Log Barking A Dying Art.

[weisyboy]

just a little pol to see howmany people know how to bark a log.

[wheelinround]

From everything I have learnt there are a couple of ways
1 being hit it with a hammer the latest one I have learned..............someone told me:U just recently

Broad axe and longitudainal cut slice along and peal off like an orange

Not sure why but the term scutching (which is done when producing flax) which is a hoe type tool and pretty much cut like when doing the garden I have seen this done whatch the toes ankles and shins OUCH.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

The "correct" way? Doesn't that depend on A: what type of tree you wanna bark and B: what tools you actually have to hand? :D

[echnidna]

Start on 1 side with a chainsaw and cut right through the bark (and timber) to the bark onthe other side of the tree.

Just don't stand in the way of the falling bark
(coz its wrapped round the tree)

[wheelinround]

really quickest way I have seen to de-bark a tree is drag it behind something for a while

[weisyboy]

there is a right and yerry easy way to bark logs excep pines and a few other lil b#%!*rds.

[Stringy]

None of the above.

I use a 10lb sledge hammer - belt the log along the length to open up a split & loosen, then crowbar the bark off. Not in the colder months as the sap is not moving ie, tree is dormant and the bark is a proper b**** to remove.

[DavidG]

1. Sequence of
/
\
/
\
cuts with a sharp axe down the log
then a bar to peel the log.

2. Leave it to fall off.

3. Turn it with the bark on.

[Barry_White]

The way we do it here is to use an axe and cut a zigzag line down the length of the log so that the axe cuts cross each other and then belt it along that zigzag line with back of the axe then get a crow bar under the bark and lever it off.

As stringy says better in the summer and not in dry weather if it can be helped.

[Barry_White]

1. Sequence of
/
\
/
\
cuts with a sharp axe down the log
then a bar to peel the log.

2. Leave it to fall off.

3. Turn it with the bark on.

Beat me to it David. We obviously come from the same school of learning.

[ozwinner]

Ive got a dog that barks.

Al :roll:

[weisyboy]

stringy, barry and david are all right as far as im consernd

only i was taught without the zigzag cuts will have to try it next time and do not use a crowbar.

funny its the more matuer members that know this just proves my point

[DavidG]

We obviously come from the same school of learning.
The old school of farm fence posts.

[mick101]

Back of the axe down any sort of a bark line until you hear it make a 'hollow' sort of a thump as you move down the log ...then move about 6" to the side of that & do it again. Really depends on the moisture/type of log but i have done literally thousands of iron barks this way.

[weisyboy]

ironbark, stringybark, greygum, tallowwood, bloodwoods, spottygum, bluegum, rosegum, scribilygum, red gum and many many more.

i was taught this by my father whae we were cutting fenceposts. he also taught me to use an adz and split posts witch is another thing most people wouldnot know how to do.

i do a lot of fencing and if you start diging a hole with crowbar and shovel they are fancenated.:roll:

[son_of_bluegras]

I thought you were suppose to use a slick.

ron

[Doughboy]

Zig zag down the length of the log and using the back of the axe belt it the complete length and back it off with a log bar.

We also used to use the tractor to take the bark off. Zig zag cut then we would run the front wheel along the length of the log. Maybe a handful of times we needed to do this twice on the same log but it is a muck faster way to do it.

Then we would take to bark home as well and make dog kennel roofs out of it, also seen it used to make the roof of a couple dozen horse stable. Rough as guts but got the job done. Hell I remember being caught out there in the bush and a storm blew up so we sat under the bark for an hour or so, dry as chips we stayed.

[Buzzer]

When the chainsaw broke down in the bush I have run over the log with a D6,
rough as guts but it worked!! :)

[Barry_White]

The old school of farm fence posts.

Same here. Taught by an 80 year old farmer who had been doing it since a boy of 14.

[weisyboy]

how the hell do you bark a log with a chainsaw BUZZER:?

[Buzzer]

how the hell do you bark a log with a chainsaw BUZZER:?
Hi,
I have only barked Iron bark for fence/cattle yard posts.
I run the chainsaw lengthwise just a little deeper than the bark, and with a little help from the crow bar the bark comes off. This idea doesn't work very well in dry/drought times.

