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Some questions and background,


Timm
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Hi all,
I've been lurking some time and finally decided to crawl out..
First off, I may be putting this in the wrong section of the forum, so apologies in advance there.

Some 20 odd years ago (god that makes me feel old..), I worked in France as a jobbing gardener/landscaper. At the time, I put myself through a french qualification (I forget the name sadly and the certificate is long a thing of the past) for chainsaw use to appease my insurer, which included cross-cutting, felling up to about 400mm trees and a modicum of climbing and rigging techniques. The course was about 6 weeks long spread over several 2-3 day sessions.
After a couple of years, I returned to the UK and went into a different industry - that did/does however require use of a chainsaw, so I've always kept up my usage if that makes sense. I've felled trees occasionally but nothing terribly large or dangerous (beyond the inherent dangers of felling a tree..) 

Our friend Covid has really put paid to my industry in my part of the world and I've been struggling for work for the better part of 18 months now. I've had an idea to change direction and I think/hope have spotted an opening/window in the market locally for a mobile saw milling service using an Alaskan-style mill, I'm really keen and enthusiastic about the idea and am still exploring the ways in which I can make this happen, which leads me to a few questions in a round-about way.

I should mention that I have milling experience having previously owned a stationary mill and worked at a number of places where milling took place.

I'm aware that no milling course exists (I'm keeping an eye on that section of the forum and some of the discussion taking place there, I assure you!)

and my although experience above I feel is of benefit - being safety conscious (and wanting to get the relevant insurance!), I'd very much like to bring myself up to date with current methodology and I've been researching doing NPTC training. I'm a bit confused about the path-line of the courses however:

Clearly you start with 003920 Chainsaw Maintenance and Cross-Cutting and move onto 003921 Felling Small Trees, however I'd also very much like to be able to offer a felling service in combination with the milling service - especially for larger diameter trees. At nearly 40 years of age however and not being the fittest person around, I feel like my tree climbing days are well and truly behind me. Can I therefore skip those particular modules and move on to say 003930 Assisted Felling, or are all the climbing modules necessary to make up part of a wider qualification?

I have other questions but I'm not entirely sure how to phrase them, so I'll leave them for now. 
Thanks in advance, Tim

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Welcome Tim, I think you're fine to do only ground based courses without having to consider the aerial aspect if you've no intention of climbing.

Cross cut and small fell, then depending on what your likely to be working with maybe medium/large fell and assisted would seem to cover it.

 

There's a lot of helpful people around here who can give good advice about it though. Out of interest, what is your current industry using saws?

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Thanks for the reply Doug - there's very few training providers here in Ireland and I've found finding the right courses/path is a bit of a nightmare. So much so that I'd consider doing them in the UK. I have plenty of family I can stay with there at least.
 

I'm a shipwright/boatbuilder. I used to have my own yard - and a stationary sawmill and have worked in other yards where they ran small sawmills, it's long been an interest of mine and I'm becoming increasingly more passionate about it.

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If you look at the course details it will say which certificates are pre-requisite, for example you don't need anything before to do the climb and aerial rescue, but then must hold both climbing and chainsaw tickets to do chainsaw in a tree.

So yes you can collect the ground ones only, as you want to.

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Shipwright sounds interesting.

 

I didn't know it was difficult to get courses in Ireland. There are arbtalkers based in Ireland who may be able to suggest something, seems a bit much you'd have to travel over here to find a place! I'm sure you'll get some good advice about it on here.

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In the past u done Ur basic small trees and cross cut and they expected u to wait 2 years to do the more advanced courses.

Which was a good thing as u gained some experience before jumping on to big timber.

 

Now there is no time limit but u would have to do Ur basic trees 1st,

Climbing tickets are completely separate from Ur ground tickets if u don't want to climb

 

Windblow might be a worthwhile course for u also,  windblow despite looking easy can be the most dangerous work u do.

 

For milling work I imagineu would be dealing with large hardwoods a lot,just be careful breaking them down.

Can be dodgy/hardwork without mechanical help or winches

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Thanks for the replies thus far lads, I'm starting to get a clearer idea of how to go about re-doing the certification I want and need.

@ Doug - I don't know that it's difficult to get courses per se, just a lack of providers locally. I'd have to travel and stay for a 3-day course in Ireland for example.
@ Drinksloe - Thanks for the suggestion of the Windblown module. I do have a modicum of experience in dealing with windblown trees but it would be useful to go into more depth with proper training. As regards the movement of heavy objects, I've a wealth of experience moving timbers, trees, boats etc, so not too worried about that!

 

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Aye most of it is common sense really. I'm sure u won't have a problem.

 

 

Althou I will say I mainly work in commercial softwoods which has its own challenges and dangers.

But over the last 2 or so years being doing a lot more quite large hardwoods  ( done lads of medium sized 4ft butts but smallish crowns) and while the general principles are the same  ( tension, compression, gravity, any slope factors) u really have to think a bit more how the tree will move if u cut a branch far more so than with softwoods.

 

Dunno how many providers in UK do ground tickets 1 after the other?

I know plenty do intensive basic saw and climbing, 3 or 4 weeks later uhave all the tickets u need.

 

Someone like H&W training from Dumfries would be well worth a shout. Really know there stuff  ground saw wise and run quite a few courses,, trainer is an ex forestry cutter from way back.

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17 hours ago, Timm said:

Thanks for the reply Doug - there's very few training providers here in Ireland and I've found finding the right courses/path is a bit of a nightmare. So much so that I'd consider doing them in the UK. I have plenty of family I can stay with there at least.
 

I'm a shipwright/boatbuilder. I used to have my own yard - and a stationary sawmill and have worked in other yards where they ran small sawmills, it's long been an interest of mine and I'm becoming increasingly more passionate about it.

 

Just make sure that what ever certification meets the Irish criteria as since Brexit a lot of UK ones seem to fall short, to the best of my knowledge none of the UK CSCS tickets are recognized in the republic and I hesrd that the air conditioning guys had to redo their City & Guilds qualifications. So if spending that kind of money have a chat with Coillté or KTC .......................................................................................

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