Hello and your best advice please.

[doobin]

"Forget the tickets, It's only you.....employ a labourer"

 

Good idea👍

 

Don't need tickets for a lawnmower as far as I'm aware....

[John in Scotland]

Mowing lawns can pay fine in good weather. However in Scotland the grass is often wet which takes longer, so nice to have some work for wetter weather, like log splitting when it's chucking it down.

how long do you find it takes to get the logs dry enough to sell from green?

and what %...20?

 

My biggest situation will be space to dry logs I think. I have 2 small logsheds so far. think I'll have to build another.

[ShooTa]

to sharpen correctly - obviously best if an experianced guy shows you .

failing that there is you tube

the key is to get :-

files that are the right size for your chain

file guide thats for your bar and chain

and a depth guage

small flat file

 

your local shop/where you bought your saw should have them all, failing that there are places like clarkforest who have them in bundle kits/

 

personally i dislike the file guide that fits all around your file - i prefer the small reversible ones that clip onto the chain/bar

 

lastly when you buy your chain - it should say on the box the angles to sharpen/file at - whether it be 0 degrees of the vertical or 35 degrees and then for the horizontal - most good chains have a small line of indication for the correct cutting face.

 

for how much you should sharpen - you get a feel for your saw but the first one is when your nice big sawchips turn into dust not chips. that and if you hit anything - every time you refuel is somewhat excessive imho - but a single file stroke done correctly i guess is keeping it honed - i tend to sharpen every 3-4 trees felled of serious size - more and say maybe 2x on a fully ringed up tree.

[ShooTa]

rather than edit as its a separate question

 

logs and dry(seasoned)

which to most on this board means less than 25% moisture reading on a moisture meter (via amazon for £17) and more about 20%.

 

 

this takes different times depending on type of wood - hard/soft etc.

Ash when felled in September - wind dried and then in the final months brought inside will season for the following winter. Oak will take usually 2 years.

 

there are many many posts on seasoning wood - both on here and hearth.com and arborsite.com - but the 3 key tennants are :-

get it off the ground (wood pallets)

get it split ( smaller the better but dont go nuts - think your market)

site your stack where it can get wind.

 

siting your stacks for the best wind really helps reducing the seasoning time - and most people will top cover the wood come mid september to stop rain really getting into the stacks.

 

re woodshed - some pron from hearth woodshed pr0n

Edited January 12, 2014 by ShooTa
adding a link

[John in Scotland]

Thanks guys. all great comments.

 

An update.today I visited the guy who owns a small estate(i don't mean a car...think Farmland). He has lots of trees, quite a few large ones that have blown down and plenty on his land that hasn't been touched for sometime. he also has some woodland, most of which is hard to get the wood out. He also has quite a lot of cut but not logged up wood. He and his wife want to keep all the beech for themselves as they have an open fire and say that beech doesn't spit. He seems quite keen on my idea of starting a small firewood business.

I suggested that for every bag I sold ,he would get a percentage, so that he wouldn't have to invest any of his own money into buying equipment or paying me an hourly rate.

Having read the thread about how much you pay for your wood it seems that a lot of you pay 20 - 30% for wood.

I would probably have to collect all the wood off the estate rather than it being delivered.

He does seem to have a fair bit already in the yard though that he might allow me to log and sell(apart from the beech).

I would expect that he would let me use his tractor and trailer though, perhaps even some of his chainsaws.

He was talking about putting up a large shed but also probably could free up some space for me to work out of.

So basically I would do all the work

cutting,moving,logging bagging,selling delivering.

To start off with part time and slowly build it up as sales build up.

I would need to buy a logging machine, probably petrol driven(need advice on which one).

This will also free up my yard at home to build a workshop.

 

What do you guys think?

what percentage rate should I offer him(he provides the wood,shed and tractor)

what logging machine should I invest in(fast and strong but good value)

I will get a trailer for my car to help with my deliveries/garden work.

 

Thanks in advance....

 

John

[theflyingscotsman]

Great but get it in writing and don't invest in ANYTHING you don't need.

 

You want to 'start' logs- chainsaw and an axe.

 

You want to invest in it : log splitter, better chainsaw and so on.....

 

No point in producing 100,000,000 bags a day if you can't sell it. Any draft bugger can do that and go broke...

 

I personally wouldn't offer him anything except perhaps producing some logs for him to burn/or a labour exchange in the first year then once you've a few customers then give him a share of the profits start at 10%

 

If he wants more than that go into partnership with him and look at the various grants that the government throw at farmers/landowners for biomass producing.

 

Any not to digress.

 

If you want to start a small business where margins are tight to start off with Give as little away as you can get away with...as you'll be doing the graft...

[John in Scotland]

Thanks... makes sense.

I think a log splitter would be good anyway as I have a woodstove anyway and just splitting all that wood takes a fair time with an axe.

So I'm gonna need a log splitter that's quite fast/

I also see that delivering wood is going to take time and fuel too. Will either need a delivery charge or minimum order size.

[John in Scotland]

Great but get it in writing and don't invest in ANYTHING you don't need.

 

You want to 'start' logs- chainsaw and an axe.

 

You want to invest in it : log splitter, better chainsaw and so on.....

 

No point in producing 100,000,000 bags a day if you can't sell it. Any draft bugger can do that and go broke...

 

I personally wouldn't offer him anything except perhaps producing some logs for him to burn/or a labour exchange in the first year then once you've a few customers then give him a share of the profits start at 10%

 

If he wants more than that go into partnership with him and look at the various grants that the government throw at farmers/landowners for biomass producing.

 

Any not to digress.

 

If you want to start a small business where margins are tight to start off with Give as little away as you can get away with...as you'll be doing the graft...

Thanks for that mate. All useful points.

[theflyingscotsman]

No worries

 

Hire that log splitter from Pentland Biomass as it's so cheap compared to buying one... I hire it, saves me investing in one and they have the maintenance.

 

Easy to collect and tow home

[John in Scotland]

No worries

 

Hire that log splitter from Pentland Biomass as it's so cheap compared to buying one... I hire it, saves me investing in one and they have the maintenance.

 

Easy to collect and tow home

 

will be once I get my tow bar and trailer sorted.