[journeyman Mick]

I've used the same method as Barry and David. Don't use it any more though as I've found a far superior method: get some one else to do it.:D

Mick

[thumbsucker]

silly idea - but what about a large drawknife. I seen and heard of chairmakers doing this, or is this for small pieces only? I have found a few logs and have found the drawknife good for stripping bark from stuff found on the side of the road.

[Barry_White]

silly idea - but what about a large drawknife. I seen and heard of chairmakers doing this, or is this for small pieces only? I have found a few logs and have found the drawknife good for stripping bark from stuff found on the side of the road.

That would be OK in the dry weather or the winter when the bark wouldn't slip off.

[weisyboy]

it would take a long time to cut the bark off a log 3' in diamiter and 10' long now wouldent it:no:.

[echnidna]

sharpen upa shovel and peel it orf

[A-Marks]

I had a few to do for a shed I built and a mate suggested I use the back of the axe to bruise the bark
which I did - I whacked it flat against the bark using the axe like a hammer until the bark flaked off in big and mostly small sheets - for the bloodwood, stringybark, Tallow and grey gum I was using - It took all day to do a whole sheds worth.
The next day my arms were very sore but my wrists were jarred and very painful so I would suggest you come up with a technique that saves your wrists.

[weisyboy]

if you hit it at a slight angle down on the edge instead of on the flat you dont get the jar. and it falls of when you are done.

[tonyw]

The simple way that works for me on green logs is simply to hit them with the back of the axe. That loosens the bark easily, at least on the spotted gum and iron bark that I did some time ago for use as verandah posts and to hold up the roof ridge in our house.

My worst experience was with a spotted gum tree that I had just cut down. It was on a fairly steep slope and the outside of the log was quite wet without the bark. The whole thing slid down the hill at a great rate - just as well there was nobody in its way. It took a long rope to drag it up again.

[weisyboy]

the slopes around here a verry steep so we dont bother putting road around them we just have one at the bottom.

fell the trees bark the logs and give them a shove they end up on the road at the bottom. saves a lot of work.

[Jedo_03]

http://www.hud-son.com/hand_tools_access.htm
Jedo

[weisyboy]

i didnt see one cleanly barked log an any of the photos or videos. an it looks like it would take longer than with the back of an axe.

[Jedo_03]

Well, how's it done industrially / commercially...???
Surely they don't employ 'undreds of axe-wielding 'work-for-the-dole' persons... MUST use machinery of some kind or another...
I'd imagine some sort of contraption with the log horizontal and being rotated against some sort of "grater" or such...
Personally - IF I had a chainsaw slabber, and I HAVEN'T, but I don't think I'd even bother to strip the bark off - I'd just slab the log and trim the wane edge off when I came to use the timber (if it hadn't dropped off in the meantime,,,)
Knowledge-Seeking-Question: WHY do we need to de-bark a log..?
Jedo

[echnidna]

1. Bark adds to the width of the log so you can't mill logs that could fit your saw if they were barked
2. The bark often has a lot of grit etc in it which blunts blades rapidly
3. Bark can conceal foreign objects that may otherwise be visible.

[Jedo_03]

Thanks Bob - I have learned something...
Wanted:
1 x Granberg Small log miller
1 x Axe
Jedo

[weisyboy]

"why do you need to bark a log"

ech said it all except when cutting fence posts if you leave the bark on then it rots off and the post becomes lose in the ground.

"how do sawmills do it"

the mills when sawing pine the harvesters have a big thing like a chipper they run the logs threw branches and all it cleans them down to a smoth serface.

when a sawmill mills hardwood logs they dont bark most logs as the outside edges are simply sawn off. however they do bark ironbark because it can have up to 2" of bark on each side. and stringy bark whitch holt huge amounts of dirt and rocks.

hope that aswers all your questions.

