It's so difficult to imagine a life in which you had to cut the trees and prep them to make furniture, rather than just popping in to your local furniture store. Woodworking was an art but also a necessity in the pioneer days. A tool like this barking spud was used for projects that required finer wood. It was used to remove the bark from the log. Then the wood could be trimmed, planed, cut and sanded for many uses.