stubburn bark

[ohiocountryboy]

 I thought the bark is supposed to peel right off this time of year,this  S.B hickory ive been fighting with  didnt get the memo. Whats the secret?

[burchett.donald]

What state do you live in? You may be a little early depending on location...Michigan had snow last week and S.C was 82 today...I know the sap is running here, everything is blossomed. Hickory can be a tough customer...
                                                                                                                      Don

[ohiocountryboy]

Cincinnati

[Pat B]

That's why I wait until the leaves are out.

[burchett.donald]

Well shucks! I should've figured the state you live in by your name, oh well long day yesterday. Yea as Pat said when them leaves first pop out...Your a hair early there...I lived in Cleveland for 8 yrs. Beautiful State...
                                      Don

[Marc St Louis]

I prefer to cut before the leaves are out since by then the tree has started putting on an early growth ring.  I have found out though that it's fairly easy to remove the bark from a tree that has been cut down in late Winter if you wait till the sap starts to flow in the trees.  The log doesn't know it's been cut and will actually try to go through the process of flowing sap and making leaves.  Timing is crucial here though.

[osage outlaw]

I'm an hour west of you and the bark isn't slipping for me either.  I just cut a hackberry tree and you could tell it was close, but not yet there.  Maybe another week or two and it will be time to cut some wood.

[NeolithicMan]

Shagbark hickory is a beast any time of year once it grows big enough to have the shaggy lookin bark. That stuff gets hard as a rock, flip the log/stave upside down and use a hatchet to get of the hard peeling lookin bark and eerything under it should come off easy enough. I use a dull but thick drawblade to strip it off fast. if you wait until may or even june its even easier.

[George Tsoukalas]

Marc, please explain more. Did not sync for me.  Sap comes from the  roots.
How could sap flow with out the roots?
The tree you cut in late winter may have already started to sap. Jawge

[Marc St Louis]

George
There is sap in the wood all the time.  A tree stores up water for the long drought of winter.  When you cut a tree in the winter the log still has a lot of water stored in the wood which tries to flow when it warms up, like right now for me.  I cut a Rock Maple this winter and now the sap is starting to ooze out the ends.  I could easily remove the bark in the next couple weeks.

[Pat B]

I knew a guy years ago that grafted Japanese maples. He graft 10,000 every year and would start his grafts in late January when the bark was "slipping". Different trees might slip at different times too but it is the new growth growing under the bark that allows it to slip.

[Pappy]

I always wait till late spring or early summer for that reason.
 Pappy

[TRACY]

Cut a 5" ironwood (hop hornbeam) tree this morning that peeled alright. Got a few strips to run all 6 feet and cleaned up the rest quickly with draw knife.

Tracy

[osage outlaw]

The sap is flowing good in the osage trees now.