Rob D

That is a superb 1st carving - wish I had the talent! But the price tag - hmmm I would have seen that and thought 'hey that's ridiculous' and the art would have been lost on me...

Can I ask how much you charge per cubic meter Bob? Currently I charge £95-00 inc 5% vat. That leaves £90-00. Given that you prob get 1.5 cubic meters per tonne so the cost of the wood is £42-00 which leaves £48-00. Doesn't seem a lot to me. I don't see how there is any profit there unless you are getting more like £120-00 a cubic meter.

This is what I disagreed with as others had posted in between!!

Sorry but I disagree with that. I idle and gently rev a new machine for the first tank. Treat it carefully by not revving for a long time on the second. A new machine still needs to bed in IMO and there is more friction in the working parts. How can being gentle with it for the first few tanks have a negative effect?

I just think with moisture meters you get what you pay for. Of the 3 cheapies i bought 2 broke and the third gave me different readings from the same piece of wood - within 5% (where the Delmhorst meters gave a consistant reading in the same spots). The cheapies will tell you whether wood is dry or not but just don't give an accurate reading if you're looking at planked timber.

Bout 90k for me... 70k is on our flat and 20k business.

All the cheap moisture meters will be fine for firewood but next to useless for seeing how dry planks are! They seem to give inconsistant readings. I went through about 3 cheapies before getting the Delmhorst ones.

I know you need to take precautions ref thieves but how would they know where you lived to pinch it from what you've posted? Great pics and good review. You should still make it secure though!

Those trousers do sound good - all those extra pockets where you could store dry beef jerky and tools and fishing hooks etc.

Well done for posting that looks a hideous barber! He'll remember this one and learn from it.

If you ever question yourself whether the chain is sharp or not..... then it's dull. I sharp chain is a thing of wonder! Look through the net for tips. The shape of the tooth is important. Madsens have some good info here Guide Bar & Saw Chain Menu Understand how the chain works and it will help you get it sharp.

I slept in the truck at the first Jonsie show - all by myself and pretty brave of me considering some of the characters roaming around in early hours. On the Bear Grylls debate - Bear is standard nickname for people called Edward as also is 'Teddy'... no I don't know why but it is! He was called it from a young age... He has done some brave things so you have to give him some credit - but I think he needs to change the way he narrates like he's constantly in a war zone i.e. slightly stooped shoulders, scanning around for potential enemies and always in a hurry.... that gets on your nerves!

I'd love to be able to put on an extra stone... roll on 41 Not very helpful to you though Dave. As said before don't eat too much in the evening and reduce sugar intake as much as possible.

Could you get a line into it (near top but where main stem still has strength) and onto a pulley in the connys on the left. Then down to a friction device (portawrap etc). Then a line to the same place - take out to the right and onto a tirfor winch. Try and get a couple of 6 by 6s under the main stem 6 foot up to pivot on and then pull the whole lot round to the right with the tirfor with someone paying out on the portawrap. Great fun

Well done for posting all the pics - went down in the right direction but I know what you mean about the hinge... it's easy to get nervous and pull the saw out a bit early. I did that on one a couple of years ago...

That's a cool wagon for logs - just a bit of a pain if they want 2 bags!

Nicely thought out Mark - but it was fun walking out on it tho start with

I have been asking myself this for a long time. Measured a bag of pine and poplar the other day. A cubic meter weighed 420kg BUT this was black poplar and also pine (which had some decay). I'm sure another bag of pine only was a lot more.... I'll try and weigh some more bags next week of different woods.

Ditto above. The trouble with modern wood burning I've found is this: 80% of customers want dry wood to burn and are not interested in storing it or seasoning it themselves. Education will not change this I don't think - I offered every customer last year 40% off if they ordered in March and April. Only 10% took me up on this offer. It's just the modern way of life - they want it now, dry to burn now. So... I'm experimenting with a polytunnel which I've put a big fan in each end. The sides of the polytunnel scroll down and this with the door shuts pretty much seals it shut. I'm going to put a log stove in at one end and then the fans will blow warm air down over the logs, pick up moisture then the end fan will blow the warm damp air out. It will only be 'on' for 6 hours a day. This will use 4 units of electricity daily but the log burner will only be run with waste scraps of wood so should not be expensive to run. Whether it'll work in practice I don't know..... I'll put a vid up of it working.

How did you go about getting the rest of the tree down?

Sharpen whenever I think 'this saw feels like it may be dull' and it always is. My sharpening has improved a lot over the last 2 years but I still wish for a 12 volt sharpener that makes a fast and good job of the depth guages. When hand sharpening I use these pferd files that also maintain the depth guages in the same stroke. Got them a while ago and they're superb but not got round to really marketing them. I love the 12 volt sharpeners (prob in the 5% minority here) and always sharpen a chain on the saw rather than replacing the chain.

I like it how the little girl saw the danger and was shouting to the adults to get back

Glad to hear it and I hope you make a full recovery

Good work

I think most people are selling now by the volume but are talking more about buying by the ton. I suppose this is to do with what an artic can carry and deliver i.e. it needs to be measured by weight not volume. And I am not at all against importing wood for firewood - but I am saying why don't we explore better our own resources first? Our £1 looks like it will be worth less as the years go on - so imported timber will only get more expensive. Near me I see only undermanaged woodland or woodland that is not managed at all.