# How many of you debark your wood?



## NH_Wood (Apr 21, 2010)

I'm resplitting a good deal of red oak and maple (decided smaller splits will work better for me). As I was dipping into the stacks, I decided to take a lot of oak splits and debark them - just to see how much moisture was there. Turns out A LOT of moisture was under the bark (even turning some of the wood a little punky I think). I'm wondering what this does to dry time. Also, does this moisture eventually leave, or does the rest of the split season and the layer between bark and wood stay fairly wet? Most top pieces were dry, but as soon as I got a foot or so down in the stacks, pretty wet (by the way, I made an error and stacked this 6 cord in two, 3 cord rows, with essentially not air space betwen the pallets, so not a lot of wind passing through - I'm fixing this problem as I restack after resplitting). This wood is still fairly green - split and stacked last May/June. I'm wondering if debarking is worth the effort - I assume debarked wood dries a lot faster. What says you all? Cheers!


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## LLigetfa (Apr 21, 2010)

No Oak here.  I usually burn Ash and if the bark is loose, I pull it off.  If/when I process Birch, I take off as much of the bark that I can before stacking it.


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## iceman (Apr 21, 2010)

I had this debate in another thread awhile back... I do BELIEVE that debarked wood will dry faster as bark seems to always be moist under it.....  when my wood dries i take the bark off and throw away or bury with mulch ... I do not debark it before stacking, only when it is loose enough for me to pull off... my reason for this is i believe it creates much more ash in my stove.. when i dont have bark in the stove i go longer in between cleanings......  BUT it is prolly a pain to take off bark when spliting

Ps my stacks are very tight as my neighbors would throw a fit if wood was all over my backyard... they already do now, and i try to keep it in the furtherest corner ...  so its imperative for me to be 2 yrs ahead, but i wonder if i stacked loose with more air if i could speed up seasoning and NOT have to have so much wood on hand year round?!?!?!?


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## SolarAndWood (Apr 21, 2010)

If its coming off, I'll help it along.   But, I will make more storage space long before I go to any effort to debark.


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## bsa0021 (Apr 21, 2010)

iceman said:
			
		

> I had this debate in another thread awhile back... I do BELIEVE that debarked wood will dry faster as bark seems to always be moist under it.....  when my wood dries i take the bark off and throw away or bury with mulch ... I do not debark it before stacking, only when it is loose enough for me to pull off... my reason for this is i believe it creates much more ash in my stove.. when i dont have bark in the stove i go longer in between cleanings......  BUT it is prolly a pain to take off bark when spliting
> 
> Ps my stacks are very tight as my neighbors would throw a fit if wood was all over my backyard... they already do now, and i try to keep it in the furtherest corner ...  so its imperative for me to be 2 yrs ahead, but i wonder if i stacked loose with more air if i could speed up seasoning and NOT have to have so much wood on hand year round?!?!?!?



How do you stack loose and not have the stack fall over? Unless your talking chimney stacking.


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## bogydave (Apr 21, 2010)

Bark is BTU's. 
I burn any that stays on in the process & don't make an effort to remove it.
Mostly birch here & the bark helps the fire blaze up quick.


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## iceman (Apr 21, 2010)

bogydave said:
			
		

> Bark is BTU's.
> I burn any that stays on in the process & don't make an effort to remove it.
> Mostly birch here & the bark helps the fire blaze up quick.



good point, although birchs bark isnt nearly as thick as some of the others (in my case oak)
i wish i could get some birch!


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## iceman (Apr 21, 2010)

bsa0021 said:
			
		

> iceman said:
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when i stack "tight" i basically move at a slower pace, take my time to "fit pieces in tighter... when i stack loose i am just putting down pieces ... it shows when you look at the row.. you can see "light" through it .. when i stack tight there isnt much to see but wood   I also dont space my rows by more than a couple of inches...


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## firefighterjake (Apr 21, 2010)

I've seen this debarking debate pop up a few times here and honestly it still blows me away . . . given the choice of spending time debarking my wood or going out and getting more wood cut, split and stacked I would 100% of the time side with the idea of getting more wood processed vs. spending time and energy debarking my wood. 

I do believe that debarking may help speed the drying process (but honestly this is just a guess on my part), but since I'm using wood that is well over a year+ old I'm not overly worried about excessive moisture in the wood and can think of many, many things that need to be done around the house than debarking my wood pile and feel that the time to benefit ratio is just not high enough for me to justify doing this. If the bark falls off naturally, chances are I'll toss it into the woods to be tree food . . . otherwise the bark is just extra BTU.


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## quads (Apr 21, 2010)

NH_Wood said:
			
		

> I'm resplitting a good deal of red oak and maple (decided smaller splits will work better for me). As I was dipping into the stacks, I decided to take a lot of oak splits and debark them - just to see how much moisture was there. Turns out A LOT of moisture was under the bark (even turning some of the wood a little punky I think). I'm wondering what this does to dry time. Also, does this moisture eventually leave, or does the rest of the split season and the layer between bark and wood stay fairly wet? Most top pieces were dry, but as soon as I got a foot or so down in the stacks, pretty wet (by the way, I made an error and stacked this 6 cord in two, 3 cord rows, with essentially not air space betwen the pallets, so not a lot of wind passing through - I'm fixing this problem as I restack after resplitting). This wood is still fairly green - split and stacked last May/June. I'm wondering if debarking is worth the effort - I assume debarked wood dries a lot faster. What says you all? Cheers!


