Quickthorn

I think it was health and safety issues. With the boom in wood burning stoves, all sorts of folk, with various levels of training and experience, were piling on to FC land, because they'd read in the papers they could feed their stove for free by just picking up offcuts etc. I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone hurt themselves and then tried to claim from the FC.

There's a 250 ac FC wood - mainly broadleaved - not so far from me that I've worked in. Parts of it are SSSI; the rest is coppiced in 1 ha blocks on a 20 yr rotation. It's a beautiful place, especially in spring (see photos). The only blight used to be the group who had permission to shoot. They constructed shanties of chicken wire, plastic sheet etc to hold pheasants, often tying wire directly around living trees, and left all manner of rammel around. Luckily, I never met them, because the FC got fed up with them and kicked them out, although we would see and talk to the odd one on occasion, and they always seemed to be hopeful that they would be back in one day. If this particular wood goes up for sale, I can imagine 'local management' would mean that this particular group would get back in, either by buying the wood as a syndicate or buying the shooting rights from the new owner. We'll be back to chicken wire and rubbish strewn about the place again; any proper woodland management, apart from compulsory stuff to do with the SSSI, will cease. Such a shame really, and I'm sure this will be repeated up and down the country.

yes. I'm not sure how they managed the last sell off, but from the odd report that I read here and there, a fair amount went to people with the right connections for not very much money. I'd love to know what the true picture was. If they're going to sell it off, it should be at true market value, not knocked down for the benefit of the network of cronies that seem to run a lot of the countryside. Market value last time I looked was pretty high compared to the income you'd likely make on such a wood (apart from shooting, perhaps), so I'd imagine a lot of it would go to speculators or firms who buy woodlands to subdivide and sell off at much higher prices/ac than what they payed.

As far as I know, they do make a profit on the forestry side, but over the years, they've been 'lumbered' (sorry) with all the social benefits type duties. Last time I looked, I think the forestry profits are just about cancelled out by all the amenity stuff. It certainly flies in the face of the results of the consultation they did recently. 85% of people answering that think the public estate should increase in size rather than decrease. I'd imagine that the 'best bits' are exactly the bits that they will sell off: anything with profitable crops near to end of rotation, nice broadleaved woods that can be sectioned off and sold in 4ac parcels to amenity buyers, or rammed full of pheasants by some shoot of another. The bits they'll keep are the non productive or disease affected plantations, and the awkward bits that have SSSI obligations and so on.

I'm voluntarily registered, but most of the work I do is for organisations that can claim VAT back. I'm much better off because of it, compared to if I were not VAT registered. I did have an accountant for one year, and he gave me a rule of thumb: if 60% or more of your customers are domestic (ie. can't claim the VAT back), then avoid VAT if you can (I've no idea where he got the rule from, or whether it was just his experience).

It's worth reading - is it still in print? Might make a good present for someone who hasn't read it, what with Christmas coming up One thing that interested me: I've seen a few books that go through traditional ways of doing things, and they describe all the tools, but the axes always have a straight handle. I'd never seen felling axes with a curved handle until I saw some of the pictures in your father's book.

I'd heard a figure of around £300 for a reasonably well stocked acre of that age hazel. You'd be looking at perhaps 400-500 stools per acre for that sort of money. For the stuff I cut, it works out to around 4p per rod most years.

Someone was selling copies on ebay and put a post up on here a few years ago. I can't find it now. The nearest I've got is this site. It's an aussie site, I think, and that post's a year old, but there's an email address at the very end.

I'm N Notts, wp, a bit south of Doncaster. Going back to the OP, I don't think they often felled trees with just an axe - that was used for rounding up and putting the gob in. The back cut was done with something like a 2 man cross cut; to do that with an axe would have been very wasteful. Once you'd got a saw depth in, wedges could be put in to follow, so the faller had no less control than a chainsaw cutter today.

I've got the book with some of those pictures in, it's called A woodcutter's tale or something - pretty much Mervyn Walker's life story. It's well worth a read. When they said they felled at ground level, they really did mean it. As for axes and safety, I think mervyn ended up in A&E a few times from axe cuts. I don't think it was uncommon for some folks to lose the odd toe after a mis-swing or deflection. Doesn't compare to the damage a chainsaw could do if it goes all wrong, but a sharp axe or billhook still needs a bit of respect.

