Alycidon

Thats about right, but I do take my blades to the sharpener. A

Evening all, This spring I planted 50 Laurels, these were about 2 feet high in 4 different woods I look after. In three of the woods with sandy soil I lost an odd one but most are growing on nicely. In one wood I have a problem. About an acre is size its on a steep hill which is a knob of heavy clay, it was planted with Ash, Beech, oak and a few birch, 50 or so Kent Cobnuts at the lower edge, surrounded by a quickthorn hedge that was laid 2 years ago. Wood has been planted about 30 years. I had planted laurels in there some 5 years ago, those right on top of the hill grew well but most of the rest just died immediately. The ones that grew were in heavy soil but had better light. Having laid the previously planted laurels to improve ground cover I planted another 25 further down the bank, generally on the edge of the trees and the Cobnuts. Trees are 25 - 30 feet or so tall, and around 8 yards apart, canopy is reasonably open. These were watered in well and then left to their own devices. I visited in June, all were well, went again this week and only found one alive of the 12 I checked. No sign of any damage, leaves had gone brown and withered away. Is this a soil and or light issue ?, the soil being clay will hold water so I doubt its a water issue, if it was those in the other woods planted at the same time in sandy soil would have died faster. In fairness they are under far taller trees but have competition with elders. While there are badgers present they have not damaged the plants which were surrounded by rabbit guards, no deer much and no sign of browsing. Any thoughts ?, suspect its a light issue. Thanks A

5.1 kw or above need vent, agreed, 5.0 kw and below then currently this depends on the age of the property and the air tightness. It is though better to install a vent especially if you can install a direct air supply from outside into the stove. It removes any issues with differing air pressure between the room and the chimney top preventing the stove from pulling properly. At the next review of the building regs I am expecting compulsory vents on all properties where double glazing is fitted. AT the moment this is advisory only under the British Standards but these are not a legal statute. 250mm logs will fit 95% of stoves out there, 200mm will fit them all as far as I know. A

Morso 3112 Badger. Aarrow Farringdon S Both tick all your boxes, and are Defra approved, Farringdon is a dedicated wood burner and is right up there with Morso quality wise, stainless cool touch door handle with wood handle option. Farringdon is one of the first stoves in the Uk to conform to the proposed 2022 emissions regs. The Aarrow Ecoburn 5 and Ecoburn 5 widescreen, Morso 04 and Esse 100 are also worthy of consideration but none can accept direct air. All now have cool touch handles of one sort or another. A

The problem burning wet wood is two fold, A, When you put log onto a fire or stove the first thing teh energy in that log is used for is to evaporate the water remaining, then the remaining energy is converted into heat, so dry logs = a lot more heat. B, Wood when it burns gives of gasses that contain creosote, to combust these gases a minimum temperature is needed, if all your energy is being used to evaporate water then there is not enough energy left to get the fire hot enough to combust the creosote. This of course is still present in the flue gases, it gets into the chimney where is cools further and condenses, this then deposits creosote onto the sides of the chimney which is combustible. Then another day when you get a nice hot fire burning your chimney catches light. Burning wet wood is by far the biggest cause of chimney fires, anything over 25% is far to wet, soft at 20% is not to bad, hard needs to be below 16% for optimum use in a stove. A

From the other side of the fence we do prefer our users to use Kiln dried and usually ( but not always alas) they have an acceptable moisture level. I get called to look at stoves that wont burn or wont pull 2 or 3 times a month, usually its wet wood, occasionally to large a pieces of wood, sometimes both. I have never been called to look at a stove burning kiln dried products. Remember the 45-25 generation by and large have no experience of building fires, cannot tell species of wood apart and have no idea what so ever how to tell if wood is dry and ready to burn. Most buy the cheapest crap they can get hold of the moan to the stove supplied when it does not burn. A

As principally a stove retailer with secondary firewood interests I have found that a 100mm average log diameter is the best for optimum flame patterns, you must have turbulance within the firebox and 2 or 3 smaller logs burn far better than one big one. If you have a stove yourself try it and see. Thats why I like smaller logs than are usually supplied. This machine makes a consistant log, quite a bit of kindling yes but probably no more than you would get with a ring knife unless it has some sort of self centering system. The seperation system works well and I suspect exajerates the amount of waste coming off as most would go into the main processed log bag normally. Village idiot, what sort of cost are you talking about ?, sounds like it might be in Transaw territory. But I feel the major downside of this system is speed, 3 passes for one round slows things down compared to other machines processing 450mm logs through a ring knife. How much cord in a typical load cannot be processed by a 350mm machine, in my experience not that much. A

This looks a good idea to get consistant sized logs from large diameter cord. Japa 435 |firewood Processor - Splitting Hardwoods It is a bit slow but the idea appeals to me. A

Friend of mine who buys in a lot of oversize has one of Wilsons ones on a three ton excavator, prefers it to a conventional splitter as it can break down much longer timber. He then puts the split down stiff through a Posch 360. I think it does leave a messier log though. A

Well they are doing something right, https://companycheck.co.uk/company/SC456100/PWR-BIOHEAT-LIMITED/financials#key-financials Looks like 500k or so to set the business up, suspect they are writing assets down hard, and reducing debts equally well. So somewhere they are making good money. A