Oak debarks itself.  If your oak still has bark on it, then it hasn't seasoned long enough yet.  Once it's ready to burn, the bark will be falling off on it's own.  What few pieces may remain with a piece of bark sticking here and there, gets debarked in the stove.


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## ChillyGator (Apr 21, 2010)

quads said:
			
		

> NH_Wood said:
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That's what I find with my water oak.  When the bark gets loose I take it off to keep down the dust/dirt/crap out of the house.  
A lot of the Pecan I've been doing this spring had moss/lichens that were thick in places, a couple slices with the machette takes it right off.


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## NH_Wood (Apr 21, 2010)

Thanks for all of your replies - I think I'll stop the debarking and just get the splits not so tightly stacked. Cheers!


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## PapaDave (Apr 21, 2010)

While processing, if some bark comes off, I'll toss aside. While stacking, I'll do the same. Once dry, the bark wants to come off while moving to the house, so I start a little stack of bark, small branches, and slivers of splits to be used as kindling and sometimes as kindling AND a quick stove and flue warmer. Yes, some more ash, but I don't count how many times I empty those from the stove.
I can see where having whiny neighbors, and a lack of storage would get you thinking this way. Do what you have to do, but no, I don't purposely do it.
I have some oak that just got put in the stove this morning (oak) that was c/s/s almost 20 months ago. One had bark on it, the other....not. BOTH are showing signs of moisture in the fire. Very anecdotal rather than scientific, but gives a very small sample of what to expect. However, I've seen this many times, and have come to the conclusion than oak needs about 30 years to dry before being burned. :ahhh:
Good thing I've been following Dennis' advise to get ahead, and have the room to do so, or I may have given up on this "lifestyle" a while back.


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## Danno77 (Apr 21, 2010)

if you handle your wood enough the bark usually comes right off. At least that's what my grandma used to tell me.


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## rdust (Apr 21, 2010)

I've never considered it.  If I split the wood and the bark comes off I call it good, if not I call it good. 

How does one debark when it's new wood that the bark is tight on?


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## Battenkiller (Apr 21, 2010)

rdust said:
			
		

> I've never considered it.  If I split the wood and the bark comes off I call it good, if not I call it good.
> 
> How does one debark when it's new wood that the bark is tight on?



Right.  Plus, winter cut wood doesn't give up its bark too easy, even after it's been seasoned for a few years.  Woodworkers desiring natural bark edges on their rustic looking pieces all know about the importance of getting winter cut wood for these projects.  Otherwise, they have to glue the bark on to keep it from falling off.

I do feel that any kind of bark helps retain water, _especially_ rain water that gets underneath it - between bark and wood - once it starts to loosen up.  Most times I see bark falling off the wood it is at least two years old, and there is mold on the inside surface.  That's why I believe in only exposing it to the rain for the first year, and then getting it under cover after that if your are storing it longer.

As far as making an effort to deliberately remove it when it's stuck fast, not even worth considering IMO.  If it falls off, I toss it into the big compost heap (the woods), otherwise it stays on.  Now, if my wood delivery guys want to debark it so they can get more solid wood into the truck.... ;-)


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## NH_Wood (Apr 21, 2010)

I guy I work with debarks all his wood when he cuts trees in the spring (he cuts a longitudnal line down the trunk with the saw). Used a 'spud' - a metal spatula - and he indicates that if you get to it right away, all bark peels of in a single round piece. He thinks the wood dries much faster and he keeps all bark for kindling. Cheers!


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## sksmass (Apr 21, 2010)

If the bark comes off as I am splitting I drop it right under my feet.  Now, my processing area has a little bark "floor", almost like mulch.  I think it keeps my area from getting muddy.  Is also insurance against my Fiskars blade hitting a rock if it happens to fall blade down towards the ground.


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## Flatbedford (Apr 21, 2010)

What bark falls off comes off. That's all I do about bark. Another reason I like splitting larger rounds. Most of the splits don't have bark on them.


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## billb3 (Apr 21, 2010)

stacked naked cherry sounds good to me


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## kenny chaos (Apr 21, 2010)

All kinds of anal people around.
Be cool, don't debark.


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## Later (Apr 21, 2010)

According to my wife, mine comes off between the dining room and living room.


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## Backwoods Savage (Apr 21, 2010)

As I've stated before, putting up firewood is work enough and I am not about to add to that hard work by taking the bark off some wood. When it turns into ash, it is pretty light so we'll deal with it that way. Besides, my wife takes care of all the ash. lol.

With the emerald ash borer taking up residence in our woods we now find that a lot of bark comes off the wood as it is being split and stacked. That just gets used for mulch. The rest stays on. 

It still goes back to the simple formula. KISS. Keep it simple sir! Don't add to your work anything that doe not necessarily have to be added. Worry more about getting your wood supply on hand well before it is needed. Translation:  Get 2-3 years ahead in your firewood supply and you will be a very happy camper with few problems. The only problem is getting to that point the first time. After that, it is easy to stay ahead unless one tends to be lazy. If so, he will be cutting only when he needs the wood and have poor results.


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## Wood Duck (Apr 21, 2010)

I'd say that after it dries about half or more of my firewood has bark loose enough to fall off or be easily pulled off. I one time debarked a Chestnut Oak that was punky on the outside in order to remove some of the soft punky outer wood, but that is about the only time I have bothered. Still, after I split I end up with a big pile of bark that fell off as a side effect of splitting.


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## Markyboy (Apr 26, 2010)

The only de-barked wood I have is the wood that de-barks itself! I would like to de-bark my dog, however!


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