what logs have you been chopping today!

[andy cobb]

18 minutes ago, gdh said:

We have some of our own woodland which we thin but as that's run out we buy most in, some delivered and some we arrange collection roadside.

 

We have space for about 1500tons and try to buy a year ahead to season and to cover ourselves if we struggle to find timber. We're increasingly finding we need to accept lower quality stuff (to a point) to make sure we get regular deliveries. At worst 2 years ago we were down to 300 tons which was stressful even if it was nice to have some money in the account for once...

 

We only buy standing on a small scale which we've just started as an experiment, in general we have no chance, and don't want to, of competing with full time harvesters.

Yeah I can see why you wouldn't be able to compete with a harvesting crew on that scale.

i only fell about 200 ton a year and it's nearly all sites that aren't suitable for a harvester.

ive seen what the other guys near me are buying in and it's nearly all 2-3 foot diameter beach and Knarly ash usually with rot down the middle circa £50 ton delivered.

[gdh]

7 minutes ago, andy cobb said:

Yeah I can see why you wouldn't be able to compete with a harvesting crew on that scale.

i only fell about 200 ton a year and it's nearly all sites that aren't suitable for a harvester.

ive seen what the other guys near me are buying in and it's nearly all 2-3 foot diameter beach and Knarly ash usually with rot down the middle circa £50 ton delivered.

I think you've got the right idea, if you can do as much as possible yourself then you can hopefully maximise profit, you can also cut to a size that suits your system and little things like cutting on the bends make processing much easier. 

 

We've just got an excavator and tree shear to do small sites, it's very good for coppicing and smaller trees but the cost of running it with 2 men for a week means it ends up as the same cost as buying in for the wood.

[andy cobb]

Often thought about an 8 tonner with a shear on, but dismissed it as being to niche for my area.

going to look at a shear head for the forwarding trailer for next season but would like to see one working on real world trees first.

[SbTVF]

I reckon for small jobs an excavator with timber grab and a man on the saws could produce a decent amount in a day. I’ve done it on my own but getting on and off the machine is slow.

Once you’ve felled a tree you can quickly process all the stem and decent limbs into a stack like a harvester would.

Ideal for small woods or wooded boundaries where it’s uneconomical to get a harvester in but you also want to tread lightly but not have loads of man handling.

It’s still more viable to buy it by the wagon load unless it’s on your own land!

[arboriculturist]

9 hours ago, SbTVF said:

I reckon for small jobs an excavator with timber grab and a man on the saws could produce a decent amount in a day. I’ve done it on my own but getting on and off the machine is slow.

Once you’ve felled a tree you can quickly process all the stem and decent limbs into a stack like a harvester would.

Ideal for small woods or wooded boundaries where it’s uneconomical to get a harvester in but you also want to tread lightly but not have loads of man handling.

It’s still more viable to buy it by the wagon load unless it’s on your own land!

"  It’s still more viable to buy it by the wagon load unless it’s on your own land! " 

 

THIS HAS GOT TO BE THE WISEST SENTENCE REGARDING FIREWOOD THIS YEAR

[andy cobb]

4 hours ago, arboriculturist said:

"  It’s still more viable to buy it by the wagon load unless it’s on your own land! " 

 

THIS HAS GOT TO BE THE WISEST SENTENCE REGARDING FIREWOOD THIS YEAR

There is a hell of a lotta sense in that but it doesn't account for human nature, after a few weeks felling I long for a week processing. After a week processing I'm longing for the woods again. Once you've got sap in your veins your screwed.

[Woodwanter]

Made a start on this lot today with my new toy - cone splitter - it's slow, as expected but has done the job really well.

 

stiff left thumb tomorrow but better than stiff everything from swinging an axe!

 

[HertsWood]

Processing Alder at the weekend

[Bustergasket]

How do you get on with the alder, i had some last year and it suffered badly with white mould, burned great but the mould cost me a few customers, none of the other species in the bags had mould just the alder?

[william petts]

G