Making things out of tree bark has been on my to-do list for a long time, but I had to wait for an opportunity to harvest bark without damaging living trees. I stumbled upon a batch of spruce timbers from trees that were felled due to a spruce beetle infestation. This animal bears the latin name "Ips typographus" (in German: "Buchdrucker" - "book printer"), because it digs tunnels under the bark that look a bit like printed patterns. Unfortunately, these tunnels also weaken the bark (and hurt the tree, of course), so I will keep looking for sources of bark free from beetle damages.
Still, I was able to harvest enough material to make a couple of useful items. I began with sheaths for my stone axes, so their fragile edges don't get damages during transport. Using the same method, I then made some simple containers. For the sewing cord, I used strips of bark on some pieces and spruce roots on others.
00:00 Harvesting spruce bark
02:27 Making a sheath for my small stone axe
04:39 Making a spruce bark container
06:19 Harvesting spruce roots
07:00 Making another stone axe sheath, using spruce roots for sewing
Spruce bark is pliable when fresh and hardens as it dries out. It can be made flexible again by soaking it in water for a while.
In the followup video, I will be making some more elaborate woven basket out of bark strips.
#primitiveskills #basketry