Gathering Hickory Bark

A few days in the Kentucky woods

This past week is about materials. Specifically, gathering hickory bark from the Berea, KY woods.

I’m part of a bark harvesting class at Pine Croft, with joint efforts by Berea College Student Craft and the Berea College forestry team. Floyd, the Suffolk Punch draught horse, did most of the heavy work in pulling the hickory logs from the forest. The college logs with horses and Floyd, along with his crew, joined us on Thursday to get a few logs out of the woods and over to the woodworking school.

Students shaved and stripped the logs, then took home the bark. Both basketmakers and furniture makers joined. We spent the day working together, then divided our efforts in late afternoon.