Harvesting Poplar Bark Siding in the Woods - Peeling Logs

Poplar bark siding was something I discovered when Googling for information regarding the use of poplar logs for cabin building. As soon as I saw it I wanted to do it. I quickly made up reasons in my head of why I need to cut down a poplar tree and set out into the woods to find a tree....mostly looking for larger strain trees clear of branches as high as possible. This video shows my first experience peeling the bark and getting it home. In a future video I'll show more about using the bark on my sawmill building I'm currently working on.
Thanks for watching.

[@keenowl1410]

I like this guys style. Inelegant, peaceful, calm and comprehensible. Nice change from the obnoxious yahoos always fronting like they are some ruffneck.

[@harryballsacky]

YOU GUYS SHOULD DATE

[@nickmatney6605]

I had the pleasure of helping a friend harvest poplar bark for the first time earlier this year. We cut rings around the tree every 4ft or so in the same manner that you cut along the length. It made handling the stripped bark a bit more manageable then the 10-12ft section you were working with.

[@stuttgurth]

Did you use a log roller/peevee to cut the rings?

[@tonybowers9490]

Been watching you for many years. You continue to amaze me. May you continue to have success on your journey. As always, thanks for sharing.

[@DavidMartin-ev2kt]

I have watched thousands of videos in general on every industry you can think of. I have never seen anything like this and your thumbnail is probably the coolest thumbnail I've ever seen. Excellent job here and I hope you don't consider it wasting time because this was beautiful. Thanks for more great content. Love your videos.

[@WelchFamilyHomestead]

I built several hundred log homes and rustic homes over the years and I have used a lot of the popular bark for siding. I installed it on my own log home as well. It has its advantages.

[@MrKanjidude]

Glad you released this! Fun to see where the bark came from. Love your videos.

[@misty_mountain]

Thank you for video! Useful for me bacause i wanna install bark on my tree houses roof!

[@drmertes58]

I worked in the woods in Northern Wisconsin every summer. We used car leaf springs. Sharpen one end and put a simple wooden handle where you cut it off at the other end. They were called "Spud's". It had a nice curve to it.

[@ZeroTheHeroGOAT]

Wow, that looks absolutely amazing. Lumbering ASMR.

[@Dave_1966]

I love the idea of bark siding 😊👍 you’re going to have one kick ass sawmill 😊can’t wait to see it going up 👍👏😊🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

[@thehomesteadcraftsman8975]

I show a little bit of it being used on the other channel. I'll show more and plan on doing a video for this channel putting some up as well.

[@alexreith4877]

Very interesting. I'd never heard of it, but I'm really curious to see how it looks in the end.

[@TandD1w]

I have it on my cabin and I’m very happy with it. I did take the time seal the bark and used penefin to seal the cut edges. Surprisingly, 10 years later and no wood pecker damage.

[@heyhope326]

I'm talking out of my you know what 😂😂 thank you for your family friendly but entertaining videos with great content and mostly interesting rambling, they're very educational.

[@angelramos-2005]

Very pleased to se how much progress you are doing.Since I have done plenty of precast concrete construction,I can see the possibility of using posts(that you allready are doing) at regular distances( say 4 ft apart) and filling the spaces inbetween with panels made of alats of wood and bark screwed on to the slats(4x4 ft panel) and attached to the posts with heavy bolts.That goes fast.Thank you,

[@ahilbilyredneksopinion]

Well...thank you so mutch fer waistin yer time and learning me sumthin new and amazingly helpful.

[@SchysCraftCo.]

Very nice video. This turned out very well there. Hopefully you get great use out of it for many years to come. Keep up the great craftsmanship and hard work my friend.

[@thehomesteadcraftsman8975]

Thank you.

[@richryan8904]

As interesting as ever, and with your usual welcoming presentation. 👍🏻👍🏻

[@thehomesteadcraftsman8975]

You've been watching my videos for quite a while, thank you.

