When I was a kid in the 50's I would occasionally get loose and head for the docks. My Mom used to wonder how I survived. The sturgeon fishermen used poles driven into the bottom of creeks and rivers to hang their sturgeon nets. They used draw knives for peeling the bark. The poles were pine that is plentiful in SC.

The better peelers could strip a pole of it's bark in about 10 minutes.

To hold the poles at a comfortable work height, they used sawhorses.
To hold the poles steady, they used wooden wedges.

Allen