Anybody Know????

[dail_h]

   I have got quite a large shot of hickory that came from the churchyard.Was womdering if oneof those Log Wizard debarker things would work on this hickory bark? Seems as if noone is all agog to saw a shot of 20 + in hickory. :'(

[Ron Wenrich]

We have problems getting the bark off hickory with a commercial debarker.  A lot depends on species of hickory.  Some is so stringy that it wraps around the debarker head.  I believe that mockernut is the culprit.

Can't comment on the log wizard, I've never seen one.

[Neil_B]

Hey dail,
I wouldn't even try to debark that stuff. I did a few a while back and just sawed through the bark. Did some small stuff up for firewood and even while splitting it would seperate from the wood and was a real pain. You could try peeling it off if you really wanted it debarked but I don't think you will enjoy it  ;)

[Jeff]

Hickory and Basswood both are buggers. Our Morbark debarker with its big revolving cutterhead and carbide teeth has trouble with both, the log wizard little revolving head would be a pitiful attempt.

Our Fire insurance guy told us that the number 1 cause of fires in mills with debarkers was caused by the debarkers and an older style cutter head. And almost everytime after a run of basswood or Hickory. It will wrap like twine around a revolving shaft. Friction will quickly dry it to tinder and ignite it. We have had several instances of this over the years, but we expect it with basswood and make sure not to let it happen near the end of a shift. We usually keep a water extinquisher in the debarker cab for this purpose. Its surprising how quick it can happen under the right conditions.  You can clean the head, debark one log and see smoke. We have went to a new style head that seems to chop the fibers better. We dont have as much trouble but its still there.

[Ron Wenrich]

One thing that might help when cutting logs is to wet the logs down.  I worked in one mill where we did that, and things worked much better.  I've noticed that I get better production on logs that are wet.