Bark Hack

A bark hack, also known as a turpentine hack, is a tool used to remove pine tree bark to promote the flow of pine resin for naval stores production. It consists of a wooden shaft with a weighted butt and hook-like, replaceable, U-shaped blades at the head, and it operates similarly to an axe, creating a hatched chevron pattern known as a cat face or blaze in the tree's exposed sapwood. The weighted end provides momentum for the hooked blade to scoop out chips of hard pine wood, letting resin flow downward into a collection site, comparable to the tapping process used on other trees. These tools were phased out by the early 1950s and are now primarily historical artifacts, with contemporary resin collection relying on mechanized methods.