Post #634545 by pjc5150 on Tue, May 1, 2012 8:47 AM

Hey guys, in the spirit of helping the new guys out, I'm postingt this little tutorial on how I skin logs. It's been almost 3 years since I found this place, and if it weren't for the advice of Benz, Will, Tom and the others, I'd probably be making Jimmy Carter tikis with parrots and shit on 'em. So anyway, some of you have inquired as to how I skin palms & get stuff done so fast, so here's how I do it. Is this the BEST way? I don't know...it's just the technique I've developed.

Step one, I don't use a planer like a lot of guys. It works, but with all the thick-barked sable & cabbage palm we have here in the sunshine state, a planer could take a loooong time. So I use a chainsaw to sort of "filet" it off....like roast beef...

now, VERY IMPORTANT, you need to keep the chainsaw blade sharp...otherwise, it's gonna take 3 times longer. Here's what I use - a dremel tool & dremel's chainsaw sharpening attachment...works like a charm...

when you're done it should look like this. See the little slices of bark all around it?:

Then I take the angle grinder with a 40 grit flap disc and clean the tool marks off so I have a nice smooth surface to for a good draw out with my sharpie.

This log is about 6 ft tall and a foot thick, and the total time for the above process was about 30 minutes.

Hope this helps and feel free to comment or critique. If someone has some better ideas, by all means throw 'em out there. It's all about sharing the stoke...