How to debark seasoned Hop Hornbeam stave

[DC]

After scraping the bulk of the bark off carefully I use a spritzer bottle to spray water on it. Let it soak for a few minutes and then scrape it with a plastic scraper or stiff plastic brush. Sometimes I have to put a rag over the back and soak it with water. It sounds counter productive to wet down your nicely dried stave but the water really only soaks into the bark.
I've found that Bownarra's method works great with Yew but I haven't had much luck with it on other local species. Some bark sticks like glue

PS I've never even seen HHB so take that into considereation

[zonic]

Thanks for all the advice. I'm hearing that I need to get more bark off. I'm inclined to go for the floor tiller to let the bark pop off. This means the initial layout I did will come off also, but I'm not 100% satisfied how I tried to follow grain/stave twist on the one limb anyway.

How narrow/thin do I need to reduce before bending on the floor??

[zonic]

I started attempting to reduce the stave from belly side, hoping I could get enough wood off to "pop" bark off with floor tiller. It revealed some things to me, like this large knot at one end that wasn't evident from the bark side.

[PatM]

Grown over knots are very common and the evidence of them on the bark side is dependent on how long ago they broke off and grew over.   That one will  disappear as you reduce and show as a bit of a bowl   shaped depression.

[zonic]

Thanks Pat. That's a relief!

[zonic]

I've been reducing belly and sides (the knot did disappear). Not sure how/if to correct limbs twist. Remainder of bark (about 1/16") still not "popping" off back, but stave is barely bending at this point.

[zonic]

Another pic