Bacteria or mold growing under the bark will reduce its bond to the wood store your harvested pieces in a cool dry place.
Finishing live edge wood with bark.
Live edge bowl and turned box.
Finally use a spray finish such as polyurethane over the bark to get an even finish.
Live edge walnut bench.
Just drip it on and let the wood soak it in.
The other thing that you can do is to use thin ca between the bark and sapwood to help keep it on.
Cut the stock in the winter when the sap is not flowing.
Once the bark is gone take a rotary tool with a sanding flap wheel and sand the edges down smooth.
Finish for live edge.
Or if you can put it in a kiln right away that is even better.
There are a couple of things that you can do to improve your chances of keeping the bark on your wood.
A belt sander works as well.
Bark on natural edge bowl.
If you have a live edge slab that you want to finish first peel off any bark in 6 to 8 inch sections using a rounded chisel.
Mark the whole surface with a pencil and slowly remove the pencil with 120 grit.
Then sand the sap wood live edge with a smaller headed sander to bring out the color and remove any bark or dirt.
Live edge myrtle slab.
Sand the whole surface with 80 grit continuing to 120 on the aggressive setting.
Once the surface is prepped to 120 grit with the aggressive sander move onto a random orbit finishing sander.
Then sand the sap wood live edge with a smaller headed sander to bring out the color and remove any bark or dirt.