[@richryan8904]

@@thehomesteadcraftsman8975 yes indeed! I do like your open and welcoming take on things. Your white oak trestle table make is a favourite to watch over and over. .

[@rundoetx]

Nice. I think it will look great. Thanks for sharing.

[@lawrencelyman3372]

When I was a sawyer in the C.C.C. , one of the most satisfying, unless it was a Doug fir, jobs I did was barking logs. I used a Pulaski and sometimes, a Hoedad that I modified for barking. Super satisfying to pull off the biggest sections of bark possible. Douglas firs, most times you have to just chip away at em, and it sucks.

[@timgiles9413]

Thank you for your service in the C.C.C. 😊

[@AquaMarine1000]

The first settlers to Australia used eucalyptus bark like this to roof their rustic dwellings. Blacksmiths of the era made barking irons for this purpose, usually a four foot long steel bar with a splade end. The bark is best removed straight after felling before it stick to the sapwood. An axe was used to open a split for the barking iron. A tree with an eighty inch girth with a sixty foot long section took only five minutes to debark whilst still wet minutes after felling, it literally just pops off. Bark is a robust material that can last for many decades. Cheers

[@cw4608]

Well now that was just very cool. Thanks!

[@TheTexasBoys]

Awesome video!

[@peterjames2580]

This old carpenter loves it!

[@fxpestoperator5527]

Great Job Brother! Looks like a lot of work there!

[@vjc4502]

Love this! Made me smile when you said 'for expediency sake'. I don't see you as an expedient guy, more of a thorough guy. I just learned to use a compressor & a circular saw at 61, thanks in part to you for motivating me to keep trying diy stuff. Enjoying the process, though I won't be cutting down or peeling any trees! Lol

[@thehomesteadcraftsman8975]

Ha, yes, there's nothing expedient about anything I do. I'm not very thorough either in many areas. Fortunately I have the power to edit these video which cleans up my act.

[@vjc4502]

@@thehomesteadcraftsman8975 Lol! Editing always helps!

[@LadyGecko]

When the apocylspe happens, you have an open invitation to my group. You have mad skills that I greatly respect and appreciate.

[@Wordsnwood]

You shot this in May-June!? Wow, You're patient with your release schedule!

[@brucestuart8180]

Hey, really great to see you back 😃 have missed your content, thanks for posting.

[@thehomesteadcraftsman8975]

I've missed posting on this channel as well, got a few I'm working on now, so keep an eye out.

[@brucestuart8180]

@@thehomesteadcraftsman8975 definitely will, thanks.

[@urbanlumberjack]

Awesome video! Really practical skill

[@EricJohnson-tc3bc]

Peeling popple was common in the upper Midwest, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan when the paper mills didn't want the bark on poplar logs until the late 70's/ early 80's when they changed their production methods. Late spring, early summer when the sap was running, hot, humid, plenty of mosquitoes and horse flies. 10 cents pay for peeling an 8 foot log with an old car spring sharpened on one end, handle welded to the other. Good times, few people got to experience that.

[@DavidHuber63]

Far from a waste of time! 🙏🏼❤️👍🏼

[@misterbeard2881]

That is gonna look great. Nothing like a little sweat equity to offset cost.

[@samheasmanwhite]

lmao you peeled that log like a salami, that's gonna look great as some siding good job

[@dave-qh7qr]

There is a high end development in Cashers NC where ALL of the units are sided with popular siding.

[@cjod33]

Similar types of barked trees in Australia, wed use em for walls n roof even canoes etc. Wed use a long bar with a chisel point at one end. Makes easy and quick work of barking a length usually eight to ten foot. Takes about 10 min to do it once you get the hang of it.

[@glennr9913]

Poplar siding is a premium-priced siding material in the NC mountains. It's very popular in the older homes around Linville, next to Grandfather Mountain. I've tried peeling poplar bark & it peeled quite easily, but I didn't know how to flatten it. It was pre-KZbin and I didn't really need it for siding, so it eventually ended up in the fire pit.

