Soaking cedar logs in water for bark removal

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.

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.

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.

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.