Harvesting/Preparing Birchbark
Birch bark queries:
I have a lot of Silver Birch growing in my area. Is this species suitable for obtaining bark?
Does it matter what time of year it?s harvested?
Can it be collected from fallen trees?
How is it prepared (peeled down to thin layers)?
All information gratefully received.
best regards,
Dylan
I have a lot of Silver Birch growing in my area. Is this species suitable for obtaining bark?
Does it matter what time of year it?s harvested?
Can it be collected from fallen trees?
How is it prepared (peeled down to thin layers)?
All information gratefully received.
best regards,
Dylan
Finally my years of training and degrees in Forestry and Natural Resource Management pay off!
Any species of birch with the distinctive white plated bark is suitable; however the White or Paper Birch species have much looser bark. The best time to harvest birch bark is mid June to mid July, while the sap is still ?high?. In mid-winter the bark clings to the wood much harder.
Both live and dead trees can yield useable bark. To harvest, the bark is scored with a razor knife and then some other utensil like a wooden wedge or wide pry bar is used to get behind the bark and pop/peel it off off the tree. With dead trees, because the bark holds the moisture in so well, often the wood center isso rotten and crumbly you can knock the wood out with a finger.
Because it is the outer bark that is harvested, technically the Birch can heal over small, stripped areas; although it really mars the appearance with ugly black scars. When the Indians harvested the bark for canoes they included the thicker, more rugged waterproof inner bark thus exposing the cambium layer and girdling (killing) the tree.
The trick is to keep the bark flat. Once you have a sheet of bark off, roll it up at 90 degrees to the direction it was curled around the trunk. Store the rolls for a couple weeks or months to let them cure. Plates of bark can be disassembled into thinner sheets by soaking in warm water and then peeling the layers away. If they still curl too much, soak the bark layers and place in a plywood press to flatten them until dry.
Any species of birch with the distinctive white plated bark is suitable; however the White or Paper Birch species have much looser bark. The best time to harvest birch bark is mid June to mid July, while the sap is still ?high?. In mid-winter the bark clings to the wood much harder.
Both live and dead trees can yield useable bark. To harvest, the bark is scored with a razor knife and then some other utensil like a wooden wedge or wide pry bar is used to get behind the bark and pop/peel it off off the tree. With dead trees, because the bark holds the moisture in so well, often the wood center isso rotten and crumbly you can knock the wood out with a finger.
Because it is the outer bark that is harvested, technically the Birch can heal over small, stripped areas; although it really mars the appearance with ugly black scars. When the Indians harvested the bark for canoes they included the thicker, more rugged waterproof inner bark thus exposing the cambium layer and girdling (killing) the tree.
The trick is to keep the bark flat. Once you have a sheet of bark off, roll it up at 90 degrees to the direction it was curled around the trunk. Store the rolls for a couple weeks or months to let them cure. Plates of bark can be disassembled into thinner sheets by soaking in warm water and then peeling the layers away. If they still curl too much, soak the bark layers and place in a plywood press to flatten them until dry.
Dylan (and others) ?? you might be interested in his document:
http://www.histofakt.com/downloads/birch.pdf
Some paragraphs on harvesting, preparing, drying and storing of birch bark ??and a whole bunch of pictures of what to do with it!
(English text starts on p.11)
Edit: I uploaded the pdf to my own webspace and changed the link. Please try again, it should work now.
http://www.histofakt.com/downloads/birch.pdf
Some paragraphs on harvesting, preparing, drying and storing of birch bark ??and a whole bunch of pictures of what to do with it!
(English text starts on p.11)
Edit: I uploaded the pdf to my own webspace and changed the link. Please try again, it should work now.
Dylan, Andrew Hall from the UK recently made a birch bark quiver with some native silver birch bark.
KenH, that's a clear and informative description, thank you. Here (Poland) the silver birch bark is quite a chore if it comes to getting larger clear pieces of bark, it's full of blemishes (forget canoes), unfortunately the paper birch isn't native to Europe.
Jsachers, the link doesn't work, could you help?
KenH, that's a clear and informative description, thank you. Here (Poland) the silver birch bark is quite a chore if it comes to getting larger clear pieces of bark, it's full of blemishes (forget canoes), unfortunately the paper birch isn't native to Europe.
Jsachers, the link doesn't work, could you help?
It works now, thank you.
Thanks for the advice/link.
I'll wait till the weather warms up, then give it a go. I'm only looking for enough to cover the sinew back on a bow, so can probably manage with smallish pieces.
I'll wait till the weather warms up, then give it a go. I'm only looking for enough to cover the sinew back on a bow, so can probably manage with smallish pieces.