I use all reclaimed wood for the runes I make. Mother Earth gives us so many gifts no reason to kill another tree. The latest set I am working on is from a piece of a wood cd case my partner found in a dumpster. This thing has been made into several oghams, necklaces, a soap dish, runes, etc. And that was AFTER he used it as a actual cd stand for a few months.  What woods? Well ash is one I have used, pine....honestly I am with the other poster, use what you have or what calls to you.  Usually if I am looking for something I do a small ritual asking for vision to see what it is I want around me. So yah I can be found standing in front of a pile of wood or trash staring off into space, when the piece calls I grab it after asking and then I give thanks.

As for carving. I am not very good so I use a dremel sometimes.  A small chisel or cutting tool manually when I can.

As for staining....well....this set is being stained with my blood. I have used wood finish in the past but our Ancestors didn't have that and most stains and finishes are terrible for the environment. Also have used nontoxic paint. The colors black and red. Or I leave em natural and use linseed oil or some other like olive. NO petrol products, NO animal products either.

For the set I am working on now I made a rune bowl out of a coconut shell, I painted it black and on the rim at the base painted ODINS GIFT RUNES in red. (what I did not do is use colons to separate the words. I may go back and do that)The rim lip is in red and on the inside at the bottom is the two runes for vision  and sight. I used a nontoxic glass finish that is actually food grade but it is not shellac, all vegan. I just signed up today and don't know if we can post pictures but if we can and I figure out how I will post a pic of the bowl and the rune set  as well.

Yep I know what you mean you have to use what is available to you, cause if you didn't well it would be a long time coming to make your runes.

When you speak of colons to mark, do you mean ( or take the bottom dot away?  I am not sure how other people do it but I have always been under the assumption that one dot mid level between words is how it is done.  Well that is how I have done it for years anyway...lol.  It is interesting how other people have learnt to write in runes.

UG bad me for drinking two cups of green tea then typing. My fingers were faster than my brain. A  dot to separate words and a colon to separate sentences. Historically not all the carvings had this but sunnway supports the way I do it. I use that site if I want a quick and dirty translation.

Hi MG,
The colon is from the historical era, as it was used by the original people who used the runes.  My favorite example is from 11th century Sweden, the Sigurd carving:



I think the single mid-height dot (as opposed to the colon) has its origins in Arabic history, but I am not exactly sure about that.  I am not familiar with the dots for words and colon for sentences, but then again I don't know everything... But the colon was clearly used for the ancient Germanic/Scandinavian/Anglo-Saxon rune workers.  And in the 11th century Sigurd carving, the runic inscription is just one sentence and each word is delimited by colons, not dots.  In my experience, I have only seen the colons.

Another example of colons to separate words:


although in fairness there is also this:



Well, as there are different names and some variations in futharks (futhorcs), it makes sense that there would be variations in.. punctuation.

lol I never really thought of the end of sentences my punctuation is really bad at the best of times.  When I am translating English into Runic script it takes so much out of me that I only can do sentences and forget about full stops.  The gods forbid any one that reads my translations should be banging there heads on a brick wall by now...lol

Will endeavour to be more punctuate from now on...he he he