I run Highland Games at a couple of Black Powder Rendezvous. I've always simply used a small tree cut and debarked (usually, once or twice the bark has been left on due to time contraints). One of the events is coming up at the end of the month. The caber there is on its 5th season. I have a backup ready, but I believe the main stick is going to have to be retired to the firewood stack at the end of the games. There's another event on the same site in September. I'll cut September's caber while I'm at the Spring event. The current Caber is maple. The tree was about 7" - 8" at the base, and tapers to about 5" over a length of roughly 14". I want the replacement to be a bit thinner, but longer. This site doesn't have the nice selection of maple that the old site had. There's some good candidates in an oak thicket though. I just hope they lose enough weight through drying out from May to September. Oak can be a bear for weight. I drop one and peel it before I break camp in May,and hope for the best.