I am planning on building some birch bark handles soon but unfortunately there is little bark in my area so I need to order some online.

I foolishly purchased some off of @#$%& around a month or so ago and it turned out to be a complete waste of money.Based on the @#$%& picture it seemed decent enough.There were lots of large pieces and it was advertised as being cleaned,but when I got it I was disappointed to say the least.The back of the bark was covered in dark reddish brown crud that took forever to sand off,and even then the back still looked quite dark brown.The front part was all rough with knots and splits all the way through the bark everywhere.After spending a few hours working on it I realized that it just wasn't worth it.I actually ended up tossing out almost all of it.

I really want to make some birch bark handles so I am planning on buying some bark online somewhere.I know that there are probably a few birch bark canoe makers out there(like www.barkcanoe.com),and I have seen it advertised for sale on www.naturalforestproducts.com,and several other places after doing a Google search for birch bark sheets.

I was wondering if anyone can recommend the best place online for me to find good clean sheets of light colored birch bark that are well suited for rodbuilding.I expect to spend a considerable amount of time cleaning and prepping the rings,but I would prefer not having to deal with too many big knots or splits in the bark.I would also like to find the lightest color bark possible.

I really don't want to fork out a bunch of money again only to be disappointed in the quality of the bark so any help in this area would be most appreciated.

Also,does anyone know how many rings a person could expect to get out of a 8" x 10" or 20" x 20" sheet?

Thanks.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/2007 07:23AM by Tony Dowson.

For 1 1/4" rings (8-2) x (10-3) = 54 rings from 8"x10" sheet.

For 20"x20" (20-5) x (20-5) = 225 rings

Keep in mind that the only color that will be showing is the edges, so the colors on the flat sides doesn't reall affect it much. By it's very nature, any of it is going to have imperfections, knots, etc. What I do is lay the sheets flat and use an electric hand sander to sand the surface as smooth as I can. I cut it in to rings with a standard hole saw (1 1/2" saw) and drill the center holes as close to size as I can before gluing up and turning. . One thing to be aware of with Birch bark is that after it is glued up, it will be fragile and can separate fairly easy until it is glued on the blank (due to the paper thin layers of the bark

I've been happy with the 10 x 10 sheets that Mark Crouse (The Rod Shop) sells.


Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

Light birch bark - this is a very relative term. If you are looking for bark as light as the bark in Antti's RM article, then you need to go over to his part of Europe and harvest some Baltic Birch bark. Otherwise, you are left with the American birch trees- primarily yellow birch and white birch, these are the two species that grow large enough to make bark thick enough to interest us. The bark I harvest is typically white birch, I'm in northern Wisconsin. The bark here is definitely a darker tone than Baltic Birch, but it gives the same general look, just lighter. It sounds to me like you received bark from a dead birch (which is good, as you don't want people killing trees just to harvest bark - you can harvest bark from alive tree without killing it, but you have to know what you are doing.), but that it may have been in a more advanced state of decay, which leads to the sapwood (or cambium, basically the wood layer just inside the bark) beginning to stick to the back of the bark and generally making a mess of things. If I'm harvesting bark and find a tree like that, I just leave it, as it's a real pain and generally not worth it. I also believe that the longer dead bark sits on a tree, the more color it takes on - although I don't think it changes it drastically, I do believe it darkens as it ages. You definitely want to steer clear of bark with big splits in it - this stuff is very obvious when harvesting, and that bark is just not very useable. Mike's idea of sanding the back of the sheets is interesting - I have not done that, I've had good results just leaving that firmer dark brown layer on the back of each ring - but I may have to try that sometime. You definitely want that crud off there, but that solid dark brown layer won't hurt anything, and you won't see it at all in the finished product. Mike's other comments on bark are very good - I also cut mine out on a 1 1/2 hole saw - one day I'm going to customize my hole saw to make it a faster process, but it's not that bad right now. Cut 3-4 rings, then pry them back out of the hole saw, then cut 3-4 more, etc. It's not the fastest process in the world, but the results are oh so worth it.

Rich,

I don't try to remove the dark back of the sheets. I just try to smooth it and remove the lumps and peeling material off to get it as smooth/flat as I can (I've never gotten it totally smooth or flat, but clamping takes care of that!)

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

Ah - gotcha Mike. If I get those lumps, I've usually just kind of popped them off - but sanding is a good option. Well, guess I'd better build another grip so I can try that out :-)

Thanks for the responses everyone,I guess I should have given an example of the coloration I would like to find instead of just saying "light".

I did a quick search under "birch bark" in the photo gallery and based on the examples there,I guess I would like to find bark similar to what Terry Henson or Craig Godwin have used in there handles.Both of these examples seem a bit a lighter coloration than the others I have seen.

I think I have the source of Craig's bark in an email he sent me a while back but I haven't been able to find it yet.I'm not sure where Terry got his bark though.

I actually have some darker Alaskan Birch Bark that I purchased a little while back from a gentleman in Alaska who was also building rod grips with them.It is definitely a lot darker than any of the examples I have found online here,but equally stunning when properly finished.I have enough of the dark bark for 3 handles,but I tend to prefer the look of the lighter bark(one can always darken it with multiple coats of Tru Oil I would assume) that is closer to natural cork in coloration.I want to cap the grips with wood ends and the lighter colored bark will provide more of a contrast in colors so that is what I am after.

You might try a dilute bleach solution to lighten the darker sheets. Could be your soution.