Best time to debark pine

[Debarker]

Hello.

I will be cutting down some pine trees and debarking them.  I understand that it is easiest to remove the bark in the "spring."  However, I am wondering when in spring is easiest.  When the Massachusetts snow has all melted and the days are starting to get warmer (now), when the leaves are all out on the deciduous trees (probably about three weeks from now), some other time?  Or maybe I am overthinking it?  I just want to make the job as easy as possible.  Thank you!

[moodnacreek]

I think when you see the new growth start at the tips of branches. If the logs where for sawing you would want the bark on til the last minute as the green raw wood will start to crack.  Bark peeling time will also be blue stain time.

[woodroe]

I'm a little further north but I cut and peeled a couple 24' Pine tree butt logs 18" dia. big end 
a couple years back around the 1st of May. Bark was slippery underneath, peeled easy.
Seems i ran down the length of them with the chainsaw bar tip just enough to
hit wood to facilitate the process but these were bridge stringers so nobody will ever see
that cut line, except me.

[Debarker]

Thanks for your input - sounds like I am best off waiting a little bit.

[barbender]

Start peeling as soon as the logs are thawed out.

[Don P]

I haven't driven @WDH crazy this week yet  :D
From your previous post about debarking and having a little trouble with the inner bark, and a couple of comments, start with the anatomy and physiology. Danny can patch me up, I hope  :D

From the outside to the inside you have the outer bark, the hard crusty protective layer. The inner bark, the phloem, which is the downward sugar transport lane from leaves to roots and energy or storage via the rays as needed on the way down. In pine the inner bark is around 1/16"-1/8" thick, sticky/slippery and full of sweet bug food. That is the layer that gave you trouble drawknifing your logs and turns brown like an aging peach or apple.

Then the cambium which is only one or a few cells thick and despite its thinness is where growth is going on in a tree. When the springtime hormonal signal hits, the cells in this layer begin dividing rapidly, every week or so. When a cambial cell divides one of the new cells becomes inner bark, phloem, the other becomes sapwood,xylem. While that rapid dividing is going on in the cambium the bark is "loose", the new cells are thin walled, shorter and weaker. Those are called fusiform intials in the cambium. The cambium also contains ray initials to keep the horizontal path intact joining the xylem and phloem across the cambium to keep nutrients and logic flowing to where it is needed.

Next in is the sapwood, xylem, the upward transport of moisture and growth signalling chemicals. Then the heartwood which is dead, the cells at the sapwood/heartwood boundary are an industrial site producing extractives and funnelling those and spent metabolites into the dying cells. Every bug knows what it is, we think it looks and smells lovely.

Around here about June is when you see white pine candles, trees jumping in size and thickness and the bark slips the most easily. By August things are beginning to tighten up.

[WDH]

You yourself have gone crazy, so I can take a break :D. 

[cutterboy]

Here in Massachusetts mid April to mid June is best. The most important thing is to peel them fresh. Peel the logs just as soon as you can after the tree is cut down. The same day if possible.
A neighbor of mine is a chainsaw carver and I supply him with pine logs. I deliver logs to him the day I cut the tree or the day after. As soon as the log is delivered he is on it with his tools and starts to peel it. He peels all his logs. He told me that the logs he used to get delivered had been down for a while and it would take him an hour to an hour and a half to peel each one. With my logs, he could do each one in ten minutes.

Now that I think about it, most of the logs I have delivered to him have been in the summer or fall and they have peeled easily.


 

 

[thecfarm]

Could be right now, in your area. 
I have only peeled hemlock and cedar, as was mentioned take a chainsaw down the length of the log. Just enough to go through the bark.
This spud pictured, could be used to cut through the bark for a line, but a chainsaw is easier.



 

This is a spud I got from @loggah 
I put a handle in it. It's about 2 inches wide and has a slight curve in it. Really anything wide will work. I have even used a big screwdriver or a tire iron. A ice chipper, chisel could be used too. Cut the knots of close to the log and I do mean close. The closer the knots are cut the easier it will peel. I have taken the bark off a hemlock all in one piece a few times. Cedar does not peel like that. Careful of the bark if you step on it. It is just like ice, slippery!!!!I like the logs on a couple small limbs. Just easier to roll the logs to get to the bottom of them.
If the bark is sticking, wait a week and try it again. 

[Debarker]

cutterboy - nice to have some geographically-specific advice. The trees I cut down about a month ago took me an hour each.  I knew it would be more difficult but wanted to take advantage of the frozen ground and icy snow to easily drag them out of the woods.  And thecfarm - the spud looks like a venerable antique.  Thank you both!

[DonW]

Not so much the timing, as in the interval twixt felling and peeling, but the time, as in cutting the tree at the moment this expansion in growth and separation between layers occurs. As far as I understand when the tree is cut during this period the process is halted, the separation remains regardless of when the bark gets taken off from there.

[DonW]

Which reminds me, since I after some juniper bark myself today is the time for getting it. 

[WV Sawmiller]

 

This is the one I got from HF. The blade is about 4" wide and it comes with a 5' handle. I think I paid about $15 for it. This is a bunch of small poplar poles I sawed in halves for a neighbor to repair her log faced house. You can quickly sharpen it on a grinder if desired. It worked fine for this project. 

[WDH]

I have the exact same one, Howard, and it is very handy around the mill.