Monkey Puzzle

[treequip]

Run away, when you have done that run some more.

 

I have felled a few including one 60cm dia. I enjoyed none of them and they all wrecked clothes and climbing gear.

 

The timber is vile, greasy, heavy, covered in sharps and burns like wet asbestos.

The branches are a living nightmare to handle, nothing but glove wrecking sharp and unless you chip it really fine the foliage makes the chip a place you wouldn’t want to be.

 

Best of luck with it.

[treewizard]

yeah, we took one down the branches were kin spikey, but used my little slings to wrap round the branches to drag them, saves the hands!!

[[email protected]]

did one same years ago now wear thick gloves jacket uses your old rope and flip line and let the ground crew clear up before you drop the nest branch and you be all right

[Dave the dog]

[quote=Mark Bolam

 

Has anyone climbed / dismantled a Monkey Puzzle (Chile Pine)?

 

I did this one years ago paid by the guy's house insurance,it was no probs at all for me but the lads on the ground were not so lucky,think i used tape slings and took 3-4 branches off at a time,snatched a few big lumps off till it got under the lines then parked up the forwarder full of brash and felled the but on it,i'v still got some benches in my garden from the timber.I here your supposed to be cursed by the pygmy's? if you fell one

[Andy R]

I did this one years ago paid by the guy's house insurance,it was no probs at all for me but the lads on the ground were not so lucky,think i used tape slings and took 3-4 branches off at a time,snatched a few big lumps off till it got under the lines then parked up the forwarder full of brash and felled the but on it,i'v still got some benches in my garden from the timber.I here your supposed to be cursed by the pygmy's? if you fell one

 

thats a nice sized one dave, how big do these things get? as the one we did in the churchyard was even bigger still...and like you say it's a better place to be than dragging and chipping the brash and thats for sure.

 

off to google to find some piccies of monster monkey puzzles..

[Dean Lofthouse]

I've took loads down, like Treequip said, the rings if left ooze thick PVA type stuff all over the place and the wood is as wet and sticky as wood can be.

 

I just wear a thick gaunlet on my left hand and 020 in the right, spike up holding and directing the branches to swing into your drop zone.

 

Where I got spiked by the leaf came up in pussy boil type spots.

[Stephen Blair]

Horrible evil trees, i have felled 3 and stripped ivy off another. I found the bark really crumbly. I couldnt believe the weight in the branches. Beautiful milled. woodturners can carve them so thin you can see thru them.(i heard?)

get big gloves like the others say.

[Tom D]

Its true that the weight of the branches is surprising, the weight is in the leaves not the timber so they are tip heavy and tend to go early. Feeding the chipper is the worst part as you're pushing against the grain of the spines. There will be a lot of chip too, this one which was only 40 foot ish produced 9 cube.

[nepia]

Recent thread in picture forum (now closed) brought up the question about "unclimbable trees".

 

Has anyone climbed / dismantled a Monkey Puzzle (Chile Pine)?

 

Never been asked to work on one, but one local to me has outgrown it's emplacement, and the owner (regular log customer) has started dropping hints...

 

 

Re selling the wood. I bought some lumps of trunk (only 3cwt each - 33" diameter without the bark, 36" with it!) and contacted woodturners. Bit my hands off for it! Not huge money I mean but the more bits the more money. I think there was a guy in Essex who specialised in turning the stuff and he could spin a 1/2 ton piece on his big lathe.

If you're interested preserve the rings of knots, which end up looking like owls' eyes in the finished articles.

 

Can't say how the stuff burns - never got close to doing it!

 

In the event of your following up the idea re woodturners keep your eyes peeled for laburnum; that's another favourite.

 

Best of luck whatever.

[nuggsy]

as a wood turner i can confirm that yes you can turn it down till its see through, turned wet if i remember correct n doesnt really split upon seasoning, hard as hell when it is seasoned and leave an amaising finish if done correctly