Stripping Willow

Photos and descriptions by Crys Harse
Published 31 May 2025

Three willow-stripping tools side by side: two forked steel tools from England and a homemade one made from two nails set in a block of wood.

Three tools for stripping willow. Two on the left are from England, and the other is homemade, two 8-inch nails wired together at the base.

Willow rods in spring, their new leaves about an inch long, standing against a wooden post.

The bark on willow can only be stripped in spring when the new leaves are about an inch long (heard from Maryann).

A gloved hand drawing a willow rod butt-first through a steel tool clamped to a post.

Willow is drawn through the tool butt first three or four times until it is shredded.

Gloved hands pulling a rod through the tool, the bark shredding along its length.

Like this.

The rod turned around and drawn back through, the loosened bark peeling away.

The willow is turned around and pulled through and should come off in one strip.

A stripped rod, pale and bare, next to the length of bark that came off it.

Done.

The steel tool clamped to a fence post, standing among a stand of leafing willow.
A gloved hand steadying a rod with a cloth while pulling it through a second, differently shaped tool.

The same technique using a different tool.

A pale stripped rod resting against the tool after being drawn through.
Gloved hands working a willow rod through the tool mounted on a fence rail.
A long strip of bark peeling cleanly away from the rod in one continuous piece.

Bark coming off in one strip.

A close-up of the forked steel tool with a stripped rod resting in its jaws.

Done.

The homemade tool: two 8-inch nails driven into the top of a fence post, one set slightly lower than the other, with a willow rod between them.

The homemade tool. Two 8-inch nails hammered into a fence post, one half an inch lower than the other to allow the rod to enter.

The two-nail tool on its post with open prairie stretching out behind.
A rod being drawn between the two nails, its bark lifting away.

Coming off in one strip.

A weaver pulling a long willow rod through the tool, foothills on the horizon.

Stripped willow and bark.

A bundle of stripped white willow rods standing upright against a post, with the tool beside them.

The harvest. There are probably many ways to strip willow. These are the three that I have found successful.

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