Harvesting bark is best in spring. The best birch bark - even, with a beautiful pattern (narrow stripes) - in one of the most common varieties of birch - fluffy birch. This birch grows on a larger territory of our country. A peculiar feature of fluffy birch, which makes it easy to distinguish it from another type of warty birch, is a small, dense fluff covering young shoots and leaves. Fluffy birch forms the second tier in pine or rare spruce forests; it is found in low-lying and floodplain places that are flooded with water in the spring.
The strongest and most dense birch bark is given by birch trees grown on dry and stony soils. And in trees growing on peatlands and swamps, the bark is fragile, with knots, has an uneven, pitted surface.
The tool for removing birch bark is an ordinary sharp knife. For products that are offered in this chapter, birch bark is removed with layers and tape. Horizontal cuts are made on the birch trunk for the preparation of the stratum birch bark, spiral cuts are made for the bast-ribbon billet, around the trunk. If you need large, whole pieces, then birch bark should be removed from sawn trees with a diameter of at least 20 cm, if possible choosing places smooth and without knots.
The entire outer (white) side of the bark is cleaned with a knife or skin and freed from dirt and fungi and moss growing on a birch. The inner side is freed from the remnants of the porous, brown birch bark and is wiped with a damp cloth. Such large birch bark is also suitable for large products. For small ones, thick birch bark is steamed and stratified into two or three layers simply by hand, without additional tools. This work must be done carefully, without rushing. Young and freshly birch bark can not be soared, but only slightly moistened.
Birch bark, removed by any of the above methods, must be dried and stored in a dry, dark and cool place for safety. Large bark bark is better stored under load, laying layers on top of each other.
Birch bark layers are well stained with aniline dyes. First, tannins are pulled from birch bark.To do this, it is soaked in a soap solution or a solution of baking soda. And then birch bark is laid in a hot solution with a dye for 2-3 hours, depending on the intended tone. To dry, the painted birch bark is hung on a rope, hooked on the tip of the sheet with simple stationery clips or clothespins. Do not wait for it to dry completely, remove it a little earlier - it is better to work with slightly moist birch bark. If you need to straighten birch bark, then thin layers can simply be ironed.
The color of unpainted birch bark is very beautiful if it is coated with a colorless alcohol varnish. For this, the varnish needs to be slightly warmed up and applied to the birch bark with a soft hair brush.
Cut along the birch bark with the tip of a very well sharpened knife, razor or scissors. In places of curvature, small scissors with rounded ends should be used, and for cutting holes, on the contrary, with sharp ends or a knife. Repeating circles can be punched with a punch.
In order for birch bark to be better attached to the chosen base, for example, to thick cardboard or to another piece of birch bark, it is necessary to glue thin paper to the back (inner) side of the birch bark and only then cut out the pattern. You need to glue with liquid carpentry glue or PVA. If you use PVA glue, then it is advisable then to iron the glued birch bark through thick paper with a not very hot iron.
In any case, the glued product or its parts should be placed for some time under the press for alignment to prevent possible twisting and deformation.