Collecting Birch Bark,

[pinerevolver]

I went a walk up my local woods today, i saw quite a number of mature silver birch trees,
The forest is right at the end of a maze of golden fields.

I was watching on youtube and reading birch bark can be used for a number of things as im sure most people on this fourm have heard. If not +1 for beginners to bushcraft like me.

Are they are certain time of the year to collect this bark ?
Or when is the best to collect it ?

 

[Trunks]

I saw a youtube vid where some buy cut into the tree with his knife then ripped off huge pieces of bark :BlueTeamE. I'm not expert, but this can only be bad for the tree.

More appropriate, IMHO, would be to remove the "loose" curly small shaving of bark, these can be easily peeled away and stored in your tinder pouch, just dont take too much.

If you are after bigger pieces of birch bark, look around for a fallen tree, then strip the bark.

Have fun

 

[Mesquite]

I went a walk up my local woods today, i saw quite a number of mature silver birch trees,
The forest is right at the end of a maze of golden fields.

I was watching on youtube and reading birch bark can be used for a number of things as im sure most people on this fourm have heard. If not +1 for beginners to bushcraft like me.

Are they are certain time of the year to collect this bark ?
Or when is the best to collect it ?

Golden rule for collecting birch bark is to never collect it from a living tree unless you know it's going to be felled. If you do take it off a living tree you run the risk of disfiguring it at the very least or killing it at the worst.

Have look round for any fallen dead trees or branches and collect bark from them. If you do it that way you don't need to worry about collecting in any particular season .

 

[wattsy]

just take the naturally shedding bark there's nothing wrong with taking it off living trees its not like they're rare. the best birches for bark are paper birches comes off in massive sheets

 

[pinerevolver]

Ive heard before if you take off the bark from a healthy tree it will quickly grow back, Not 100% sure on that one though

 

[Toddy]

In countries where the bark grows thickly perhaps, you'll struggle not to kill the tree here.

What do you want the bark for ?
If it's firelighting, then just peel the curly bits that are coming free anyway.
If it's for birchbark for containers and the like, there's very little of our barks suitable. Find someone to show you how or take it from fallen trees.
The bark doesn't rot anywhere near as quickly as the timber and it's pretty easy to find hollow tubes of the stuff.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[addo]

If you want to make containers, use the bark from a fallen tree as theres always one around suitable, especially after tree works. Just peel off two fully thick layers and stick them on top of each other, and make your container.

Peeling the thin naturally shed bark causes no damage to the tree.

 

[pinerevolver]

Yeah ive been on my little walks and saw fallen birch trees,
with the bark looking pretty good but with the wood rotted and crumbley inside.

I know about using birch bark for tinder/firelighting,

Im just thinking about using birch bark for small containers say for a tinderbox or a matchbox.

And wondering if they are any precautions taking before i go the step ahead and accidently damaging a tree.

 

[wattsy]

i never cut into the tree to get the bark i only take the naturally peeling stuff. i found some paper birches in a village called scothern near me the other week and got a carrier bag full of the bark it was all coming off naturally

 

[andyn]

Yeah ive been on my little walks and saw fallen birch trees,
with the bark looking pretty good but with the wood rotted and crumbley inside.

I know about using birch bark for tinder/firelighting,

Im just thinking about using birch bark for small containers say for a tinderbox or a matchbox.

And wondering if they are any precautions taking before i go the step ahead and accidently damaging a tree.

If its of any help I wrote an article for living woods magazine last year on making a container out of birch bark. May be of some help once you find some bark to use.

http://www.naturescraft.co.uk/articles/birchbarkcontainer.htm