So, at the urging and encouragement of some other woodturners, I decided to turn my first piece of green wood this weekend. It was a huge pear tree a neighbor was cutting down, and he let me grab a few large branches and crotch pieces before he cut it up for firewood and disposal.

Not sure how green was "green", I removed the bark from on chunk, roughed it with a bandsaw, and screwed on a faceplate to shape the bottom of a bowl. Beautiful wood. Came off clean...for a while. After shaping and cutting a tenon, I turned it around and put it in a 4-jaw chuck and started to clear the inside of the bowl, but it kept catching. At one point, it caught to the extent it tore the wood in the chuck.

Here's the question: should I have waited for a specific moisture level, or does "green" mean green?