WWA Info Exchange

Hi All,
Been a while since I've posted. I have some cherry boards that have the bark still on them and I'd like to keep it as part of a project. Will the bark have to be nailed or screwed to the main board or is there another way to keep it intact? Thank you.
Larry

Hey Larry,

Usually, when preserving a live edge, the bark is removed. Because the contraction and expansion of the wood is very different from the bark, it generally can't be glued in place, so I assume that you will need to fasten it somehow. Given the differences in expansion and contraction, I would fasten it in the center of the edge, so that the dimensional changes can occur on either side of the fastener without causing stress on either piece.

Please post a picture of your project, I'm sure that everyone would like to see it.

Cheers,
Tom

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"There is no path to peace, peace is the path."
Mohandas K. Ghandi

Mornin' Larry Cherry won't give you any problems!! Like everything it all depends on moisture content & thickness of your stock, but lets look at this logically ...... unless of course it is now a log sector recently felled ....... it has already been milled & the bark is still there. Think of the stress it has already seen before you received. I turn a lot of natural edge bowls of different species & of course some species loose the bark readily while most can remain intact after 3500 rpm & tooling. Yes, they are still "natural edge" after 30+ years. I will keep tabs on this thread after you have ( hopefully ) submitted sizing / moisture content / which type of cherry / what your intentions are construct so that I can give you my approach of sealing everything together. HTH

What I've always heard is that it depends a lot on when the wood was harvested. And I can never keep it straight but - I believe if the tree is felled in winter when the saps not flowing the bark tends to stay attached whereas in spring or summer when there's a lot of sap between the bark and the cambium it's more likely to come loose.

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Nullum Gratuitum Prandium

Cheers - Dennis

If the boards still have the bark on and have air dried, all comments so far are moot. Bark usually comes off because something is eating the cambium, or live layer between bark and sapwood. If the wood dries before the bacteria have done their destructive work, it will still need help to defend it from mechanical damage. Soaking with a high-resin content finish will help, but not stop damage.

On bark-on turnings, I run water-thin CA glue along the bast (phloem vs xylem) layer, the light part between the cambium and the bark surface, before saturating with finish. Imagine it would help on a small project, but be entirely out of the question on a large.