Debarking

[peter nap]

This has been covered before but for the life of me, I can't find it.

I have a number of logs to debark. What's the best tool for the job? Drawknife, Spud, Other?

[sbishop]

Depends when the logs were harvested. I cut mine last spring/summer and was able to peel with a peeling spud. if the bark doesn't easily come off you will have to use a drawknife!

Sbishop

PS. Peeling is fun, I had 120 trees to do, I could do 10 per day by myself...Peel 5 min, swat flies for 2 mins, drink fluids for 3min..repeat..until back is sore..HA

[peter nap]

I haven't cut them yet...I expect I'll cut them between now and march.
I was looking at your pile of logs yesterday...or should I say, drooling. :

Love your cabin!

I'm glad you responded though, did you just cut all the same size log or do you have a magic sizing press? I'm building a vertical log barn and getting all the logs even inside and out is puzzling me. I'm not sure I have a hundred trees the same size.

[sbishop]

I cut mine I do believe was the middle of may, when the sap was running. the peeling was really easy. if I were you I would cut in the morning and peel in the afternoon or vise versa. I had some cut one week then peel the next week, they dried up a little bit which made it harder to peel.

what I did last winter was I went through the whole back corner of the lot and mark and measured any tree that was over 6 1/2" and under 9"(I think). I had 140 trees mark ready to be cut.

I haul them out tree lenght then I used a set of big calipers (forestry ones) and cut the log off at 7" then 6" then 5" and 4" different lengths. Then I had a guy come in with a sawmill and put 2 flat sides ( the 7"  became 6", 6" became 5" and so on.) I had origally planned on doing vertical because I thought I could handle an 8ft log compared to a 26ft piece...but then I saw Pappy's post on his cabin....I went horizontally.

Please keep us up to date on your project and if you have any more questions don't hesistate because lots of great folks here helped me out and i'd like to make it my turn to help out!

Where ya from Peter?

Sbishop

[peter nap]

Thanks Sbishop!

Mecklenburg County .

[shinnlinger]

Peter,

I think Sbishop is right on the money...the sooner you peel the easier it is.  Around here they say three days is the most you want to go.  Obviously you can go longer, but it does get harder.  start with a spud and try to shoot it down the cambium and you can ussually lever off large hunks and just pull the rest by hand if it is good and fresh.  Use drawknives on the tougher stuff and get all the cambuim as it turns brown later and sticks.  Mechanial chainsaw units chew up the surface and proably NOT the look you are going for. 

I made my own spud welding a peice of leave spring to a peice of pipe and mounting it on a handle, but a fine one can be made by simple bevling one end of a leave spring with a grinder.

[peter nap]

 

I made my own spud welding a peice of leave spring to a peice of pipe and mounting it on a handle, but a fine one can be made by simple bevling one end of a leave spring with a grinder.

I guess I'd better look at a good picture. I am a knifemaker and forge and have a lot of 5160 (leaf spring) steel.

Thanks!

[shinnlinger]

Peter,

If you can work metal, you are all set.  A buddy had the truck spring version, but I figured I would make one a little lighter and erganomic.  I dont have a pic handy, but I modeled mine after the one in Northen Industrial catalog.  I bet Baileys has one to look at too.  I soaked a peice of ash in my quench bucket and then put my weldment in a vice and heated it with the rose bud and then rammed the ash in. ala Alexander Weygers.  WOrked great and held tight, but I did bevel mine the wrong way on my radial armsaw grinder.  I will try to get out to the mill in the next few days (I was out there today loading logs) and grab it for a pic so you dont make the same mistake, but its pretty cold right now and the spud may very well be buried in 2 ft of snow, so dont hold your breath on that.  At least you dont have much to loose trying one out.

[sleepy]

Peter,
Drawknife or spud really depends on what species of tree your going to be working with. Eastern White Pine, Poplar and the like have thick bark that will come off easier with a spud. It will often come off in strips and sheets. Southern Yellow Pine want come off in strips like the others so a drawknife works better.
I would agree that the bark does comes off easier on spring and early summer cut trees, however they are going to check a LOT worse than winter cut trees. I cut my trees in the winter and peeled in the spring.
Hope this helps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBPU2zIGSp0

[sbishop]

I found that taking a strip off with a peeling spud all the way the tree first, then using the spud go down the sides opening up the bark....then I would roll the log over and grab and pull the bark off...some logs I could pull the bark off in one piece..those were the easy ones...some came off in strips...so you would have to start again with the spud...

