Dean Lofthouse

Darren you were wrong as per usual Cheers Tom, great help Just been watching Jamie Oliver ( well I haven't the missus has) and he uses one all the time but couldn't make out what it was.

Using one end all the time and leaving the other end in the climbing bag will leaving it full of twists. It needs pulling out of the bag and over the branch nearly every time to prevent this. Just use the othe end for a couple of times and it should sort it

Which would lead to people trying to use rear handled one handed and a lot more accidents. To ban them imo, would be utter stupidity and we would be the laughing stock of the rest of the world.

What's the best common wood to make flat chopping board type food serving platter from and how do you cut it, along the grain or cross grain I was thinking of cutting one out of burr ash or oak so it didn't split or warp hopefully

They are also very picky, they only take seasoned or split logs. Police have just rang and said they have assigned an officer but this officer is on leave from today for a week and will get back to me then

Mine is still there at Askham but finishes shortly. I have also just taken on another lad temporarily as he was going to lose his college place because he finished at his placement, rather than that happen I told the college I would take him on till he finished his course. He has about 4 month left to do

My lad has now got all his tickets and it hasn't cost me a penny. All I have had to do is employ him and bring my company up to scratch with H&S, which has been a good thing for me too.

Mr McSheff and Bob use one a lot

Then your employer shoves you straight up a 120' Lombardy and says he'll be back in a bit

Haha...log cam-tastic. This log thieving has been going on for years and I reckon over the time I have had the yard well over £10k worth of logs have gone amiss This is just a few..

you are a tight git It would be nice if employers didn't send novices up trees as soon as they leave the college gates and let them become saw aware before they start doing dismantles. My groundy has done two years with me and has been at college throughout that one week per month. Friday was the first time I allowed him up a tree with a chainsaw. If everyone did the same, accident statistics would come down. Following afag rules to the letter as Kev suggests, is not a safety net and guarantee that accidents will not occur. Again, I am using an anology which might not be appropriate but it is like driving, when you are doing you lessons you have to think intensley about everything you do, after a couple of years driving you do it automatically and relaxed, you can, shall we say, multitask without thinking about it. Sending someone up a tree straight after training is IMO barmey. They should first be able to operate a saw with thinking about it, climb on their climbing system without having to think intensley and cut limbs confidently. In all that time they will have developed the muscles required for all those tasks also so should be climbing smoothly without effort and not be fatigued when starting a cut. Training is only a very very very basic guideline to start with, experience is the golden key to less accidents, if that experience didn't involve having to learn for themselves through having close calls then that would be a massive step forward. But by the training establishment refusing to accept one handing as a legit practice and refusing to teach it, they are IMO encouraging people to injure themselves through having to learn the hard way.

I've actually heard good reports now about greenmech. My first chipper was greenmech and I loved it, the only reason I changed was because it wasn't letterbox opening. Now I hear they have seen the light.

I think the statistics are very mis-leading. Chainsaw accidents will be lumped together whether they are ariel, ground, pro or diy. Just like my mewp accident didn't attract the attention of the HSE because "no-one died". Although it was reported to them but very little detail was requested. Your accident pete, was just that, an accident, it wasn't bad chainsaw use. Statistics should reflect this

One thing I have come to do now is to automatically hold the saw at the stub of the cut, after the branch is cut. In other words I dont follow through, then if you do "direct" the branch with a flick of the hand, the saw is still up out of the way. Again, these things come with a little experience I think

I think one thing is, you learn from your mistakes. Whci leads me to a question Why not teach the lessons from our mistakes to people new to the industry instead of them trying one handed techniques for themslevs without in depth training and them having to learn from their own mistakes. I think this is why the statistics might be higher than they should be, because inevitably, people will use the saw one handed and the training establishment know this, but refuse to aknowledge it.

In ten years I've had two close shaves and one cut. One using a rear handled saw above my head when I first come into the industry without the strength to keep it there The second was in conifers with a 200t when it kicked back on the multistems, I was balancing on ladders because there was no foothold and the ladders moved The cut was when I crossed my arms when cut and holding and I knew I was taking an extreme risk. All due to stupidity or inexperience

Good post Ben Confidence with saw use and familiarity with the saw comes with experience and until experience with normal saws is gained, there will always be high risk with the 200t. For example, I watched someone the other day putting in a gob cut, they checked it time and time again, leaning round the stem to see where their cuts were and whether they were aligned. Experienced cutters dont need to do this, because they are confident with their saw use. They very rarely have to check their gob cuts and can line them up perfect everytime as most people can that have had a lot of experience. If you are using a top handled saw, your mind should be clear of things that should come automatically, if that makes sense ?

You could say the same about all saw use ??

Exactly, reckless one handed use causes accidents Cutting and holding can be done safely too. I have seen so many close shaves were someone has tried to do a step cut hand held and the stub or branch has not held, in an automatic reflex they go to grab the falling branch and come very close to contacting the blade. Where if they position themselves so they can hold the branch with the left hand whilst cutting with the right at arms length, they can perform the task very safely. But again, do the above only when neccessary.

What chance ? With speeding there is chance, yes, perhaps that was the wrong anology. But with one handing, done correctly there is very little chance, infact I'd go as far as saying there is less chance than two handing in many senarios. In some senarios, as in the one I pointed out the other day, there is more chance of being badly injured two handing than there is one handing. I think you have all got this picture in your head of me swinging a saw about all over the place in one hand cutting and holding everything. The one handing I am talking about is at arms length with the saw balde at an oblique angle to the forearm. At worst the saw with spin out of your grip without contacting your arm. Perhaps I should do a demo video to show what I mean one day

I bet those people getting retrained are not experienced tree workers Kev. The above statement to me sets the alarm bells ringing that training is not rigorous enough. What really pee's me off is that accidents are blamed on one handing whereas they are really caused by inexperience, lack of training or plain stupidity or a combination of all three One handing is perfectly safe, if you use your common sense, don't rush and think about each cut, just as you should for two hand cutting. One handing has it's place and should be recognised as a ligitimate technique. How can you frown on it's use, but yet include it (albeit very little) in training. That is like saying speeding is illegal, but it's ok to do it every now and again when circumstances allow. Either include it in training or don't, or say it's ok to do it or not

Problem I have is no electric I plan on putting up a dome camera on a 12m pole with a 2km range wireless link to the existing dome camera system I have in at home, but it will have to run on a leisure battery with solar charger. The whole setup should run at under £600. Then I will have an ifra red beam running across the yard that will be the trigger for the alarm to text my phone, quick check on the camera and I can then call the police or tell them to get out of the yard from a wireless tannoy system I can speak from at home. I even think there is a GSM style text alarm where you can listen in to conversations in the yard over your phone and speak back through a tannoy, which will scare the living daylights out of them 12 months and I should have the system up an running and will report back

I reckon that even if they dont end up being prosecuted, the months of wondering their fate will be justice enough for me. It will certainly put them off in future, second time they are caught they wont be so lucky

As long as my led's are not signalling anything promiscuous to them, then thats ok, I'd hate to come home and try to explain to our lass that I've been raped by aliens

I would have blocked them with the landrover until the police arrived