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Soaking cedar logs in water for bark removal

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Anyone tried it? Seems like it could save a lot of time in debarking with a chainsaw and sanding. Somebody out there might have a formula for mixing chemicals with water to get this affect. The wood under the bark is soo smooth. Anyone? Anyone.

G
GMAN posted on Sat, Nov 26, 2005 1:37 PM

JT,

The cendar trees I'm working with now were aged about a year, and the bark came off by hand. The wood underneath is like glass. I have another pile of cedar that is fresh, and I was going to wait untill the bark came loose on its own. I've contacted a few other (non-tiki) carvers who use cedar, and none of them had a good answer to the debarking problem. They replied that they usually let them age indoors and let nature do its thing. I want to debark my fresh cedar logs to reduce the chances of bark beetle infestation, but I can't swing the cost for the chainsaw debarking tool. If someone has a magic water solution, please post it!!!!!!

-Gman


"The saw is family"

[ Edited by: GMAN 2005-11-26 13:59 ]

Yeah, I was just watching this show ("Dirty Jobs") yesterday. They showed these guys pulling up logs (no bark) from a lake. There was no rotting apparently due to cold water and very little oxygen. Seems like they would have been perfect for carving. Then today I start bebarking a few cedar logs with my chainsaw and some of the bark ripped off before the cut. Damn it was smooth. Not that I didn't notice before, I just added 2 plus 2 and had a brainstorm. There has to be a better way.

I was reading about Maori carvers burying their logs to "season" them. Let me hit the books again & get back with you on that particular method.

Let me know if this works cause I have a part chow mix (dog) that I would like to de-bark as well. i had a feeling that holding her under water for about 2 hours might do the trick.
I know its sick humor but the relatives just left and I had been on my best behavior.

I've bebarked howler monkeys. Only took about 5 minutes.

B

For a lot of logs like this with thin bark, I wouldn't remove it at al until I carved it away. Much easier.

I've come up with a secret formula for debarking. It's easy, just send me 20 frog skins and I'll tell you how to do it. Here's an image of the log after I easily stripped some of the bark with my gloved hands. No poop. It took 2 1/2 months of soaking in a 55 gallon drum with my secret formula. Send skins now and all you carvers can save yourself some hard work and time.

B

The easiest way to remove fresh cedar bark is with a pressure washer using a 0 Degree tip. 15 degree will work but much slower and doesn't get in the crevices of new branching as well.

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