Hello everyone,
I am currently working on a project which involves the pictured piece of driftwood. So far I have been cleaning the wood manually with sand paper, but this is quite slow and exhausting. What type of (preferably consumer grade) tools can I use to speed up the process?
OK so you had loads of good advice, but I've done a very similar clean up on a branch, and I have the cheapest option to recommend: I've debarked my branch with a nail.
The flat head of the nail can be used to 'crowbar' some pieces of bark, by leveraging the length of the nail to apply pressure. You can also use the side of the head to push off bark from knots and the side of the branch.
To finish on my projects, I had to eventually use a metal file mill + sand paper. I intend to do more projects like this so I'll almost assuredly get some of the tools listed in here, tho.