Lozzatrees

Here's one from the good old days, when men were men, LOLER/PUWER didn't exist and arbtrucks didn't have tool cupboards. Admittedly some people still choose to work this way, so last century I for one don't miss having to carry all the tools into the back garden just to avoid having a visit from the light fingered cousins.

Here's one we did a few years back the brush was stripped first to make it fit and admittedly we used a pulling rope but if your up there anyway why would you not put one up so you can pull it if needed. The bit I liked was how it rolled over when it landed so that the curve of the trunk meant that it missed the nearby oak tree by a few inches.

I have used hired in tracked Jensen and found them good to use when properly maintained and probably one of the best machines for tight/narrrow access. I last used one in some woodland at the back of a school, the hire company unloaded it in the car park so I had to track it all the way round the buildings across the playground and through a pedestrian gate in a 10' high chainlink fence. The gateway was only normal door height so we took the chute off, but the hopper was narrow enough to fit; then down sleeper steps and eventually across a stream. Here it is in said stream

The only one I know of that is designed to be used on it's trailer as well as tracked is the Greenmech Quadtrak 160, which I think will chip 6" without any problem. Not sure how wide it is but I don't think it will go through narrow gateways because of the turntable setup. Haven't used one myself but I know someone who had one on trial and they liked it. There is a video of it on youtube I'll see if I can link it. Here you go.

Here is my initial offering, a Blue Spruce our groundsman Nick felled. Nothing special but it still had the brush on when it was felled, it was a good 70ft tall. The tips just brushed the trees on the other side of the garden and he avoided the small trees either side of the tree that were staying.

We ended up buying a second one as we had so many jobs for it that some days more than one crew wanted to take one out. When you've got big timber to get out of a back garden then sack barrows and wheelbarrows don't last the distance. We do still use them though where there are really narrow access sites and steps etc.

Don't know the tree, there are a lot of Lime trees in Sevenoaks. Corner of which road? I'll look out for it next time I drive past the station.

Just managed to find a pic of the Camo-It truck.

I did my first week as a groundsman at DTE working with SL He's a lot calmer now that he has his own company, in those days it was sink or swim (i.e. either keep up or the whole garden would disappear under a sea of branches with timber on top!)

I knew that already their called "Big D Signs Ltd" owned by my brother. The L200 is done in the Jack Pyke Wildtrees pattern. He has the UK licence for printing the Jack Pyke patterns on vinyl. He started by wrapping guns and selling diy kits for them and naturally progressed onto vehicles and the like.

I should point out that we only use the "Lozzatrees" method as you call it on ancient and veteran trees. Normal younger pollards such as Lime, Willow or Poplar get the more traditional short back and sides approach.

We have a rule of thumb for leaving stubs on ancient pollarded Hornbeams at Hatch Park SSSI. We have been doing stage reductions there over the last ten years and are now on the 2nd cut where we cut the regrowth back to the vicinity of the bole leaving stubs and some lower lateral growth where possible. The guide for length of stubs is "five times the diameter" so look for the thickest stem, guess it's diameter, multiply by five this gives you a rough gauge of the length of stub from the bole and then cut the other stems at around that height while looking to retain dormant buds and epicormic growth where possible. I'll try and post some pics if I can find some. Re: Tony Croft's recent post, ditto on the reading material, also check out Dr David Lonsdale his research on effects of pruning on trees is quite enlightening.

Who did the vinyl wrap in Realtree?

I believe it does, he said he would put a list together of the stuff that's available but I don't have any more detail yet. Would love a bandsaw myself but just don't have the room. I think there is also a router table and router Will let folks on here know if there is stuff still for sale after those closer to home have had first dibs

Ditto, better than my damp and cluttered man shed any day:001_rolleyes: and so much more space. Especially after my boss told me yesterday that his other half's father has got a whole workshop full of woodworking tools and equipment for sale at nominal prices .

We have several Combi units with the 4mix engines, and have had several of them seize after problems getting them to start, etc. Eventually after spending a fair bit of money fixing them and chasing Stihl on an answer; we found out we should have been using Stihl's more expensive green two stroke oil in the fuel mix which nobody told us when we bought the machines As a result we have now gone over to using the green oil for all our 2stroke equipment rather than mess about with a seperate fuel can for the 4mix engines.

Thought you might have seen it before Rob.

Looks like he's made them a few times, pretty slick with all the clamps, wedges and formers ready and in place. But then needs to be as time is of the essence with steam bending. I'd love a workshop that big and well organised, rather than my cold damp and rat infested shed.

You guys have gotta see this guy (Mike Jarvi) awesomely combining the new i.e. precise woodmizer cutting with older techniques such as steam bending. Great bit of video editing as well, I'm now going back to youtube to see what else I can find. I'll join Youtubers Anonymous next week!

Lime is usually very light in colour, free of knots and easy to carve so wood sculptors and some turners like it. But it is not durable outside so would most likely need kiln drying. My Dad has turned bowls and vases from it and used texturing, charring and paint techniques to make some striking pieces. Sweet Chestnut on the other hand is very durable outside and suitable for furniture and fencing. All the woods mentioned above have their own qualities and uses with lovely grain and so forth but for a list of durable woods for outdoor use such as garden furniture my list would be. Hardwoods Pedunculate Oak Sweet Chestnut Wych Elm Robinia Softwoods Yew Cedar (Lebanon and Atlas) Larch

Very nice, are the planks fixed or just slotted in and wedged or something?

My problem with the SJ is not being able to add and remove from rope midline so it is a pain to rotate ends of rope and set anchor with throwline.

You could give my friend Dan hone of HoneEcology a call (link below). I was at college with him and he is a very helpful and friendly guy. He is based in East Kent and his company is a lot smaller than Lloyd Bore and not VAT registered so should be pretty competitive cost wise. Ecologist Kent | Bat Surveys | Ecological Consultancy - Hone Ecology

Just my two penneth here but if all you really want is a nice chopping board rather than an actual butchers block. What I would do and this might sound drastic but cut the block in half lengthways through the pith and make two chopping boards. This will relieve the tension causing the wood to split as it dries out. It could still split but you've either doubled your chances of getting one usable board or got yourself two maybe a chopping board for yourself or another rellie. Doh!! late again, I've just spotted the date of the last post xmas has been and gone twice since then.

How about "Wood Turners"? cos they are always turning the logs over looking for interesting grain and the like. Too obvious I know My Dad is a woodturner so I have a fair idea of what shape and size wood he wants and what woods are of most interest. Incidently he turns most of what I get him green but only part turns it down to about an inch thick. This drastically reduces drying time (and stops some of the splitting and warping) but leaves enough wood to allow returning to remove warps and splits. What a lot of people fail to understand is that the unprocessed wood has relatively little value and what they are paying you for is your time and skills in converting the wood to dimensions that they can put straight onto their lathe or bandsaw. My pop gave me £50 yesterday for some wood I cut the other day which he has already part turned several bowls from it. The wood amounted to maybe half of what was in those pictures, but he will make something from every bit I cut. (It's a well known business principle that if you add value people will pay more for it.) He also contributed towards the cost of me buying my own chainsaw large enough to cut the logs and more recently a planking device so that I can cut stuff more precisely. He saw it as an investment and says that the planked timber is much quicker and easier to mount on the lathe than stuff cut freehand. Hope this helps