Bark! (Good Gawd, y'all) What is it good for? Absolutely nothin'!?

[SnapCracklePop]

If I've learned anything about firewood this winter, it's that I don't want to be dealing with bark if I can help it.

I'm burning (1) nice, dry locust that I found on Craig's List -- yes, it's possible to score good stuff from honest folks... If the locust has bark, it's bone dry and burns well without making lots of ash. Most of it has no bark.

BUT, singing the first-timer blues, I'm also burning (2) oak from my property that has been lying around bucked for two to five years, and which I split only in November, when I got my stove...

I do my best to get the oak as dry as I can, but I'm dealing with splits that still have bark on them, and they're wet under the bark. Sometimes there are white grubs in there (yuck!). Most of the bark will come off rather easily with bare hands or a few simple tools. Then I hang the naked splits in wire baskets near my stove, and they seem to dry rather well.

Looking forward to cutting/splitting/stacking more oak from my property this year, how and when can I get rid of the bark? Will it come off when it's first bucked or split? Does it come off easier after it's dried for a while?

I tried searching for a thread on this, and so far have not found what I'm looking for.

What do you folks do about bark? I've never seen a post in which someone said, "Well, I tore apart my stacks this week and debarked the wood, and put them back together..."

 

[Thistle]

In Nov 2007 I grabbed just over 2 big loads of dead Eastern RedCedar/Juniper that was on the curb about 5 blocks from home on way home from work one day.Unsplit,large sized (12"-22"),from a very large old tree,just full of knots & spiral grain.Anywhere from 1ft long to almost 5ft,depending on size.Didnt do much with it until May 2010,was stacked/piled in corner of back yard.By then most of the bark had fallen off in sheets.Finally got it all bucked/split & stacked.Used the bark to cover most of backyard work area,since its under several old Walnut & Mulberry trees,in a low spot & always stays soft & muddy until ground freezes.Had some big pieces of Mulberry & Siberian Elm bark that were used the same way.Beats walking on mud or dead grass,should last a few yrs anyway.

 

[JustWood]

Burn it! It's wood!

 

[firefighterjake]

Burn it! It's wood!

+1 . . . and BTUs are BTUs . . . other than a bit of mess I have no issues with bark and most definitely do not go out of my way to strip my wood naked.

 

[PapaDave]

If you leave the wood long enough, it'll start coming off on it's own. Sounds like you need the wood now, so I guess keep using whatever tools you've been using, until you can get some wood that's already DRY, or stack your own until it's dry.
I use the bark when I want a good hot fire. Just can't use too much, cause it'll send the stove into orbit. This bark is VERY dry.
I think the grubs have very little btu value. I'm sure I've burned a few. :lol:
When stacking, if the split has bark that's starting to come off, I'll help it along. Seems the wood dries quicker w/o it.
I've got lots of oak in the shed, and sometimes I'll grab a piece that the bark just falls off, but that wood is almost 2 years old. I add that to my kindling pile on the porch.
Your forum name sounds like my knees. :lol:

 

[midwestcoast]

If the bark stays on I burn it. If it falls off I let it rot away in a brush pile. In my experience Oak bark hangs on pretty well & most gets burned.

 

[Wood Duck]

After the wood is seasoned some of the bark will fall off or I can pull it off. I remove what I can while loading it from the stack into the wheelbarrow, but most of the wood ends up having bark on it when I load the stove. Bark makes a lot of ash, so I'd just as soon not burn it if I can avoid it easily.

 

[billb3]

Any bark that falls off fell off and ends up as mulch in the woods right near my stacks.
Anything that doesn't fall off becomes ash.


I don't make any effort to burn or not burn it.

 

[CountryBoy19]

I burn it... all of it. In the shoulder season sometimes I load the stove with up to 50% bark. It gets a good, hot fire going fast, and that's more wood that I have left to burn for the rest of the season.

 

[mtcates]

I use any lose bark on top of the wood load and use the top down method of fire starting. The bark gets the fire going really fast.

 

[WoodPorn]

When I'm splitting in the fall/winter, all of the bark goes into a 55g burn barrel. Smells great, keeps you warm on chil;ly days, and the flames are inspirational for splitting!

 

[Flatbedford]

Burn it! It's wood!

What he said. The bark is not your problem. The problem is that you are trying to burn wood that is not adequately seasoned.

