A bark hack is a tool used to remove

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...

tree

bark Bark may refer to: * Bark (botany), an outer layer of a woody plant such as a tree or stick * Bark (sound), a vocalization of some animals (which is commonly the dog) Places * Bark, Germany * Bark, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland Arts, ...

to promote the flow of

pine resin In polymer chemistry and materials science, resin is a solid or highly viscous substance of plant or synthetic origin that is typically convertible into polymers. Resins are usually mixtures of organic compounds. This article focuses on natu ...

, which is used in

naval stores Naval stores are all liquid products derived from conifers. These materials include rosin, tall oil, pine oil, and terpentine. The term ''naval stores'' originally applied to the organic compounds used in building and maintaining wooden sailing ...

production. The tool consists of a wooden shaft with a weighted butt and hook-like, replaceable, U-shaped blades at the head. The bark hack is swung much like an

axe An axe ( sometimes ax in American English; see spelling differences) is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood, to harvest timber, as a weapon, and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol. The axe has many for ...

and is used to create a hatched

chevron Chevron (often relating to V-shaped patterns) may refer to: Science and technology * Chevron (aerospace), sawtooth patterns on some jet engines * Chevron (anatomy), a bone * ''Eulithis testata'', a moth * Chevron (geology), a fold in rock lay ...

pattern ("cat face" or less frequently, a "blaze") into trees' exposed sapwood. The weighted end helps the operator follow through with the force necessary for the hooked blade to scoop out chips of hard pine wood.

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Woodworking hand tools Forestry tools {{Hand tools The first sentence is basically correct except that the blade is straight rather than curved. With the bark hack, only the bark is removed; it does not cut into the wood as the wood hack did. The wood hack was used up until the early 1950s and the trees were "chipped or streaked" each week during the sap flow season. With the bark hack, only the bark was removed and a 50%

sulfuric acid Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid ( Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen and hydrogen, with the molecular formu ...

solution was sprayed on the "streak" and it had to be done only every 2 weeks.