[Jedo_03]

Hi - thanks for the info
Looks like I'll have to get an axe then...?
cheers
Jedo

[Carry Pine]

When I was a teacher in Bermagui, we had two old sleeper cutters give a demo to the kids. Simply amazing. They 'barked' it like they did it every day and then cut it into a perfect sleeper with a broad axe in next to no time. Great to watch.

Carry Pine

[WoodyKnot]

Seriously though, have used the back of an axe, block buster, sledge hammer just knockin it on one side then using a crowbar. All hard yakka but this is one of the downsides to fencin and sometimes has to be done.
Tried using a tractor once to run over the log but the log sank in the soft earth and then tried to pull the log out with the tractor but it to sank too:doh: . A time consuming lesson was learnt and lost a bit of my wages too.

Was always taught not to use a chainsaw to de-bark unless ya have plenty of either money, time or chains as the bark knocks the edge off the chain. Hence why more time spent on maintenence and less on productive work even if it makes sense that it is quicker.

Woodyknot.

[Eirik]

Dear gentle forumite,

The tool with which one de-barks a log is a "bark spud".
A long and reasonably blunt, slick chisel shaped tool, with an upward sweep at its working end. One pushes it from behind.

Have a splendid evening.
Eirik

[sawdustmike]

Only ever done jarrah. The bark will fall off some logs by just looking at it, others need to be cut off slice by slice - PITA. We used a very sharp axe that had polished faces and used this axe for barking (mad!) only. Remember to stand on the other side of the log 'cause if the axe bounces you will have a very nasty gash or worse on your leg.

[rgum]

Bark a tree?
Doesn't every dog do that? Possums maybe?

Woof :roll: !

[The Bird]

I have two very effective and labour saving methods.
Usually I pick the log up with me loader and drop it on the ground a few times while rolling it over between lifts, drive along aafew times with the forks on the bark and Wa Lah.
OR
Get a few beers and wait, eventually the cambium layer naturally seperates from the outer timber.
I do like a a beer and I don't mind waiting.

Theres no fool like an old fool.

[Optimark]

My uncle was an axeman working in outback NSW after WWII. During the early fifties he had a contract to supply railway sleepers, this required some impressive muscle on his part and his team.

They used a Peeling Iron, which looks like an adze attached to a long broom handle type of stick.

As a young tacker I used to help with the peeling iron as it was considered safe by my mother. She never saw just how sharp my uncle's team kept the peeler, otherwise I would never have been allowed near it.

A man can almost walk at a slow pace peeling the bark, if it's sharp and the angle is correct.

One of my uncle's tricks to speed work was to make one large sleeper then saw it in half and have two complete sleepers from the trunk with minimum effort. Well, almost minimum effort.

Mick.

Mick.

[pal]

Easiest way I know is a splitting gun and black powder. Half fill the splitting gun with powder drive it into the end of the log stick in a 50 mm length of fuse light it and run like hell. The bark would come off the fence posts with a couple of bumps of the back of the axe.


pal

[sawtooth]

I have got blisters again just reading the above; but there is not one answer to the poll question. On Iron bark we used to chain saw the length of the log and then crow-bar of the bark. The Iron Bark was used for fence strainer posts. Good hard work and good memories of yesteryear in Qld. Now I'm bloody home sick!!

[weisyboy]

it aint that hard.

[Chipman]

I once worked for a logger and my job was to bark logs... started with an axe then next weekend back out of the bush, I made my own tool... A length of rock boring bar with a piece of spring steel welded on the end as blade. Made it very sharp and worked well. Lighter than a crow bar and the sharp blade on the end could cut as well as slip under the bark. Quite often the bark was broken in places from the falling/retrieving process. With a nice fresh tree, the bark would practically fall of but if it was a sick/recently dead tree it was really hard work...then a broad axe might have been the go.

By the way the trees were victorian woolly butt / alpine ash


Cheers,

Chipman

[weisyboy]

if barked within a few ours of felling the bark will practicly fall off a few hits with the back and you will hear it poping off. where on a dry tree you may have to literaly chop it off. also the westurn side of the tree is harder to abrk than the rest as it gets the hot afternoon sun.