 

[Kenster]

BUT, singing the first-timer blues, I'm also burning (2) oak from my property that has been lying around bucked for two to five years, and which I split only in November, when I got my stove...

I do my best to get the oak as dry as I can, but I'm dealing with splits that still have bark on them, and they're wet under the bark.

I'm surprised everyone let the above part of the OPs statement go without comment. He's burning oak that has only been split two months. I think any wetness on or under the bark is the least of his worries. Surface water will dry in a day or two but I bet the moisture content of the wood itself is very high. The wood may have been bucked a few years ago but I doubt he's going to get very good BTU value out of newly split oak. Maybe next year at the earliest.

 

[ISeeDeadBTUs]

Oak will dry faster if you get the bark off. The best way I've found is dragging the log down the road.

If the bark is still on when you're about to load your wood-fired appliance, leave it on. It'll just make a mess (including bugs worse than grubs) and you'll have to either gather it up and take it somewhere to dispose of. Or you'll gather it up and burn it.

Best way to save the aggrevation is don't burn Oak. I'll swap you out some nice clean aspen for that skanky Oak.

 

[basswidow]

Burn it! It's wood!

What he said. The bark is not your problem. The problem is that you are trying to burn wood that is not adequately seasoned.

+ 1

Yeah - debarking it is a waste of your time. That is not the source of the wetness. It's oak that was split in November. It's not ready yet, even though it was in rounds or cut 2-5 years ago. Unless the tree was dead many years and petrified, you've got to split it to start the seasoning process best.

Kenster nailed it too.

 

[cptoneleg]

If mine falls off I gather it up and throw it in the shed , store it and burn it.

 

[cptoneleg]

Send us some pictures of the naked splits hanging around your stove in wire baskets. :lol:

 

[JoeyD]

Around here some of the bigger red oaks get bark that can be 1 1/2" thick. When its that thick I peel it off with my splitter mostly because I feel even when the wood is seasoned if we run into a long wet spell the bark seems to hold moisture and my napoleon doesn't like burning moist wood. I also seem to find a lot of grubs under the bark when it is that thick and I don't want to let those things loose in my wood pile for the two to three years it takes until I get around to burning it.

 

[jlove1974]

i got a bark pile that is like 3 ft tall and growing. Gives my dog something to sniff around and pull field mice out of. I figure eventually one day I'll get a shredder and turn it all into compost faster

 

[Cate68]

I have no issues with bark and would rather let my wood sit to season than put the effort into debarking. What falls off is used for kindling if it's big enough. Burns great.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Nancy, some folks do debark their wood but it always seemed to me a waste of time. Naturally some bark will fall off, especially when cutting dead wood. For example we are cutting all our dead ash and a lot of the bark will fall off while splitting and some will loosen while it is drying. We throw the bark that has came off into a pile. We use some as mulch and we've also used some in our walking paths in the woods. It works great to fill in some of the wet spots.

But overall, we do nothing special to debark anything. Usually it all goes into the stove. One that may not all go into the stove is some birch bark but we just peel a thin layer off and use it as paper or for making special Christmas cards or just use for novelty when writing letters.

 

[jpl1nh]

I burn it... all of it. In the shoulder season sometimes I load the stove with up to 50% bark. It gets a good, hot fire going fast, and that's more wood that I have left to burn for the rest of the season.

right there with ya

 

[pastera]

All bark that falls off gets mixed with some leaf clutter and grass clippings - last years pile produces prime earthworms for the kids fishing trips

aaron

 

[ISeeDeadBTUs]

i got a bark pile that is like 3 ft tall and growing. Gives my dog something to sniff around and pull field mice out of. I figure eventually one day I'll get a shredder and turn it all into compost faster

I know he loves it, but thats a great way 4 him to get ticks

 

[mywaynow]

I save any bark that makes it to the stacking point. Stuff that falls off during splitting gets thrown onto the wet spot where the truck entry is off the driveway. I keep bark and small shredded wood in a garbage can for kindling. When starting a fire from scratch or very little coals, I build a tunnel out of 3 splits. Lay the first 2 with a couple inches between them and fill the gap with bark and slivers of wood. Throw the third split on as a cap, direct the exhaust of the Defiant out the bottom on the end of the wood tunnel and get the end of one piece of bark/sliver started with the lighter. As soon as the flame starts to gather momentum, the air flow draws the flames through the tunnel and the inferno follows. Bark is good, and doesn't bite.