Sbishop

[TW]

 The uppermost tool on the picture is what we normally use in my part of the world.


This kind of drawknife can be either pushed or pulled.

[kboilers]

Also depends on how you want your logs to look.  I like the smooth and uncut log look, so I used a spud for the bark and 90% of the cambium.  Then a pressure washer to clean them up.  Sand the knots flush and they're ready.  I used the spud on winter cut red pine - peeled two months later and fall cut - peeled 6 months later and they were both easy to peel - once the weather warms up.  Just get to them before it gets to warm and the bark beetles start eating your logs.

kboilers

[johnjbc]

 Here is a picture of the Spuds I made:



Used a car spring, cut it in half and burned two holes in each half. Put a 30" piece of fire wood on the lathe and turn it to shape. Cut a slot for the spring and drill 2 counter sunk holes for 3/8 carriage  bolts and your good to go. You don't want to make them to sharp or they will try to dig into the wood.
They work fine but it's still some work. Some day I'll get a de-barker

[peter nap]

OOPs...I responded in the thread that the link took me to :

Thanks John!
Is the edge chisel grind or knife edge?

[moonhill]

I don't do a lot of peeling, I find it, shall I say straining, but it sometimes must be done.  I have found soaking the logs in a pond first helps very much.  It also keep the blue stain out, pine borers only lay eggs in the part of the log above water and cuts the sap, no black sticky hands, and they saw well. They stay preserved.   I know every one doesn't have a pond but if you do try it.  Has any one heard of the term "water cured"?  The old water powered mills had all those advantages.  I had to bust them out of 5" of ice one winter, well early winter.  I'm not building log houses, I saw and build timber frames, but some of my timbers could be confused with logs (here I could use one of those smilely faces but don't know how to get it down here).  Speaking of pitch has any one tried olive oil to cut the pitch it works well and doesn't effect your skin in bad ways.  I think this is on topic of debarking.  Tim B.

[johnjbc]

Quote from Peter Nap

Thanks John!
Is the edge chisel grind or knife edge?

Sorry for the late reply but I just came across your question
Its more of a chisel grinc. small enough to get under the bark but not sharp enough th cut into the wood

[Brad_bb]

I peeled two 40 foot Norway spruce trees last August (blew down in a storm after 4 days of constant rain softened the ground).  It was my first time and I used a spud I bought from northern toolhttps://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=position"> Note:Please read the Forestry Forum's postion on this company.  It was very difficult and sticky.  Maybe it was the time of year and all the sap.  I would not want to do it again.  It probably took 6 to 7 hours each.  A spruce like that has a lot of branch joints that you have to work around, so it's not a smooth cylindrical shape.  Actually I didn't finish the second tree.  I only got about 2/3rds of the bark off.  After it sat awhile, the bark was much harder on the tree.  Not sure what I'll do.  I didn't want a draw knife as I want the smooth natural texture of the debarked tree.

[Dave Shepard]

brad_bb, did you use the pressure washer to strip any of the bark? I would think if you could get underneath it would really strip it bare.


Dave

[Brad_bb]

No, the pressure washer just made a bigger mess of things.  On the second tree(not shown) I had only got about 2/3rds of the bark removed and time went by and then it didn't want to peel nice anymore.  I assume this is because moisture went out and the sap got harder.  I wonder if wetting it and keeping it wet for awhile would allowme to remove the remaining bark better?  Maybe I would be able to keep it wet long enough to penetrate into the bark?  I'll figure it out later.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet.  I thought maybe I could incorportate them whole as posts in a frame, but not certain yet.  As you can see I kept the base where it spreads for the roots, which could look cool as a post.  I't trim the bottom flat leaving the root spread.  Maybe use a router and jig to flatten the base it after rough sawing things.

[Brad_bb]

I take it back.  The hot pressure washer didn't seem to help with bark removal, but it did help me remove the sap on the outside of the tree that oozed out, especially at the base.  I didn't do this on the second tree as it was probably a month later that I tackled it and it didn't ooze like the first.  There was some sap, but much less.  Just wondering, perhaps the sap remained in the tree, but moisture left making it harder?  Does the sap then act like glue making it stronger as it loses moisture?