I have several drawknives, for various types of work, for log house logs i use a knife made in Hamilton Montana by a fella that peels professionally for a house builder.... cost me $125, but beats the heck out of the smaller knives on the large diameter logs.
for furniture i use a smaller knife that has handles that tipout similar to a spoke shave, made by Jennings circa 1900, it is the 8 inch version i picked up for $50 at an auction, online it goes for around $125 in the same condition.
I also have a vise on a post that i can lock small logs into for furniture making, it saves time and if you put an old towel around the log it wont mark it any on already peeled stock. For log house building i like a rack of logs put up so that the log i am working on is chest high which dramatically saves the back [learned this from a professional peeler as well]
I have used a powersaw peeler but do not like them as they do not peel the log as nicely as they proclaim they can, and again it is hard on a persons back even if you use a short bar for balance purposes. Plus tying up a powerhead for peeling purposes only just dont make for production on the log house, and mayhaps an excessive cost for some people too.
dry logs build the best, and peel hardest, however building with green logs is harder to due to shrinkage. If you peel a green dry to remove bark, and sticker it for a year, you will have an excellent seasoned log for building, but it must be peeledagain to get that just peeled look, and to remove mold spores that will grow on just about every green peeled log there is.
Skip peeling is nice on a dry log for furniture, it gives a rustic look to a piece without having to be 100 years old, but on a green log it can peel off before you use the log for anything and make it not look as nice in the end. It all depends too upon the end user. Clean peelingtakes more time, and therefore commands more dollars if you sell the object, but perhaps does not sell as well as skip peeled furniture, Log houses on the other hand generally are always clean peeled. a professional peeler gets .50 per foot, and makes between $100 and $200.00 per day on 12 inch average logs, on smaller diameter logs a $100.00 day is a long day at times, just to give you an idea. A person can peel and put together a bed frame after they get used to the work in a day, and i know of a couple fellas that can do 2 per day skip peeling and just plain 4 inch straight logs, nothing with charactor.
That Barkbear looks similar to an old "spud" which is easy to weld out of all steel, and the bark strips like shown can be done with a screw driver if peeled in the spring when the sap is running, or any tool once you get a piece to grip and pull. The nice thing about that particular weapon is that it may be heavy enough to go through smaller knots without pullingthe knot out and leaving an undesired hole [yes a drawknife can do the same once in awhile].
A sander just makes a mess on logs you are trying to get peeled, the belts fill up way to fast and grinders leave wheel marks very easy. However they can be used for finishing a piece of furniture to give it a very nice polished look on end grains which is trotally adverse to most woodworking projects.
Hope i answered a couple questions, and if you have any more give me a holler. I started building custom log houses circa 1990 using the full scribe method [no chinking required] and the one ting i have found is there really is no short cuts that can be made in peeling logs.
William