Removing the bark is a necessary step before logs are sawn into lumber or chipped for pulp. Bark contains dirt, grit, and rocks that quickly dull saw blades and ruin chipper knives. The process is usually handled mechanically at the mill using ring debarkers or drum debarkers, though it is sometimes done in the woods by a processor head during harvesting.
Heard on the job
Run that load of spruce through the ring debarker before it hits the head rig.
Insider tip
Logs harvested in the spring during sap flow debark much easier than those cut in the dead of winter.
Also heard as
- peel