I was half way through an application last winter, I was approved for the first stage and asked to submit a full application. This was a FC scheme via the EU and actioned by Defra However the terms and conditions were pretty onerous to the point that I considered it not really worth going forward given the volumes I do and the storage space I have. In a nutshell the need to employ extra people, full planning consent on processing site and storage area and the need to expand the storage space to accommodate extra product. With ash die back getting worse every farmers son with a chainsaw is going to be selling cheap firewood so I saw no sensible return on the investment. A

One of the key aspects of grant funding is providing additional employment. A 360 cutting say 30 cubic meters a day = 150 cube a week, needs 2 people running it, one loading and moving filled containers the other on the levers and a hell of a lot of undercover storage space that has to be paid for and may also have rates to pay on it. I cant get bags to stack any higher than 3 safely but have seen spud crates 9 high outside. Personally with quite small volumes I could not make the maths stack up especially as the grant funding only covered from memory 40% of the cost. But I do think that a group buy under a grant scheme would probably be viable, maybe 5 or 6 small business together given that you are on good terms with your competitors which I suppose is generally unlikely. A

All fires of stoves need kindling of some sort or other to get them started from cold, newspapers are OK but can put a lot of smoke out especially if there is a lot of kindling over them, so an appliance with a poor pull in a low wind situation could lead to smoking back into the room. Wood/wax products such as CWs Flamers product work well. A

Since 2009 I have sold 6 - 10 Ironhearts per year, the next complaint of any sort will be the first. Ironheart has a flue way around the oven to convect the heat around it, supplied with the cooker are hotplate lifters, these lift the hotplate out to allow access to these flueways. A long handled brush and ash scraper are also included. The clean out door below the over door is removed ( three nuts) to allow soot etc to be removed, the whole process is quick, simple and if the cooker has been used properly clean. If you burn wet wood in any appliance then you will get tar building up in any flueway attached, this can be a nightmare to clean and can result in a chimney fire in any stove or cooker. Use DRY ( 15% MC or below) wood and burn it hot to avoid this. If necessary PM me and I will talk you through it. I am not the dealer for Devon and you will need to buy from the one down there if you go that way. A

Look no further than Esse, They have been building wood fired cookers and stoves in the UK since 1854, they lead the world in wood fired cooker design and technology. Esse was good enough for Scott and Shackleton in Antarctica and Florence Nightingale at Balaclava, if you visit River Cottage near Weymouth their cookers are all Esse including an Ironheart wood fired. https://esse.com/range-cookers/ You will be able to find you local dealer via their web site above. A

What sort of firelighters and what sort of volume?. I could maybe help if you are looking for a Flamers type product. I have just bought in a couple of cases to have a look at from the Baltic in a log container load, nicely boxed in display boxes of 50, 16 boxes per case. Only 1 case available though as I want the other to sell myself. PM if needed. A

That looks a lot of truck for the money, especially if that includes VAT which I doubt. 22000 miles is hardly run in, A

Dont know anyone round here with a processor that will handle over 400mm stuff, maybe split it down. I could put you in touch with a guy with a screw splitter on a 7t excavator near Kettering but in the past he has been a bit unreliable. He would tend to do a job like that at the quieter times of year. Your grandad is who I am thinking about, opened the bowling for watford, big beard, shepard from memory, very very accurate and economical bowler, I found it very hard to score off him, lovely man. Good times. A

Hi Marcus. welcome to the forum. Think I spoke to you a couple of years ago re a stove and also played cricket with your Dad maybe 40 years ago at Watford. Anyway the question, give Andy a call at the Jesus Army down at Heyford. He has a tajfun 400 and could probably do it for you although they will be busy picking fruit for a few weeks yet I expect. Nene Valley Firewood Hardwood Logs Kiln Dried Logs Kindling Free Delivery A

Thanks for your help and suggestions, will have a look at them. A

Small logs is VERY important, 100mm average diameter max for optimum results. 6 way splits on big diameter logs is not good news heat performance wise. A

Nick Channor who used to post here would do you a bulk trailer of mixed arb waste, transport would be quite costly though as he is just north of the M4. This would be a big trailer, maybe 24 tonnes or so. I do have his contact details if needed. A

Yes very much so, it has split everything I have tried it on all be it on massive diameter lumps I split in half first. The optional 4 way knife just slips over the standard 2 way, takes no longer than it does to type this to change over. The Posch is really solidly built and well designed, I use an MF135 to run it which it handles easily. A

I looked at this splitter at the Arb show when I chose the Posch. As a splitter only the Balfour is a bit faster but the winch seemed very slow. Suggest you compare both at the next Arb show and decide. A

As a stove retailer myself who visits other showrooms fairly often then I would agree that there is some poor advice given. Usually this is due to poorly trained showroom staff. I advise customers of the pros and cons of both, and the importance of a low MC is nailed firmly home. I have samples of Ash, Birch and larch in the showroom to show them. Most have a preconceived idea that hard is best and as a result most of my sales are for hard. Some though will take a mixed load, so a cube of each but its not often a cust will take soft only. I know have so much soft building up in cord that I am toying with offering mixed bags for 17-18 winter. A