Birch bark

[Backwoods Savage]

Seeing the various thread concerning burning birch for firewood usually brings out the comment about saving the bark to use as fire starters. That is very true as birch bark will light even if it is wet. I've used plenty over the years when out in the woods and a fire was needed. I recall one particular time when hunting in Northern MI when I was caught a long ways from camp and it was snowing hard. I was cold so stopped and built a fire. I stayed there for a few hours before moving on and back to camp. It may have been a life saver.

So, other than building fires and lining canoes, what have you used birch bark for?


A couple things we've done over the years includes peeling the thin bark and using it as writing paper. The grandchildren used to get a big kick out of it. Come to think of it, we have a couple young lads in our neighborhood that I need to introduce this to.

Another is cutting the birch bark fairly square and using glue, sparklies and maybe some magic markers, make Christmas cards. They are unique and the receivers are almost always very delighted to receive these special cards.


So, how do you use the bark?

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Haven't done much with it other than fire starters, but I've seen canoes, cups and cordage made from it. Wigwams were made from bark slabs, but I don't think it was birch bark.

Matt

 

[rottiman]

Makes a heck of a great moose call too.............................

 

[CJW88]

A guy I used to work with would say that the aliens are going to come down to earth in a few million years after all plant and animal life is gone and wonder what the hell all the white stuff on the ground was.

That said I have a bunch of rotting birch behind the wood shed and am going to peel alot of the bark off and use it for something. Lots of kindling of course. I was wondering the other day about using it as greeting cards too.

 

[Battenkiller]

I've tried using paper birch bark as toilet paper, but it doesn't work for s***.

 

[Tarmsolo60]

Around here many picture frames and mirror frames are done out of birch bark and twigs, come to think of it the sign at the end of my driveway is made out it.

I've also seen it used on house exterior on some of the high end camps I work on.

 

[vvvv]

me buildum good canoe

 

[Battenkiller]

me buildum good canoe

Yeah? Really? Pics or, well... you know.

 

[MetMan]

As I recall, the protagonist in "To Build a Fire" used birch bark. For emergency purposes, cotton balls with vaseline make a good fire starter too.

http://www.jacklondons.net/buildafire.html

 

[Battenkiller]

Thanks for that link, MetMan. Haven't read that story in a coon's age. Good thing to do right now, get my mind off being a Yankee fan. :-S :sick:

 

[golfandwoodnut]

No birch trees here, other than the ones people plant in their front yards. I know they are all over canada and I went on a canoe trip as a teenager and it rained the whole first week. We did you the bark to start fires, I was amazed how it lit wet.

 

[CJW88]

No birch trees here, other than the ones people plant in their front yards. I know they are all over canada and I went on a canoe trip as a teenager and it rained the whole first week. We did you the bark to start fires, I was amazed how it lit wet.

I've heard of alot of guys taking birch bark as their emergency fire starter on hiking or hunting trips. I prefer a road flare but that's just me.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Removable hard drive. Replacement heart valve. Organic American Cheese.

 

[mesuno]

Fire starting is a great one.

If you have a large piece of bark you can scrape the inside surface with the side of your knife to make a waxy powder. The powder will light to a flame easily from just a spark.

Also, you can make a resin glue from birch bark. Collect a load of it and fill a biscuit tin with tightly rolled pieces, stood on end. Punch a hole in the bottom of the tin. Take a tin can and bury it in the ground so that the open top is level with the ground and place the biscuit tin full of bark over the top so the hole and the tin line up.

Build a fire over the top and keep it going for an hour or so. Birch bark resin will collect in the tin below and can then be evaporated down to make a thick block of resin. Holding the block over a flame will soften it again and you can use the soft resin as a glue for bindings.

From recent experience I decided that birch is simply rubbish to burn. I went on a bush craft course and we camped in a stand of birch one night. Our fires needed feeding every few minutes, never really built up a good bed of embers to cook over and went between too hot and too cold in the space of 15 minutes. The following night we found a few pieces of "spiny oak" (dead oak branches from a living tree with all the outer wood rotted away - the remaining heart wood is bone dry and burns slowly like coals) to throw on and it made a huge difference. A slow warm fire that put down a bed of embers that stayed hot for hours.

 

[NH_Wood]

Birch bark (yellow and paper) is all I use as fire starter for my stove. I go for a hike and collect several garbage bags every fall. I also like to use small, thin strips as incense (not enough to really smoke a lot). I love the smell of birch bark burning (I call it birchcense). Cheers!

 

[Jaugust124]

Haven't done much with it other than fire starters, but I've seen canoes, cups and cordage made from it. Wigwams were made from bark slabs, but I don't think it was birch bark.

Matt

Native Americans in the Eastern woodlands used birch bark for their wigwams and longhouses. The birch bark would be tied to a frame made of saplings using either strips of animal hide or strips of basswood. They would peel the bark off the birch trees in sheets and use them as shelter coverings, baskets, canoes, and a whole host of other things. One would think that removing the bark all the way around the tree would kill it, but according to the Native Americans the birch heals itself, unlike other trees that would die if this were done.