Smart debarking of a cut of very dry ashwood?

[Sjalabais]

This piece of ash, of a sick tree that was dry on root already, and has been drying in my shed for two years in addition, is supposed to become a new door threshhold. Unfortunately, removing the bark by chisel or knive, as I usually do, is extraordinarily exhausting. Anyone here with a smart tip to get this done? I couldn't find anything suitable on Google, so maybe someone here has ideas. There will be more later, so a smart solution would really help me out.

[fell-like-rain]

I'm a fairly amateur woodworker, so take whatever I say with a grain of salt, but why do you need to debark it manually at all? I would just cut the piece to size, removing the unneeded wood and the bark in one go. Or is this not getting sawn?

There are circumstances where I'd be wary of cutting a piece with the bark on, but that's mainly if it's very dirty and you don't want to be dragging the dirt through the cut, dulling your saw, etc. Unless I'm missing something here?

[lthenderson]

Are you wanting a live edge to it? If not, I just clean the dirt out of the bark using brushes and then process into slabs using my bandsaw or tablesaw with the bark on it. To get a straight edge on the slab, it really depends on the size and straightness of the edge to begin with. Sometimes I can run it through a planer to get a straight edge if it is fairly close to be straight. Other times I have a jig that runs in the slots of my tablesaw to hold down a fairly short board and get a straight edge on it. If it is neither fairly straight along one edge or too long to run through my tablesaw jig I just use my tracksaw to cut a straight line.

If you are looking for the live edge look and do need to get the bark off, I would recommend an arbor tech turbo plane. Essentially a grinder for wood. It makes quick work of bark. But if all you are going to do is just that one piece of ash and never again, a sharp chisel and some rasps are probably the most cost effective way to remove the bark.

[Artem_F]

I would use an ax to shave the bark off - first in a "regular" mode when you hold an ax by a handle and chop the chips of the bark and then in "carpenter's plane" mode when you hold an ax by both hands at a sharp angle to the surface and move it forward and backward to clean the surface.

[Sjalabais]

Thanks for the good advice. I want a live edge, so the top side is not going to be plane. The lower side is chainsaw cut, but straight (my neighbour's mobile sawmill).

Didn't even consider my axe. Maybe that is a quicker way.

The Arbortech turbo plane looks fantastic! I should really reach out more...have been thinking that something like that would be awesome, but never checked if it exists.