[@jeffworcester8424]

Interesting! I have torn down many buildings with bars. The next one you do with the bars, try doing a scissor pry. You start on the opposite side you are at, once you get under it do a push/ pull with the bars. It is really good at separating two pieces. As for the siding, I was thinking that if you square the pieces. Take the bottom and top and run them through a table saw at 22' to get a lap overlap for water runoff.

[@johnc5874]

A friend of mine gave me some poplar logs to run through my mill. I scooped them up with a bucket on a front-end loader, and when I would get on a grade, the logs would just slide ride out of the bark and on to the ground. Wish I could remember what time of year that was.

[@thajman]

Welcome back.

[@ianaustin1621]

As a Australian ex Hoop pine clear fall cutter who barked thousands of ply logs I can pass on some of the methods we used. For starters we used a torsion bar from an old 60’s car about 3/4 of a inch round not quite 3 feet long. A black smith flattened out one end adding metal till it was a rounded and flattened wedge like a piece of pie with a slight curve. With this once you seam the log start from the but end . The first strike hit end on between the outer bark and the wood. It is a touch skill. I once showed a guy who watched me for hours he tried and it taking 10 minutes to do a 4 foot section. I was only average at it but a log the size of that would only take a few minutes with the right barking bar.

[@adamguinnmusic5871]

I bet that smells amazing

[@thecanadiantradesman7916]

It's been awhile friend. Nice to see another video. Always interested in your projects and enjoy hearing your point of view and I also have a lot of poplar in my region " central Saskatchewan Canada" so Always like seeing what others use it for

[@thehomesteadcraftsman8975]

Thank you. I've been to Canada twice and both times was Saskatchewan, flew into Saskatoon and then drove way north into the middle of nowhere, it was quite nice. P.S. I watched your video sawing down the spruce, nice tree.

[@thecanadiantradesman7916]

@@thehomesteadcraftsman8975 haha thanks yea I live about 45 minutes west of saskatoon. Worked lots up north in pretty much every mine there is up there so I know the type of area you saw. Beautiful country but sure gets Cold this time of year lol.

[@catpeople1958]

You’re correct sir! The install rate for this would be premium pricing. Even procuring a product like this now would be a costly nightmare at best.

[@tadeuszmichaelwlodarczyk3120]

Should look Magic when it's finished. In Australia (stringee bark tree) can be done in the same process!! And paper bark tree! Good 👍 job MATEY.

[@brentlance2379]

I'm in NC.. in western NC it's very popular in mtn homes.. I was just at a nursery..all gables on building was cover in it.. guy I bought my excavator from used a ton at his house in mtns.. he had a enclosed catwalk from second story 30ft over to a retaining wall on side of hill..whole inside was poplar.. Toby Kieth or one big country stars has interior of tour bus done up with a bunch as wall covering under windows..

[@lwgrantsmom1603]

OMG, a new video!

[@robertlivingston1634]

Many years ago it was common to peal poplar in the spring for pulp, you would get a premium price if it was pealed, people would use a piece of leaf spring and weld a handle for their spud bar.

[@deanyanko3326]

I don't know bugs and woodpeckers ? I like the look and natural insulating properties. I insulated with all the shavings from the planer inside heavy mil plastic bags. That's thinking outside of the boxwood ha -ha.

[@osgeld]

its a common roofing material back a couple hundred years ago (though thinner more bark less wood, but they did it with hatchets and knives) if its 1790 and you end up in the middle of nowhere Indiana and need a cabin so you won't die during winter

[@disgruntledleafsheep2747]

This might help if your doing it on your own. Worked ok for me. If you live anywhere like I do , when people here work, they leave and take the crickets with them. So I understand no help. Try a thin towing strap. Get it started behind the bark all the way down, wrap the the hook end around the log half way past the your chosen line you marked and cut to length. Use a small nail to hold the hook in place, then from th he other ends pull the strap till it moves under the bark. lining back up with the hook, repeat till you completely circled the log. Should be freed up. I tried wrapping some sheeps cord around one once and use a ATV to try and shuck it. Its about 50 50 on that. Hope this helps some way.

