Maine Bark Spud

Maine has a long, rich history in the logging trade, dating back to the early 17th Century. Because England had decimated their tallest trees, the pines of Maine’s virgin forests were a valuable commodity as ship masts, and thus were claimed by, and logged for, the English Crown’s powerful Navy.

It follows that a 160+ year old Maine-based maker of logging tools knows what they are doing when creating specialty tools. A Bark Spud (sometimes called a Peeling Iron or Peeling Spud) is a simple, stand-up tool that shaves the bark off of cut timber and hand-hewn beams. It has a 5"-long, 1¾" wide curved, steel blade, that you jimmy under the bark and then shave in strokes along the length of the timber. The wooden handle is a hefty 20" long to give you plenty of leverage while pushing the tool.