Big 'Ammer

If you have a really outsize tree and are double cutting with a long bar, make your initial cuts with a shorter barred saw. This will guide the long bar in better, as someone pointed out earlier, long bars flop downwards when on their side, so this helps as you arn't straining the chain sidewards trying to force it upwards to counteract the bend.

The rest.

Here's a few pics someone took of me felling a beech stem. Tree had meripilus. We dismantled the canopy to avoid damage to the surrounding trees and get it short enough to fell without the top damaging a sports pitch. Put the gob in to make the hinge at the widest part of the buttresses. Because meripilus rots the centre, I didn't cut into or square off any buttresses to maintain the most strength at the edges of the hinge. I cut a letterbox to make sure the centre was removed, as the bar wouldn't reach from both sides and also to feel how far the centre was decayed so I could judge how much hinge to leave and whether one side of the tree was more decayed than the other, so I knew what to expect. I prefer this way on decayed trees. If you just wade in with a long bar from one side and then find there's no strength where you need it, its not as easy to adjust your plan of action. Trunk had a good forward lean, so cut in from both sides and set the hinge, then released it at the back. Last picture is me talking the cut through afterwards explaining what I had done and why, with Dave, who was my apprentice at the time.

How come you re-handled the timber? Why not put it straight in to the trailer as it came off? Nice job btw.

Special features in the DVD box set.

108. rollomatic ES bar. Cheers folks.

How many drive links for an 880 with a 36" .404 bar please? Cheers.

And have your second certificated, equipped, rescue climber stood about watching while you do all the work? That's madness!

Might be an idea to put a tag line on a piece like that and put it round the tree to check the swing when the blocks set far out. If that piece clipped the trunk or something on the way past it would dramatically alter its flight path. You don't want a bit like that hitting you in the head.

+1. Wear gloves. You don't need to take it apart if you are careful.

Whoa!!!! 'A couple more cranks' too many! Bit too much nip on there, but it did the job. Good job the rope didn't slip and flatten the shed in a trebuchet kind of way. Have you tried it with two ropes on anything yet?

Mark, I think the one at The CLA Game Fair this year was Sticks and Stone. Welcome to Sticks & Stone He's a mate of Theocus off here. Some nice stuff on their stand. They did tell me how they made the holes, but after numerous refreshments during a warm day, I can't remember!

Don't throw it away, keep it for step cuts.

That must put me in the moron category then. When I was assessed for CS33, on a multi-million £ Estate, I felled an 80' tree through a gap in a hedge 30' away, that was the width of the trunk, because the assessor bet me I couldn't do it. He called me a clever ****, and passed me as competant. I like a bit of showboating now and again too, but I don't have a video camera......

Its seems thats the way things are going. I was talking to a landowner from Lincolnshire in late July, and he was delighted to be getting £50 / tonne at roadside. I couldn't believe it.

A good crop of fruit may indicate that the tank is full.

What's a sensible price to ask, and expect to get, for a second hand 200T with a 14" bar in good working order and recently serviced. Has a decent bar and I'd stick a new chain on.

Rupali restaurant. Britains hottest curry apparantly. Or it used to be? I dunno, I havn't bought Viz for years.

I once cut down a really nice blue cedar in the middle of someones lawn, whilst subbing for someone else some years ago. I commented at the time that it seemed a shame to lose it, but they were adamant it was going. However, the customer was more adamant that it should have stayed and the scabby Lawson at the other end was the one that should have gone. They sounded really adamant, but I couldn't hear 'cos i was busy at the other end of the garden with the blower, with my earmuffs down.....

Think you'll be out of luck Chris. I wanted one to try a 361 on .325, but I could only get a 9 pin and its way overgeared.

No, it means they have got Rabies.

You are only going six miles.

It might.

Javelin looks worth a watch, then. Think I'll give the Shot Put a miss, mind.......

If you don't have a quarter girth tape you can work out Hoppus cubic feet by:- The square of 1/4 of the circumferance in inches multiplied by 1/144 length in feet.