Birch bark processing

Scott Hanson said:
Two of the trees I have huge, each one could probable make one canoe. I watched a U-tube video on making birch bark canoes and the amount of work that goes into one unbelievable. The one on the house is gone already but the two standing ones will get removed end of May or first part of June along with about four more smaller ones.View attachment 3176507
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Those are pretty scarred up....Must have been the construction crew that built the house....... they'll come.with a crane and hook em up n cut em at the bottom.......Tree work has changed drastically in the last 10-15 years with gear and tech... Life.is a lot easier for a climber nowadays..👌
 
jfk1110 said:
Those are pretty scarred up....Must have been the construction crew that built the house....... they'll come.with a crane and hook em up n cut em at the bottom.......Tree work has changed drastically in the last 10-15 years with gear and tech... Life.is a lot easier for a climber nowadays..👌
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The house was built first and the trees were added later. The scar on the base of tree on the far left side of the pic was from my son when he was little. He beat a whole in it with a wooden mallet thinking syrup would come out. There is a long scar up the center of the tree, but I think the bark just cracked on its own.
 
Scott Hanson said:
I am having a bunch of large white birch trees cut down in my yard end of May early June and am planning on taking some of the bark from them. What would be the best way to stack and dry the sheets?
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The best way I found was to cut a straight slice down about 2' with horizontal cuts around top and bottom. Peel the sheets and cut them into letter paper sizes, stack them flat between plywood and put a weight on to keep them flat while they dry. 2 weeks should be fine but you can check every so often to see if they are holding shape. Leave them as is until you are ready to use them, then brush with a bristle brush to get the flakes and stuff off, cut around any heavy knots or anything that wont keep the pieces flat and then you can cut into 1.5" wide strips, or whatever width you plan on making the handle (+ about .5" for shaping). I watched a traditional video about a dozen years ago about making a jig to stack all the pieces on and then bake in the oven for a bit, the resin in the bark glued it all together under the heat and pressure from the jig. Very little glue to worry about in the end.
 
tattooedfreak said:
The best way I found was to cut a straight slice down about 2' with horizontal cuts around top and bottom. Peel the sheets and cut them into letter paper sizes, stack them flat between plywood and put a weight on to keep them flat while they dry. 2 weeks should be fine but you can check every so often to see if they are holding shape. Leave them as is until you are ready to use them, then brush with a bristle brush to get the flakes and stuff off, cut around any heavy knots or anything that wont keep the pieces flat and then you can cut into 1.5" wide strips, or whatever width you plan on making the handle (+ about .5" for shaping). I watched a traditional video about a dozen years ago about making a jig to stack all the pieces on and then bake in the oven for a bit, the resin in the bark glued it all together under the heat and pressure from the jig. Very little glue to worry about in the end.
Click to expand...
Thanks, these trees will be cut down in about a month so it should be good timing to peel some bark and get it drying.
 
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