[Strawbale] Oak debarking

[Barbara Roemer & Glenn Miller]

Speireag, you wrote:

>      Just felled some oak (northern red), which, starting in a few
> weeks, will act as posts for the extension of the roof.
> 
>SNIP 
>      So they're sitting there, and I haven't cut the slash off, so
> that transpiration will assist with drying.  How long can I leave
> them before the bark adheres?

We debark immediately - whenever everything is still juicy, using a draw
knife with the logs stacked to a comfortable height.  Sometimes a few days
in hot dry weather is too much, but if spring is cool and damp, we may have
ten days or two weeks.  We usually fell and draw in spring, just when the
sap is running high, and the pieces of back strip off easily in great
sopping sections, whether pine, oak, or fir.  If we have to let logs lie
about, they sit through a winter til the bark separates and begins to fall
off, but we pay the price in bark beetle damage and blue stain.  (Pine blue
stain fetches less at the mill, but MORE as a 'decorative' interesting
milled wood - doesn't matter to us as we just mill for ourselves and others
in trade, not for resale, but it is an odd market manipulation.)  If you
just cut the oak now, while the sap isn't running, I'd skid it or get it up
on blocks off the ground, letting it sit til spring or even late this fall
until the bark separates.  Seal the ends with latex paint to cut down on
checking and start another project.  If you have a spud, you can peel it
more forcefully now - I don't know what a debarker is, but maybe that's what
you have.  Oak is hard enough that you probably won't damage it, and it will
dry much faster than does softwood.  I prefer the drawknife because the spud
is a bit harder to control due to its additional weight, but I'm slight.
Probably no problem for you!  Leaving the slash on does mean they transpire
faster, but you may see more openness at the knots then....

Barbara