How easy was that? (skinning Hickory)

[cowboy]

I'd heard it mentioned on here before but had never seen it for myself. The last batch of Hickory I hauled home I cut in the winter months and it was draw knife hell (so's to speak) was a lot of work. Cut em this time of year and it's gravy!!! It's like a new revelation for me. I was helping on a job in Tyler TX - one of the guys on the crew there knew of a place to cut a tree so I harvested one - bout a fourteen incher @ the base, got two logs out of it and fourteen dandy staves - don't know yet how many dandy bows but they should start coming out by this time next year.

For the guys that don't know (when you cut Hickory this time of year) take a hammer and give the bark a couple of good whops to loosen the end, then just peel it off - gravy........ here's a few pic's.


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[Pat B]

Paul, Seal those staves. They might won't check but if they do, look what you will loose. Spray shellac and about 10 minutes and its done.
  I love the way under bark hickory looks. Makes an excellent bow with the correct M/C. Nice haul!          
   Pat

ps. I've never seen that trick with the bark and the sledge but I will use it.

[Badger]

Man, I cant believe how easy that came off, I always buy my staves with the bark on and I go through a lot of work to get them not near that clean. Steve
Like Pat said, if you havent allready sealed them I would do it tonight, they can crack just over one day. Steve

[cowboy]

thanks Pat - Steve. Don't worry, I've learned my lesson on the sealing thing. They all got a good slathering of Elmers as soon as they got peeled (see the shiny coat on them?) Took the skin off to get rid of buggies, and sealed them to avoid crackies. Guess I'll take em to the Ponderosa tomorrow and store in one of the retired cars for safe keeping.

[Pat B]

Paul, Take one of those down to floor tiller stage, put it on a form and in a month you will be able to start working it. Don't make it too strong. It will increase in strength over the next year or so.    Pat

[Hillbilly]

That hickory inner bark makes good cordage and lashing material, too.

[GregB]

After popping off the bark like you showed, we usually scrape off the cambium layer as well before we seal the back. It has a lot of moisture in it, and getting it off the back seems to help. Hopefully yours will be fine as is...

[Marc St Louis]

The bark only peels like that in the spring. Try doing that with Fall or Winter cut wood and it will drive you crazy

[Pappy]

That's the way we do it .We do wipe them off good and seal the back.Like has been said sometimes they will check and sometimes they won't but it ant worth the risk.We lost a whole truck load a few years back so now we wipe it and seal.Good haul.Planning on cutting some Sat.
about 24 inches across the stump at least 30 ft. to the first limb.
   Pappy

[TRACY]

Where am I gonna get my exercise if I don't have to de-bark my hickory staves the hard way?lol! Looks like a great cache of staves and definitely a great technique Cowboy. I'm with Pat B, you could be working that wood a lot sooner, if you were wanting to. Great pics.

[DanaM]

Nice haul cowboy, my adresss is..........

[Badger]

I find myself just keep comming back looking at those staves, Dam thats a pretty sight! Steve

[DBernier]

Nice haul Cowboy. Hey whose stone house is that. Nice.

Dick

[cowboy]

Thanks for advice guys - I'll prolly get one of them worked down soon. Have several hick's in the house that have been drying for months. Wish Id'a known about inner bark cordage , think it's too dry to use now. Did take a look at em after work today and noticed some small cracks on a few of them even after all the Elmers - I was in a hurry and glued them while they were still wet, will dry them first from now on. I know Steve (Badger) I keep lookin at em and dreaming too , now if I could only build bows like you do.

 Hey Dick: That's my fish house. I got tired of cleaning fish under the ole dim front porch light and gittin eat up with skeeters, I built that to clean fish and game in. It's a good sturdy structure but will prolly never tackle such a project again unless I can have the rock delivered. The hardest part was hauling all that stone up the lakeshore and loading in trailer