[@thehomesteadcraftsman8975]

That’s a really good idea. I’ve got a gas winch that can do the pulling.

[@jackkerouac6186]

I almost cut a poplar the other day. I forgot about poplar siding. I've seen it used in NC. Replacing wore out Chestnut bark siding.

[@smartshadesolutions4376]

Easiest to just attach it while its wet. If you dry it then cut it to size you can always soak it to make it playable again when installing. Ive seen bark siding buildings 100 years old. prime basket making material to.

[@giles-df9yu]

All of the modern nuts.out there building camping shelters, don't know this was the old mountain men's go to material. It makes an excellent roof, if you use smaller trees and turn two inside up and one inside down. With a slight slop it will last a long time

[@michaelbagley9116]

The thing is that these sections cut could make good storage vessels like using birch bark as well. Would not be hard to cut a section to make a bottom for a nice round dry storage unit.

[@brianhackett9649]

5:33 That satisfying "CHUNK"!

[@blakespower]

oh looking at the leaves I guess it is a tuliptree, Indians used to make huge dugout canoes with these trees and they would start a fire around the bottom to fell the trees since they were still in the stone age

[@mc8305]

Ever heard of a spud? A floor scraper works good too ! Much faster and much much easier !

[@lockedin60]

This is for that tiny house you have been working on for several years? It looks good. You see something in your minds eye and that itch has to be scratched. I understand!

[@YouTuber-mc2el]

This interests me. I have a fair amount of Poplar and wanting to find uses for it. You mentioned you will be milling the log for lumber. Is it going to be used structurally? Poplar seems very light in weight when dry and just can't see it as a structural choice but you seem very knowledgeable on the species and wanted to ask. Liked and subbed. Thanks.

[@giles-df9yu]

By the way I have peeled many as a kid ,as well as locust . Both locust and popular peel easy

[@lightning9279]

Now I know why that product is pricy from the manufactures. I wonder if they soak it to keep it from spiting so much while flattening it out. It is beautiful when paired with the right materials. It last a long time as well....go figure trees use it as a coat why shouldn't our homes use it.

[@bbukkems1]

Good video again. Love the technic but I'm curious about the durability over time.

[@tayro7265]

It can out live your great, great grand children.

[@claudermiller]

I have an old house with cedar shingles in a fish scale pattern used randomly. I think the bark would look good if it were just used in the gables as a decorative feature. Maybe lay a section out on the ground one smooth one bark see how yo like it.

[@thehomesteadcraftsman8975]

I think with stuff like this, less is more. It’s very easy to get excited and jam too many details into one project.

[@Chr.U.Cas1622]

I didn't get any notification from utube about this video although I'm a subscriber. What is happening?

[@jamesarnett4129]

Good lord this is big tree

[@HueManna]

at ~9:28 there is a mouse under the cinder blocks on the right-hand stack, moved into the poplar penthouse 🐭listening to you attentively.

[@stephenbkirby]

Great to see more videos from you. I'm assuming the shingles will go on your exterior wall in the same orientation they came off the tree...Does it make a difference if the shingle is upside down?

[@jedclampett6466]

Grinding an edge on a leaf spring would have worked well for the peeling operation.

[@JoshuaHorn]

I don't think you have your End Cards set up in KZbin like it looks like you intended.... Anyway, interesting video!

[@marcuspoe9353]

i like it bud! i`ve used a spade before, full steel called the ace of spades, has a slight curve with a straight nose. angle is good and about a 8-9`` surface that gets under the bark well and gives ya some leverage.

[@blakespower]

is this Yellow poplar as in Tulip Tree or an actual poplar tree?

[@dpmeyer4867]

nice

[@johnmccormack4183]

What a fantastic idea! Anyone know how long the bark would last as siding?

