arboriculturist

I think most of us are up to all hours on here etc. anyway, sending texts and emails late night seems par for the course ?

I have been thinking about this for several years now, following the forums, reading the posts and I am still undecided. We get a quantity of timber delivered in the load that is not user friendly or just far to good to process into firewood. We can process up to 19" Dia. but some comes in larger and some with crooks, dog legs, burrs and misshapen etc. etc. I know there are many that consider small bandsaw mills with small width blades like the Woodlands a bit of a toy. But others would disagree who have spent time milling with the smaller mills and learnt their limitations. I have been looking at a Woodlands Mills HM 130 MAX Woodlander, with a cutting length of 5.1 m and 30 dia. petrol. My main concern is marketing sawn live edge boards going to be a major hurdle? Some posts say yes and sell a lot direct to wholesalers other appear to think there is a strong market for the quaility hardwoods air dried. I have unlimited space, rough terrain forklift with 2.5t lift capacity and 7.5tonne ex. with grab, so handling and stacking any size roundwood is straight forward. Any advice, comments etc. would be gratefully received. ?

Jack Moore has replied already ! I am liking what I hear and I have a very good feeling about what he is offering and the way he works. Only time will tell of course, however so far so good ?

Emailed Jack Moore, awaiting reply ?

That's interesting if you got a Logbullet job through insta. - quite a niche market! I'm going to get in touch with Rough Hewn's recommendation, even though over time I can research and educate myself. Sometimes it's a wise move to pay the expert and devote my time to working on the business areas I am already ok at !

Nothing like a personal recommendation from someone in the industry. I will 100% send him and email and post how it goes. He will still be in business working from home as well ! ?

Is integrating Instagram into the front page of your Website something you can do yourself?

Interesting that Facebook works for you, as many Tree Surgeons say they get a lot of time wasters. However perhaps as you are selling a priced product they don't make contact if they don't like the price. I can never get people to find our Facebook business pages.

Ok I'm getting the picture. Interesting = effort and to come up with regular interesting posts would take some. Not sure if I could make the time for that or have enough going on to be interesting ! It makes me realise why companies employ someone to manage their social media now. The 1st 3 replies come from 3 big hitters who over time I have developed a lot of respect for. So I shall study their media and will surely learn a lot. Quality replies 100%. ?

Great replies so far thanks, i'll check your sites when the fires going !

Wow, never seen Arbtalk so busy !!! I know nothing about Instagram except that I know businesses who employ someone just to manage 'social media' - so there must be something in it. Therefore maybe others on here will know if there is any value in ' looking into it', as a marketing tool for selling firewood. Any replies much appreciated. ?

Have you a ready market for the Larch you plan to mill as there will be a lot of hours on a Woodlands milling plus the handling, stickering and covering ?

LB will lay up to 330 and your LS which will be hybrids up to 290. The LS will be less flighty. I you wish for a longer laying season they need 13 hrs day light but will shorten their life. Perhaps a little cruel.

Interesting - but I plan to make a clean break from plastic and have no association with it in the business. Still very keen to get the Hessian bagged kindling.

Of course you can work - 'travelling to and from work, but only if you cannot work from home.' Working as many of us do outside in rural locations, keeping apart, probably carries the lowest risk in society of infection. Nothing irresponsible in that to stay afloat.

No, but we are not producers, other may have, will wait and see who comments - thanks

ALL the boxes ticked then - Sounds perfect ! ?

Well that's a generous offer. What would the bag ties be made of? Can they be delivered on a double pallet or pallet and 1/2 which generally reduce haulage cost depending on haulier? Would the bags be packed to hold the same as my current suppliers bags - 44 x 50 ? Sounds like you have got the ball rolling !

I think very few would be damaged, a hessian is robust, just look how many seasons the old corn bags used to last. Empty hessian bags £1.

A friend of mine recently said they were changing their brand of tea bags to one that was fully compostable as they were only £1 a box more. Bearing in mind the minuscule amount of non organic fabric / adhesive in a box of tea bags, sort of demonstrates the comparison amount of plastic in a Kindling net. Things can never change if everyone continues to base their buying decisions solely on price. That mindset has led us to where are today with the climate changes and the harm we have done to planet. I have got the hessian bag price down to nearly £ 1 / bag delivered inc vat. Bear in mind that if the bag is returned once for refilling, the price falls to close to 50p and the cycle continues. Surely this is a better way to move things forward and if supplier's work together, the only bags of Kindling available will come in a returnable, re-usable hessian bag. Just the thought of making a small difference gives me a good feeling and I am 100% sure that I will be supplying Kindling packed in returnable, re-usable hessian bags in the future. ?

That's interesting. I have used gloss paint 3 coats on Oak and Larch and its 100% completely stopped any splitting. Been stickered for 5 years now - do think they will be dry now ? !

Do you seal the end with a clear glue straight after milling if you don't mind me asking ?

Having had nothing to do with Kindling machines, are there likely to be any issues with filling hessian bags, as opposed to plastic net bags? From what I can see, buying plastic net bags in bulk they are about 15p each, whereas hessian are most likely to be around the 75p mark, however the people I know who supply their customers with hessian get the customers to return them when they next deliver.

This is surely the place to ask, as I am looking for Pallet loads of Hessian bagged kindling. Yes the bags cost more, but they are not plastic and more and more people are starting to accept that you have to pay a little more if we are ever going to get away from using plastic. I have seen a constant stream of adverts on here from people offering their pallet loads of plastic netted kindling. We have all heard the excuses, some of which are valid, some are not. Perhaps there is one supplier, somebody somewhere who is prepared to be the pioneer ? and yes I know I'm not going to like the price ?

Been working on this approach with people for years, which has helped. Sun's out and the winds picked up - it going to be the driest day underfoot for 6 months what a difference ! ?