Big 'Ammer

Like that, Tom.

Works for me! I never thought about what my strange hand waving looked like to anyone else! ...but they're always right on the money!

On the show the bloke claimed he was putting 'SBK' on the stump. The SBK you buy now is a completety different product to the SBK cocktail of chemicals that was sold up until a couple of years back. The new stuff is to be applied mixed with water. The old stuff was to be applied mixed with a small amount of oil or parrafin, mainly to get it to stick to the stump. Another one of the guy's tricks with the oil, the punter can see its been 'treated'. Modern water based SBK will dry up fairly soon same as Roundup, and unless the customer saw you mix it and apply it, they wouldn't really know if the stump was treated or not.

Its all clear to me, and some good points made by all. I like felling technique discussions.

I currently wear the all black Stihl baseball cap with the centrally located logo for work. For best I wear the posher grey and black Stihl hat with the larger logo on an angle. Li'l Dave however wears the Husqvarna blue tea cosy hat, and gives good reports on its servicability, as he wears it at work, for best, and in bed if its cold. In the interests of impartiality, we accepted all hats as free gifts.

I usually bore the middle out of a large tree anyway, as I prefer to use a smaller saw where possible. The other good thing about boring the middle is that you can 'feel' where the sound wood is on a rotten tree - not all decay is always bang in the middle of the stem - this means you can take a bit more out on the better side to compensate if need be. If you wade in with a long bar from one side and encounter more decayed wood than you'd anticipated in a particular area of the back cut, its less easy to adjust mid-fell.

Landy.

Good stuff! Some days lucks on your side and you just miss those nails! Looks like a close one on that stain on the bottom of the gob face.

Nice work on the cedars.

Did he do the job there and then in a single visit with his crew with him upon turning up to price the job? Or was it edited? I don't know. If it was in one hit, then yeah, £180 is steep. Dave, I don't like his tactics either, as I previously stated. Personally, I try to get as much detail from the initial contact to decide if its worth my while making an effort to go and specially look at something. If its a little job like that I look at it on the way home, or whatever, too. The Beeb were trying to lure this particular man in to make a TV show. Again we don't know, but .... He might have driven for 45 mins in some crap traffic at the end of the day to look at the three 'BIG' conifers in a rear garden,that were described by a layman over the phone and then seeing the job, given a take it or leave it price to maybe make his time worthwhile. I was merely pointing out the economics of what could have been the case. I have not said whether I think his price for the small conifers was acceptable or not in the circumstances I described. I don't condone his selling tactics or his pricing. I am just throwing something to think about into the mix of the discussion. We don't know his work radius from his base. To take my theory a little further..... If the bloke takes a couple of hours each to travel and do three such jobs in a day, bearing in mind he is running a transit crew cab tipper and is likely to be full up by then, and then go back to base and tip. 3 x £180 = £540 less the V.A.T. = £80.42 He's left with £459.58 for three men,tranny tipper and a chipper for the day, which isn't anything to get excited about. On the other hand, he may be just around the corner, knock four little jobs out, easy-peasy and they're all in the pub for lunch! Like I say, Its just something to think about.

I watched the programme. I didn't like the blokes tactics, however, Lee and Andy make a good point. I wouldn't have done that job for £60 like the expert suggested, unless it was one I could knock out on the way home for an existing client that was happy for me to turn up whenever it suited me. Looking at it from the other way round, A1 bloke has received an enquiry from a new customer, he's taken the time and fuel to go and look at it and give his price, he runs a three man crew, and on a second occasion, has turned up from wherever he is based to do the job, cutting the trees down has taken 5 mins, but they have had to find parking, speak to the client, drag the stuff out, sweep up, and take away the arisings. Then go back to base or on to the next job. Probably more like 2 - 2 1/2 hours from starting in the morning to getting to the next job or back home. I am assuming he's in London and his yard isn't 5 mins away. Knock the V.A.T. out of £180 and he's got £153.20. Food for thought.

I didn't realise that they were only to be used with 'Grillion' lanyards. I would have thought that any suitable 10mm rope would be satisfactory.

If you will come and saw and split into firewood 26 tonnes of 3' diameter down timber, for a grand, I'll see about buying some.

I 2/3rds dismantled a beech tree in 1998 that was estimated to be between 450 and 600 years old.

Is there much between the 390 and 395 in you experience Mozza?

On paper they are very similar. I was just interested in an unbiased opinion from someone who uses both machines. FTR, I have a 660 and am rather disappointed with it. I may yet buy a 395.

Sorry, maybe me being a bit thick, do you mean the Husky is more powerful or it weighs more when it wears the same size bar on as the Stihl?

"Red sky at night, Get off my land!" Farmer Palmer.

Sawdust, out of the 395xp and ms660, which saw do you prefer and why?

I did say it was a tongue in cheek remark... I agree with you. Like Dean, when we do take anything off site, it gets put to use and is not waste. I don't have WCL.

Zurich or NFU. Trying to get under 25's insured on transit tippers is PITA.

It was a tongue in cheek comment with regard to more and more paperwork in relation to us all just trying to get on with tree work. Some argue that arisings from tree work are waste, so if we remove this 'waste' belonging to someone else, and are being paid by them for doing so, are we not then 'hauliers' to some extent?

A very good point. If we are then being rewarded to haul away other peoples waste, should we have a tachograph too? Discuss.

If its for your own non-commercial use and you have had no training, please accept my apologies if I have come across a bit heavy handed. As others have said, count the drive links on the old chain or read the relevent info thats stamped on the bar. Well done for taking steps to get trained, this sort of thing is one of the first things covered on the course. And take care in the mean time.

Thats smart!