Bark

[masoth]

NO, NO!! Sit Rover, I'm asking the brainstrust for help.

Last Sunday I happened upon the remains of a very large area cleared for residential sub-division. Small heaps of partially burned wood was there for the taking. Years ago a bush fire raged through, and now the purposful burning is being taken. I tell all this to stress how the wood has been made so hard.
I have an interesting piece of burnt-out yellow Mallee and have just 31 days to create something polished to a smooth, lustrous .......... thing. I do know how it will look, but my problem is how to get the amazingly tough bark off. It's been soaking for three days and I have removed 1Kg so far. What I have used is a knife, a grout removing tool, a wire brush, and the attachment mini-grinder mentioned in another thread recently. Still about one third remains - I know it's bark, so PLEASE tell my arthritic hands/wrists how to get it off?

Ta a bit, soth

ps: Can we have a new Smilie - a hand holding a glass (wine or beer, I dont mind.)

[RufflyRustic]

:confused: Sandblast?? :confused:

Good luck! I can so empathise with aching hands.

cheers
Wendy

[fxst]

A blowtorch???????? if it dont come off at least you will have warm hands
Pete

[masoth]

Wendy - have you ever visited Mildura in, say, September? Sandblast ?????????? That's an unacceptable "four letter word" in this wood of the neck.

fxst I'm ignoring you !!!!!!!!
It's already been through two B**&^* fires.

Now, in case I've been rude to either of you, my Forum Friends, I have not yet looked to se where you live................ so 'cuse me a bit.

[ozwinner]

ps: Can we have a new Smilie - a hand holding a glass (wine or beer, I dont mind.)

Like this,

How about a coffee.

Or this.

Available here from our sponsor Ubeaut.

Al

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

I use a cheap duct-cutting knife (about 12" long with a 1/8" thick spine) and a hammer to shave the worst bark off. Not much chop if you're after a "natural look" finish, though. (No pun intended. )

I use to use a spokeshave and drawknife, but lost too much steel too quickly.

[Toymaker Len]

Waterblaster is the only thing I know of that really works. Needs 4000psi and at least 15 litres per minute so a big one. Maybe a graffitii removing firm or a burl seller. I rent one about once a year for a day and get covered in shredded bark and soaked but it does the trick.

[journeyman Mick]

Masoth,
how big is the lump of timber? When debarking fence posts we used to belt the bark with the back of the axe (sledge hammer would work also) to loosen it. You just keep belting it and turning the log and it eventually starts to come loose. then it's just a matter of getting the sharp edge of the axe between the bark and the log and stripping it off. Hard work, but it does work.

Mick

[scooter]

Air chisel mebbe ?

[RufflyRustic]

Sorry Masoth, I haven't been to where you are, so I'll just take my foot out of my mouth in prep for putting it back in, soon,

I used a cold chisel and a mallet to get the bark off some SheOak logs. The cold chisel was pretty blunt but it worked a treat, or maybe I was lucky that the thick bark came away easily.

cheers
Wendy

[masoth]

Very good replies folks, and I love the drinkers too.
I do want to retain the natural "pimples" that are part of the Mallee character so too much violence is unacceptable. The piece is roughly 18x9 inches with the heartwood burnt out, and a natural 'chimney' where a small branchlet burned out completely.
I wil have a try with a water jet, but doubt my machine has the pressure needed.
Wendy, we have so called dust-storms, which are actually sand-storms, that have the density to brown out Melbourne 650Kms distant. The last biggish one was calculated (by the CSIRO ????) to have dumped 4.5 TONNES on some part of New Zealand.
I will talk to a blaster of sand - if the wood can retain the features I want then I'll probably do that.

Thanks all. Soth

[BobL]

Very good replies folks, and I love the drinkers too.
I do want to retain the natural "pimples" that are part of the Mallee character so too much violence is unacceptable. The piece is roughly 18x9 inches with the heartwood burnt out, and a natural 'chimney' where a small branchlet burned out completely.
I wil have a try with a water jet, but doubt my machine has the pressure needed.

I have used a wire wheel on an angle grinder with a very light touch to remove bark. Using a thick wire wheel and an angle grinder that removes the bulk of the bark and if the wood is hard enough (eg red-gum) I will grind right up to the sap wood with this arrangement. You need to grind in the same direction as the grain or surface texture using light short strokes . For softer wood or where you want to keep all the surface features, after I have removed the bulk of the bark with the angle grinder I switch to a light brass wire wheel on a low speed drill. Unfortunately I don't have any really good photos of the brass wire finish but the first shows the sort of finish you get with the thick wire wheel on red-gum. This is the edge of a picture frame - it does leave lines on the surface but they look reasonably natural. The second shows you can even keep some surface dimples even with the thick wire wheel. The brass wheel is much better for retaining surface features.

It looks pretty daggy if you leave even small scraps of bark on the wood as it easily picks up, hold and shows household lint and dust.

Cheers

[Wild Dingo]

Mate... you need... wait for it!!!

Oxy Aceteline tanks!!

either that or a flame thrower!

either that or major dose of good old fashioned patience a sharp bread knife and a keg of the good brew of choicel

oooh to hell with it just get the good oil sit back cogitate and by about the 13th jug you will shink of shumshink hick urrp ahhh

whats the breadknife in aid of I hear the lovely Wendy askin herself in confused wonderment?... well to butter the bread with!! Strewth how else you gonna have lunch? I mean a fellas gotta eat while hes drinkin while hes cogitatin his problem with the bark that hes just burnt the timber out frum under it doesnt he?

[masoth]

Shane, I wish you'd made youir suggestiions earlier. I let it soak for a few extra days - then adopted what you DIDN'T SAY. Looking at the sodden bark I opened a beer. I looked with renewed curiousity at the cap - da da, execellent bark remover, but not easy on Arthur-Rightus.

No copywrite on this amazing tool - yet!!!!!

soth