De-Barking

[NordicSplitter]

I have a friend at work who has been burning for about 15yrs. He tells me he goes ahead and de-barks certain woods like cherry and locust. With these woods or others my question is.....Is it really necessary & how much dry time will it actually save?

 

[mainstation]

waste of time, imo.
in the time he spends de-barking, he could cut another cord of wood.

 

[Woody Stover]

The only reason I would debark wood is to minimize the mess in the house. As I understand it, drying is mainly occurring out of the split sides of the growth rings, not out through the rings.
I don't like the punk on this dead/standing Red Oak, but I haven't figured out an easy way to remove it...

 

[TreePointer]

When wood is split, it "debarks" the part that is in the split. Good enough for me. The remaining bark then usually falls off after a year of seasoning.

Why do the extra work when nature does it for you?

 

[fossil]

Bark falls all over the place where I'm processing wood...I just leave it as a ground cover. Couple years it gets deep, I remove some of it. What bark stays on the splits just stays on the splits. Some falls off during further seasoning, what's left gets tossed into the stove with the split it's clinging to. I make no effort to debark my firewood. Rick

 

['bert]

Bark falls all over the place where I'm processing wood...I just leave it as a ground cover. Couple years it gets deep, I remove some of it. What bark stays on the splits just stays on the splits. Some falls off during further seasoning, what's left gets tossed into the stove with the split it's clinging to. I make no effort to debark my firewood. Rick

+1 - I think rick has it about right

 

[woodsmaster]

sometimes I'll seperate the bark if it falles off easily. I let it dry and use it for kindling. I've never pelled it off to make the wood dry faster.

 

[joefrompa]

Barks holds moisture in and falls off as the wood seasons and dries out. Removing bark, to me, is the equivalent of opening up that side of the wood to seasoning. I split it down the middle, and it seasons, so why not expose one more side?

I don't go out of my way to remove bark - but if it's a bit loose, i'll pry if off. If it's good bark (like what ash has on it), I'll set it aside.

One thing I like doing is enabled because I have a fiskars blade, which can shave bark easily due to its phenomenal edge. When I have ~4" pieces, cut to 16" lengths, I like to use the fiskars to make small chops into the sides of the stick. Or I'll lightly shave some bark off to expose the middle of the wood. All I can say is that those sticks get far lighter far faster.

 

[Wood Duck]

If you pull the bark off a piece of firewood - even firewood that is otherwise pretty dry - you will often find moisture under the bark. Go try it. I bet under the bark alot of your firewood is moist. I am sure that removing the bark would be a good thing. However, there is a limit to how much effort I will put into peeling my firewood. I take off loose bark, and when stacking or handling the wood I'll make a brief effort to pull off bark that looks like it might come off, but I don't really go too far out of my way to remove bark. By the time the firewood makes it to the stove more than half has lost the bark through mostly natural processes and a little of my effort.

 

[jimbom]

I cut and split a small (12" dia) hickory about two weeks ago. I split it 2-3 inch across. The process completely debarked the wood. It was wringing wet. Water was running out of the rounds that were lined up for the splitter. It has been so wet this spring that the growth/bark layer on that tree was almost one inch deep. So maybe with the right wood split right after it leafs out, the bark will come off. Doesn't work for my oak.

 

[rdust]

Not a chance, I have better things to do with my time. After the wood is seasoned and I'm moving a load into my garage for burning I'll peel the loose stuff off so it doesn't make a mess in the garage or house.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

A pure waste of time do debark wood. Debarking might speed the drying process a little but very little. I would cut down on some mess in the house but what about the mess where you debark? It also would cut down a little on the amount of ashes. However, the time it take and depending upon the equipment used, that time and the dollars could be better used by getting more firewood.

The real key here is the drying process. I've said it many times; if you get 2-3 years ahead on your wood supply (split and stacked) you will not have any worries about your wood being ready to burn or not; it will be ready. Then also if some unfortunate thing happen so you can't get out to cut some year, you would still have wood ready to go so would not have to be concerned with that.

 

[Hiram Maxim]

I'm guilty as charged.. :cheese:

I have been processing some Black Locust this last week and I'm making an effort to remove as much bark as possible. An extra quick pull on the handle of the splitter and that stuff pops right off. However I don't think I would take the time with any other species.

To me its cleaner, I can stack more in an area (running low on room), and it is coming off pretty easy. When I get ready to bring in wood for the Winter I peel off what will fall off.

After 3 years I'm noticing much of the bark is falling off almost all the wood anyway. I'd rather leave more of the mess outside.


I'm probably being way to anal retentive/ obsessive compulsive about it? LOL

 

[snowleopard]

Last year, with most of my wood cottonwood and aspen that had been sitting in stacks for years, and some of it turned to punk, I was ankle-deep in bark and punk around the chopping block--this spring I raked up layers, let it thaw, raked up more, etc. Everytime I brought a load in to warm up for the fire, I'd have to clean up the bark mess--and sometimes it wasn't just moisture I found under the bark layer, it was lil' critters living there as well. With punky wood, I'd do my best to leave the mess by the chopping block, but I still ended up sweeping up a mess each time I brought in wood.

Next winter--if the stars align and the wind is from the south--I'll be burning a lot of birch, pre-split. It sounds so ridiculously easy that I just grin thinking about it. Birchbark is about as clean a mess as you could ask for--burns like firestarter, fun to play with---I'll take birchbark any day of the week.

Would I debark under the same circumstances I had last year? I lack the luxury of that much spare time. Would I do it in the future? I don't believe it will be necessary if I have control of my seasoning and storage.

 

[firefighterjake]

Bark falls all over the place where I'm processing wood...I just leave it as a ground cover. Couple years it gets deep, I remove some of it. What bark stays on the splits just stays on the splits. Some falls off during further seasoning, what's left gets tossed into the stove with the split it's clinging to. I make no effort to debark my firewood. Rick

+2 . . . whatever falls off, falls off when I split it or later on. The wood seasons perfectly fine with the bark on it. I have more important things to do in life than to debark my firewood . . . in the end my own feeling is that bark burns so I don't really think much about whether I should strip my wood.

 

[mecreature]

rather then take the time to de-bark.. I would just split it one more time.

 

[LLigetfa]

With Ash I leave most of the bark on but with Birch, I take off as much as I can without a lot of effort.

 

[iceman]

There is a logging company that debarks for mulched. That said they claim bark less logs dry faster than ones with bark. Also claim you get more firewood as they can fit more wood volume in the truck.. that said its a 170 delivered ... I am gonna start ordering 2cords a.year and scrounge the rest.. they deliver with no bark= no mess

 

[mecreature]

There is a logging company that debarks for mulched. That said they claim bark less logs dry faster than ones with bark. Also claim you get more firewood as they can fit more wood volume in the truck.. that said its a 170 delivered ... I am gonna start ordering 2cords a.year and scrounge the rest.. they deliver with no bark= no mess

I think I would be willing to hand over a few more bucks for this deal. It sure is less messy.

 

[dave11]

I think some of this idea comes from the old report that wood with bark on it creates more creosote than wood without bark, regardless of how dry it is. Not sure where that idea came from, but I believe it's still buried somewhere on the woodheat.org site.

I have noticed that pieces of Black Locust that have bark on them don't seem to burn as fast or hot as pieces that are bark-free, even though both pieces were dried the same amount of time.

I also think that thick bark absorbs rain and moisture very quickly, meaning that uncovered stacks can be soaked with water in the thick bark, while the wood itself is seasoned. That could be avoided by de-barking, but whether its worth all the trouble is hard to say.