The woods were worked for many years by legendary coppicer Bill Hogarth up until his death in 1999. The woods were then worked by other coppice workers before management was taken on by the Woodland Trust. Just a few weeks ago a deal was made for the woods to be leased to the Bill Hogarth Memorial Apprenticeship Trust (BHMAT) and managed by CANW. The timing fell ideally for us to go in and peel some oak bark, one of Bill's favourite jobs.
Bark peeling is carried out in the spring, when the weather is warm (even in Cumbria) and the sap is rising in the trees. This makes it possible to strip the bark easily, using a special tool looking like a blunt carving gouge. The bark is collected, dried and sold to the J&FJ Baker in Colyton, Devon, the last tannery in Britain using oak for curing leather. Rebecca Oaks gave us an introduction and demonstration, along with the motivation that 1 tonne of dried bark is currently worth about £600 which sounds a fantastic, but that's a lot of bark!
A dozen or so people soon organised themselves with a team felling the oak and bringing it over to where the peeling was taking place. These meetings are a great place to catch up with friends and meet new people from the local coppice and greenwood working network. There's always plenty of news and banter which makes the day fly by. It's a somehow very satisfying and tactile process and many people commented on the suprisingly sensual nature of it. For me it was much like skinning rabbits or deer - you start off with a tool to begin the peeling but then the best tools are your hands, pushing and teasing off the bark. Inside, the wood is wet with sap and glistens with newness.
In amongst the oak which was being coppiced were a good few birch trees which were also felled but put aside. I've got a developing interest in birch and all it's uses so I decided to see if I could peel some birch bark. In more northern countries birch bark is widely used for making containers, canoes, roofing, clothes and many other items. The bark here in the UK is much thinner but should still be a useful material.
Hi Steve,
ReplyDeleteHope all's well. I stumbled across your blog on the oak (and birch) bark peeling whilst doing some research for my MSc (in Forestry and Forest Products) looking into the use of Oak bark for tanning as a NTFP. I like your picture of the bundle of stripped oak bark and was wondering if you wouldn't mind if I could use it in my case study write up? I would of course credit you / your picture accordingly.
Since SWForest came to an end in 2009 I've been busy this end (Devon) trying to develop my own local timber supply business. I keep seeing your name and face in articles (eg Living Wood Magazine) and it's clear that you are going from strength to strength in your endeavours!
Hope all continues to go well for you, thanks in anticipation.
Best wishes,
Jim
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