Peter

The regulations on PPE have changed since then John, although the principle is the same, the actual wording may lead one to believe that only the manufacturer of the rope can adequately perform an eye splice.

Good post. Two things, firstly has a hand splice ever failed in use in arb? Certainly dont recall seeing any accident statistics on it. Certainly when I was at college, three strand splicing was on the curriculum for the purpose of making prussic loops. Secondly, if the manufacturer's instructions are correctly followed to produce a splice, then that modification is approved by the manufacturer. The fact that the result splice is not itself CE marked is a technicality. Two identical splices, one made in the factory using a CE certified process, and one made by a competent but un-certified person, what is the difference? Admittedly it is a technicality that could land the splicer in court, were the worst to happen, which brings me back to the first point, in all the years that hand splicing has gone on just in this country, in double braid, 16 strand, and in 3 strand, literally hundreds of thousands of splices, has anyone ever been injured? That is a serious question by the way, I genuinely want to know. I am not endorsing the wholesale production and sale of hand splices by amatuers by any means, one should consider carefully before putting literally a life on the line, whether it be yours or someone elses.

Rob, I'v got some big lumps of pop at the mo, is it worth anything for milling?

Anyone for a ninja style stealth noctural rec climb, armed with tape measure?

Haha, pity you werent moving on Sunday eh? I have employed Will and can thoroughly recommend him, he is a hard worker, needs very little whipping, and can be bribed with ice-cream.

After chewing up bits of fin and spitting them out I think even the best knives would look blunt. Have you had a look through the chip to see if any nasties had gone through?

I would ring a few local timber merchants and ask them for a price for similar delivered in, get a quote for the haulage and work it out from there. I was quoted £42 per tonne plus vat delivered in locally not too long ago, if you are sensible with the pricing you will have no trouble shifting it.

Intuit have released Quickbooks for Mac now.

All depends what you want, a massive tree eating monster or a versatile all rounder. All rounder needs to go on a 3.5 tonne trailer for starters, unless you run an hgv low loader trailer everywhere. Monster tree eater, look across the pond at Conehead, Morbark, Bandit, Woodsman et al.......

Wand is useful for DB, I dont actually use a fid at all for DB splices. With 16 strand it is important that you dont catch any cover fibres when inserting the fid. Just a few strands will make it near impossible to get the bury through.

Tree work pays my mortgage. None of my firewood customers are fools. The only wood I'll burn this winter is willow.

100 hps should be enough to drive a 10"x14" easily. Big heavy unit though for very rough terrain, wouldnt want to turn one over or get it stuck in a bog!

With the DB, if your measurements are correct, then with a bit of work you should be able to bury it fully. Work all the slack in the cover down toward the splice, and then massage/beat the throat of the splice until its in. You may find the crossover has slipped out of place while you are burying, in which case you need to work it back out, redo it and start burying again. Also, the taper on the splice on the left looks a bit abrupt, could do with tapering off a bit more smoothly. Other than that, good work. Wire fid for 16 strand for sure.

In that case maybe I'll burn lime this winter along with the poplar and willow that I normally burn, and sell the so-called premium woods to anyone fool enough to pay a premium for them.

I have used the 220 a fair bit over the years, at least 5 different machines, and they are not a patch on the 19-28. I would have though Greenmech would be bringing out a new 9 inch chipper in line with the rest of the range, ie letterbox feed etc.

Tractor mounted flail, get em done in no time!

Anything dry burns. In the spectrum of firewood popularity, it probably ranks somewhere below birch and somewhere above poplar.

Yes..

The easiest transistion to thinner ropes would be one of the inbetween sizes such as Imori or Poison Ivy, rather than a true 11mm. I have used both of those as well as Blaze and Velocity and I'll never go back to 16 strand.

Look ok from here although you cant really tell anything useful from a photo. Have you lockstitched them?

First ITCC, think he may have been to a Euro?

Stevie, somewhere out there there is a cabbage with your name on it.

Jo Hedger Jon Turnbull Rhys Brace

The small claims court is fairly user friendly, put it all in writing, a letter to say its overdue and the next step will be court proceedings after 7 days, followed by county court action, using money claims online. Most people wont let it get that far, CCJs are bad news for credit ratings. A small minority will ignore everything including a ccj, those are the people you shouldnt work for in the first place.

Gonna be a long day, dont envy the last climber in the masters tonight!