removing dry hickory bark?

[WhistlingBadger]

I got a great-looking hickory stave in the mail yesterday, but it still has the bark on, and it is really hardened.  I can take off a lot of it with a hammer and chisel, but I'm wondering how to get it off from in between the fiber chords without damaging the back (and without it taking two years).  Any suggestions?

[RyanY]

I usually start by wedging the draw knife close to the cambium under the bark at one end. If I start off right I’ve gotten large portions of the bark to just pop off. The rest can be scraped off pretty easily without damaging the back.

[Eric Krewson]

I wouldn't use a hammer and chisel, too easy to cut a gouge into the sapwood below the bark.

I made a mistake and cut a pile of hickory past the mid summer, the bark was not slipping off easily, I got out my drawknife and started slicing, when I got down to the cambium layer I draw knifed most of it off until the sapwood back was peaking out in a few places. I use a scraper to carefully  remove cambium to expose the back.

I had 17 staves, it took me two weeks to get them all down to the pristine back, I chased the grain on a few that I had violated the grain on.

[HH~]

Yeah, nuthin worse than peeling dryed on hickory bark. Must be done while summer green or yer in deep kimchee.

Hedge~

[Hamish]

I feel your pain Eric, that's a lot of work> (been there myself many times:)

[Fox]

I wouldn't use a hammer and chisel, too easy to cut a gouge into the sapwood below the bark.

I made a mistake and cut a pile of hickory past the mid summer, the bark was not slipping off easily, I got out my drawknife and started slicing, when I got down to the cambium layer I draw knifed most of it off until the sapwood back was peaking out in a few places. I use a scraper to carefully  remove cambium to expose the back.

I had 17 staves, it took me two weeks to get them all down to the pristine back, I chased the grain on a few that I had violated the grain on.

been there ... no fun.... I used the same method.

[Dances with squirrels]

I do the same thing Eric does. Not much fun. I have several in the garage that I cut in the fall a couple years ago. I didn't have a choice of when to cut it. The bark is like concrete now. They're still sitting there staring at me. I'll probably cut them up for the smoker before I'll take the bark off. 

I've taken the bulk of it off with the bandsaw with success. Going at it from angles to reduce the chance of violating the sapwood. It saves a lot of work, but there's more risk involved.

[Allyn T]

I used a draw knife for mine but something I want to try is get the hard bark off and use a pressure washer to remove the cambium. Bjrogg does this and says it works great

[WhistlingBadger]

Well, I just ordered a stouter draw-knife.  Maybe I'll be headed to the car wash in a week or so.     Wish me luck, and thanks, Allyn, for the upper-body workout.

[gutpile]

I never tried it but since it is literally the sap holding the bark on like cement.. I wonder if heating the bark with a heat gun might help.. a buddy brought me some hickory the other day that was cut last week of fall... it certainly won't pop off like a summer cut... its still wet too.. I might just try to heat it with the gun just to see if it might help getting it started anyway... gut

[Allyn T]

Now you see why I shipped it with bark on lol, that woulda been a lot of work for me : )

[Fox]

Yeah the pressure washer thing doesn’t work... at least it didn’t for me... I used a real proper pressure washer and all it did was get the stave wet 

[Weylin]

If you want to be extra careful and thorough you can do it this way... draw knife all the bark and most of the cambium being careful not to touch the actual wood with the draw knife, but get as close as you can. Then get a kettle of boiling water and pour it over a section. While the cambium is still hot and wet you can use a spoon to scrape it off and get a pristine back. It's tedious but it works and you wont have any nicks or violations on your back.

[TimBo]

I have used Weylin's method, and it seems like the best for me.  "Tedious but it works" beats "tedious but it mostly works" by a lot!

[WhistlingBadger]

OK, I'll give that a shot.  Thanks for the input, guys.
T