can be bought from players or smithed. Rune hatchets are better than adamant hatchets. They are currently the best axe for F2P.
Sacred/Volatile Clay (members only)	40	40		Sacred or Volatile Clay Hatchets are obtained from the Stealing Creationminigame, as either a Volatile Tool or a Morphic Tool. This hatchet is members-only, and equivalent in power to a rune hatchet. The morphic tool gives 200% experience. The volatile tool gives 220% experience, but unlike the morphic tool it can only be transformed randomly to any of the 7 different tools 10 times using 10% of its charges each time, making the volatile a very poor tool for training only one skill alone.
Dragon (members only)	61	60		Dragon hatchets can be bought from players or obtained by killing Dagannoth Kings and cannot be smithed. These hatchets are members-only. Dragon hatchets are 5-10% better than rune hatchets.
Inferno adze(members only)	61	1		The Inferno adze is a reward from the All Fired Up minigame. Needs 92 Firemaking as well as a few other skill requirements (for some beacons) to get and use. It can be used as a woodcutting hatchet (equivalent cutting speed to the dragon hatchet) or a mining pickaxe (equivalent mining speed to the rune pickaxe), with an added effect of a rough 30% chance of burning logs as they are cut.

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.

Machete types

Machete	Image	Price in store	Notes
Machete		57 coins	This is the slowest of the four types of machetes. It can be bought from Tai Bwo Wannai's general store, the Shilo Village general store, from Radimus Erkle's cupboard, or the peddler south-west of Glarial's grave.
Opal machete		600 Trading Sticks	This machete's speed is higher than that of the regular machete. It can be bought from Gabooty's Jungle Store or from Safta Doc.
Jade machete		1200 Trading Sticks	This machete's speed is higher than that of the opal machete. It can be bought from Gabooty's Jungle Store or from Safta Doc.
Red topaz machete		2400 Trading Sticks	This is the fastest machete. It can also be bought from Gabooty's Jungle Store or from Safta Doc.

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.

Jungle types

Jungle	Level	Experience
Light	10	32
Medium	20	55
Dense	35	80

Canoes

Main article: Canoe

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.

Canoe types

Canoe	Required Level	Experience	Notes
Log	12	30	Can travel to one station away from where the player made it. Cannot enter the Wilderness.
Dugout	27	60	Can travel up to two stations away from where the player made it. Cannot enter the Wilderness.
Stable dugout	42	90	Can travel up to three stations away from where the player made it. Cannot enter the Wilderness.
Waka	57	150	Can travel to any station, including the Wilderness.

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. (Not double the xp but it saws an makes planks 2times faster than a normal saw, so it equals to double the xp of a normal saws cuts).

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.

Object	Required Level	Experience	Notes
Fremennik round shield	54	30 (crafting)	Made with Arctic pine logs, rope, and nails on a stump on Neitiznot.
Split arctic pine logs	54	43	Made with Arctic pine logs on a stump on Neitiznot; no particular use after The Fremennik Isles quest.

Nests

Main article: Bird's nest

A Bird's nest that has fallen out of a tree.

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 (276900) and papaya 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 (usually, the lvl 80+ ones gave rune axes). (Tree Spirits are still available in RuneScape, but only to members attempting to cut 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. The most popular logs for money are Yew which sell for around 451 and Magic for around 1,362 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 —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. You can also get nests from trees which conatin items, like tree seeds, and if you happen to get a magic tree seed from the nest, there is a lot of money in it for you.

For 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 and other things.

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 players receive 140 exp per Willow logs that they chop down.
• When using the Inferno adze to chop, and wearing the Flame gloves and Ring of fire, Firemaking experience increases by 5 percent. About 35 percent of the experience players get from Woodcutting 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 film.
• When the Dragon hatchet was introduced, it cut logs at the exact same rate as a Rune hatchet. This was later updated, making the Dragon hatchet the best hatchet in the game, later to be tied by the Inferno Adze.
• There was a glitch if a player used the clap emote and then quickly tried to cut a normal tree, it would appear that they are clapping the tree away. Whether this was intentional or accidental is unknown. This is now repalced with another glitch: 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 reduce confusion with 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 chop wood, 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 are not 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.
• When standing between two trees, after you have chopped one down and are turning to the other, it can happen that the message "You swing your hatchet at the tree." doesn't show up.

See also

• Grand Exchange Market Watch/Woodcutting
• Quest experience rewards - Woodcutting

v • d • e Skills
Free-to-play skills	Combat skills Attack • Strength • Defence • Ranged • Prayer • Magic • Hitpoints Other skills Runecrafting • Crafting • Mining • Smithing • Fishing • Cooking • Woodcutting • Firemaking
Member skills	Agility • Herblore • Hunter • Thieving • Fletching • Slayer • Farming • Construction • Summoning