NDR tree bark

W

wis boz

Well-known member
When is the best time and way to remove tree bark? I have marked fourteen 20 ft live maples in my woods to be used for a tepee. Do I cut them now before the sap starts running or wait for it to run to make it easier to debark them? Is there a better way to debark than using a spoke shave or draw knife? Wispete, I'll bet you have thoughts on this.
wis boz
 
I think you're on the right track Jim. Though I have no personal experience, I have always understood that peeling bark when it is running is much easier than any other time of the year. There are tools that facilitate debarking called Bark Spuds but in the size of the trees I think you are talking about (2-3") I would think that a draw knife might be the best tool.

To bad Dave Parks is off line now as I'd be real surprised if he didn't know the "for sure" answer to this question.
 
Are Maple the preferred TP pole? Seems that they would be heavy and with maples grain structure, kinda week in a length. Just what popped in my brain, not arguing...jus iggerant.
 
Lee
Your right---pine is the preferred pole. My son received a tepee for Chirstmas from his son and to buy the pine poles plus shipping is unreal so I thought these might be a starter for him. You hangining in there?
wis boz
 
Plugging away just waiting. Don't you have pines up there in Wisconsin? My buddy has a treating plant up there and they do red pine mostly. Biewer Lumber is who they are. If you drag your chainsaw back and forth the bark will come off a small tree that size pretty easy.
 
and here I was trying to figure out how you would get enough bark from 14 maples to cover a teepee.
 
Too bad your not closer.There's alot of tall Bamboo growing wild, at many locations, in these parts.No peeling;^)
 
Lee
I forgot to mention the diameter of 2 to 3 '' which Pete picked up on. Where in Wis is your friends saw mill?
wis boz
 
Boz,

Spring is better than now from a bark perspective, yet often easier to move them around in the snow.

Pete is also dead on with the debarking

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?page=20121&category=1,41131,41140&ccurrency=2&sid=

Here is one from Lee Valley, way to pricy in my book, but my bro in law got 2 of his at Fleet Farm I believe or was it the Logging Congress show at Lambeau in the winter, anyway, way easier with one of those over a drawknife as the angle is easier than trying to either get down to the log with the draw knife or bring the log up. If either of those methods sound like what you want to do, the drawknife is easy, but that spud allows to you stand up and basically work it back and forth like a broom (thinking of your shoulder....)

Wish you were closer, I would bring it over to use...do you have any ash on that land? would be a better choice than maple for strength, although rot will hit them both pretty easily so make sure you spar varnish them pretty good. First coat 50/50 with thinner and then 1-2 full coats.
 
Lots of Bamboo down here in Alabama too. I never had to buy cane poles for crappie & bluegill fishing when I live up around Montgomery.
We cut it for blinds too. I hope to get out soon and harvest some shoots before they emerge from the ground. Great eating!
The large stuff would be perfect for teepee poles, straight, strong & very weather resistant.
 
Carl
I guess I've never connected bamboo to the South. Never too old to learn I guess although I have a new cell phone and have yet to master the old one. TDS just changed my email program merging with Google and I'm really lost now. ??? Things are moving too fast for us "old farts".
wis boz
 
The plains indians would use nearly any tall, straight hunk of wood they could find but most tepees were traditionally made from lodge pole pines. A permit can be obtained to harvest these trees from nearly any forest in montana i believe, as long as they are dead and on the ground.
 
Jim I have friend that has a large Tepee and I will contact him on the kind of poles he uses and get back to you. He stayed in his tepee all Muzzle loading season. I was looking around for a picture of it. He is set up on a Island in the Eau Clair river. I helped him set up a Franklin type of stove in it. Burning a open fire in the Tepee got a little too smokey for him. We went double pipe where the pipe exited the smoke hole.

My thoughts on the type of poles depend on whether you son is going to be moving a lot or just in one place. If he is going to be moving he would want light strong poles. Then these kinds of woods Aspen, Basswood, White Spruce, White pine. My perferred would be White Spruce. Each has there advantages and disadvantages. Easy to find and straight would be Aspen and White Spruce where I live.

If his Tepee isn't going to moved much Maple will do, although they will be heavy and his Squaw will complain ( I don't know if he wants to listen to that or not ) Hee hee As far as to cut now or later for the bark coming off. Either way maple bark isn't as easy as Aspen. If you cut it now less or no sap in the wood will dry faster. Also less splitting of the wood as it drys. One thing you might consider is girdling the tree now and cutting later. A shaving horse and a draw shave is the way to go. With out that,
poles on some saw horses and a place to fasten one end. I would not worry about getting every little piece of bark off just around the limbs and one slice in the none limb sections. When the poles dry the bark will fall off.

I will get back too you on what my friend uses. Pete
 
Thanks Pete
Girdling sounds like an option too. I think the tepee will be pretty much in one spot on his property. Thanks again!
Jim
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top