[@Steve.Garrison]

It would probably need some kind of treatment to keep bugs from eating the underside.

[@thehomesteadcraftsman8975]

I think it would last a very long time, longer than me.

[@abc-ed1nr]

What time of year did you cut that tree? Poplar needs to be in the spring when saps running right?

[@stevesmith662]

Poplar is subject to decay and rot, it's not used for exterior uses, not sure about the bark though

[@thehomesteadcraftsman8975]

Poplar, in the right application, has and is used got s lot of exterior uses. Plenty of cabins made from poplar that are a lot older than anyone alive, I have a house with poplar lap siding in great condition, etc. Good overhangs on a building let you use just about anything.

[@tradward]

What do you call a poplar with mood swings? Bipoplar.

[@Glasher1]

You skinned it alive! lol 8 )

[@therealjosephpowell]

You call it Poplar, but is that a Tulip Tree or a Liquid Ambar? I know both of those are sold as Poplar

[@thehomesteadcraftsman8975]

It's a tulip poplar, all the same thing. Great trees.

[@AaronSof]

1K 👍

[@muhammadyassin7197]

What's the bark for?

[@Gnomoleon]

Do you treat either side before install

[@thehomesteadcraftsman8975]

No, just installed after drying. I’m a believer in big overhangs. Protects siding, windows, trim, etc.

[@Gnomoleon]

No bugs eating the back side?

[@Goodellsam]

Could you treat it for longevity?

[@thehomesteadcraftsman8975]

With good overhangs, i don’t think you have a problem, but one could I guess, but then you have to handle it with the preservatives on it. I guess you could spray it on after.

[@BraxxJuventa]

👍😁

[@jmlee15]

The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

[@jumar360]

Did you get a motorcycle?

[@thehomesteadcraftsman8975]

I have a couple...one that I've never seen run and the Rokon.

[@barackyobama6139]

u can make a canoe

[@davecurda2350]

Why so long in between videos?

[@thehomesteadcraftsman8975]

Oh, you know how she goes.

[@MrTBoneMalone]

If the only thing you had to pay for was in your time, and it holds up, it was a good investment. Think of all the money you saved not having to buy the materials.

[@thehomesteadcraftsman8975]

I think the enormous amount of time I spent doing this and the more complicated processing and installing vs. board and batten makes it a terrible investment of time.........but that is in part what makes it more interesting. Board and batten comes from me dropping and milling a tree, cool, but nothing compared to this process so when I look at it once done, I get to think about the whole process and how the bark went from wrapping the tree to wrapping a building made from the tree. Kinda funny.

[@davidlayne8755]

Son don't show that last part with the tractor...please...

[@thehomesteadcraftsman8975]

Pulling the log?

[@davesanders9203]

They use the same technique to remove the bark from Cinnamon trees!

[@suemoore1965]

❤️❤️🧡🧡🧡💛💛💛💚💚💚💙💙 LIKED & BRAND NEW SUBSCRIBER ❤️❤️🧡🧡🧡💛💛💛💚💚💚💙💙

[@louisarmstrong8863]

There are some people that like to hear their own voice?

[@thehomesteadcraftsman8975]

You probably lack a natural curiosity, still enough to click on videos, but require flashing lights to stay interested. If i’m right, it makes for a boring life because few things can keep that attitude satisfied. But it can be beat.

[@FORD6689]

[Gravity] it just a theory.. its not real #flatEarth #weight #mass

[@johnmccormack4183]

Doesn't sound like you got your math right?

[@thehomesteadcraftsman8975]

That could definitely be the case.

[@blueboy387]

I don't know, 160sqft x $12 Even if long on cost and short on coverage I'd say $1000 bill sitting there. Free money What would have been mill waste

[@santosdr2]

dude skinned a tree

[@davediamond1742]

You are knot wasting time. To play like and work like child with adventure and discovery is a timeless.

[@Unflushablepiss]

nice!

[@pull-my-finger-1]

Canoe maybe