I think there's also an exemption for "dual purpose vehicles" and they give the example of Land Rover and any trailer (or there used to be - can't get their list of exempt vehicles to open). In theory, I could get my 110 plus a suitable trailer up to 6550 kg GTW and not need an o licence.

Don't know if this would help, but sites near me that grow willow for biomass harvest about 60 tons per hectare, and it's a 3 year rotation. If you take 1 ton = 1 cu. m., that's giving you a yield of 20 cu. m / ha per year. Biomass willow is high yielding, but it might give you some idea, if you've got a rough figure for the area you're tackling and how long it's been stood.

I think the issue would be that NPTC would own the copyright to the logo etc. I'm pretty sure permission would be needed to use one (that would be implied if they've been sent to someone along with their NPTC certificates), and that probably wouldn't include selling them on ebay. From what I've heard, they're reasonably generous in allowing people to use them, but would want to check that those people have actually got NPTC qualifications. You live in Warks, L200 - any where near Stoneleigh (Nat. Agricultural Centre)? Why not drop in and let them know that someone's flogging these things on ebay? They might reward you with a free sticker ..

Hi Jobe, I'd agree with a lot of what's been said about Husky 346xp and 353. The first one's a brilliant saw, you wouldn't regret getting one of them. The 353 I have was one that was given to me, and had been totally abused. It looked like it had never been maintained in it's life and was a poor runner, but just needed a clean and a few bits changing, and now it's a pretty good saw - not as lively as the 346, but it would cover any task to do with charcoal. I'd be interested to know where you burn? I help out every now and then for someone near Retford, normally burn to order rather than continuous production.

Spot on, robert, you've saved me a lot of typing there! When i packed in employing staff, my hourly income actually went up, and less stuff got "lost".

I agree with just about everything that's been said, and experienced similar. He'll be tapping up your customers for work next, once he thinks he's got enough from you to go it alone - if he hasn't been doing that already. Shame..a minority wreck it for every one else.

It's sold now (apparently for £7.50 + p&p - can't believe that..) but I wonder if NPTC would have had something to say about it. As far as I know, they generally give permission for people to use it on letterheads etc, once they've checked up on qualifications, but peddling the logo like that ?

I can see applications for this. I've been asked to do woodland work where they don't want brash (arson risk), don't want piles of chips (ecologist has told them they'll smother ground flora/alter fertility levels etc) and don't want them spread on the paths (looks untidy ). The only alternative left was to take them off site. I think the 130 idea would be better, because the 110 chip box looks tiny. Another advantage compared to towing trailers or chippers would be that you wouldn't need a tacho under any circumstances.. you can't say the same once you've hitched up to anything of any weight.

I'd be looking at the weighbridge myself; there's something wrong there...

I'm not sure if there's that much of a problem - broadleaf stacks are round about 50% air, and broadleaf timber's roughly 1 tonne / cube solid density, so if you charged him per cube what you'd charge per tonne, I'd say you'd be roughly right, without the bother and cost of having to go via a weighbridge for every turn. Also, it's not going to lose value to you if it sits there for a long time drying out. You might have to adjust depending on the form - if it's very straight, you'd get less than 50% air in the stack, because it will stack tighter. If it's mainly lighter species like syc and ash, he'll be getting less weight per cube, so the advantage would be with you.

Thanks for that, paul (I think..). I see your point now. I only had one employee ever drive my vehicles. he seemed good enough, and there were no accidents, but I must admit I don't think I did check his licence and I didn't give him any training. At the time, we could be doing 3 hrs driving a day getting to and from site, and it seemed the safest and most responsible thing to do was to share the driving rather than have me do all of it every day.

Whaaat?? Are you sure about this?

Quite ironic that they've recently introduced a new penalty system, part of which is to punish people who make mistakes on their returns Take care to avoid a penalty

Things might ease up once Osbourne's cuts are out of the way, and everyone knows what's what. Personally, I get the feeling it'll be a quieter year - hope it's not the same for everyone. Rather than twiddle my thumbs, I'm looking at spending a bit of time retraining to diversify.

i tend to use a dye or pattern indicator on most jobs where there's a chance of getting lost. I use something called Amenitywise pattern indicator - a blue dye - but I'd imagine it's very similar to dyofix . It looks about the same price - £30/l, but it does go a long way. Cheaper than having to come back weeks or months later when it becomes obvious you've missed stuff out !