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cleaning bark?

J

Jake Truxal

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I have a fairly fresh cut pine timber (about 8' X 5" X 8") square on 2 sides and bark still on the remainder. I was thinking of mounting this on the wall as a shelf in our lake house. I really want to leave the bark on for the rustic look. My concern was bringing into the house any bugs or fungus that might be in the bark. Is there something I can do (other than spray the log with insecticide and fungiscide) to make sure I'm not bringing in any unwanted visitors?
 
Jake You may not have any bugs but just in case, I had a friend who did have bugs in a piece. I asked on the various forums about how to kill them. My friend tried putting mothballs in a plastic bag with the piece and let it sit for 24 hours. That seemed to work. I'll see him again this weekend and ask if it's still working.
 
You can soak it in naphtha for a few hours and then let it dry outdoors. My experience with using ethanol on mesquite is that it does not work to kill the bugs -- just gets them drunk, I suppose. A little bit of super thin CA seems to work well and it also helps to hold the bark onto the wood. That works well for bowls, but it would be rather expensive to do the CA treatment on a large piece of wood.
 
question

is there a reason that all the log homes i have seen the bark has been removed? there is a reason
 
charlie knighton said:
is there a reason that all the log homes i have seen the bark has been removed? there is a reason
Click to expand...

Sure is. Helps the wood dry faster. I would not hesitate to dry the piece in question with the bark on a face or two. Might not stay, but worth a try. Wouldn't do it out where bugs are abundant, like in a stack of unpeeled logs, but it's not likely to collect any that it didn't have at the outset. Might look nice as a counterpoint to all those rustic chairs made of unpeeled alder and birch.
 
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