sime42

Morning guys Yesterday I discovered that my prized stack of ash logs that I've carefully stacked up to season before being used in the woodburner is riduled with some kind of wood worm. It was the dust that alerted me at first, seemed more than the original saw dust from logging them and much finer. On closer​ inspection I can see the logs are covered in holes. But they only seem to be in the bark, not the actual wood. Has anyone else had this before? Is it something I need to be concerned about? Or is this normal for ash? Thanks Simon Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Arbtalk mobile app

Bronze filled resin is my guess. (Plastic made to look like metal). Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Arbtalk mobile app

Me too. It's a Cotinus. They come in a green variety as well. Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Arbtalk mobile app

Cercis Canadensis I reckon. Cercis siliquastrum is the more common Judas Tree. They are covered in beautiful pink/red flowers in spring before the leaves appear. Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Arbtalk mobile app

True Timon. Bouncers tend to be of the aggressive paranoid gorilla type. And play the game of being both poacher and gamekeeper wrt drugs, benefitting from both sides no doubt. Sent from my Nexus 4 using Arbtalk mobile app

"I imagine these raves are full of predatory males looking for an easy victim and vacuous tarts giving it up at the drop of a hat" - that sounds like your average club or late bar there mate. As others have said the atmosphere at a proper dance event is always much friendlier, there's very rarely any kind of aggression or "attitude" or predation. People are there for the music and dancing, and dare I say it the drugs of course. The main disco biscuit is not called Ecstacy for nothing, people are HAPPY! I was never a pill popper by the way, just enjoyed the music and the atmosphere. Old Skool / Hardcore and Jungle or DnB is my bag. Any other DnB heads out there guys? It's all about the BASS! Sent from my Nexus 4 using Arbtalk mobile app

Cheers guys for all your thoughts. Some good advice there. And re-assurance. The trees are only a foot or so from the back of the shed, it's a squeeze to get between them and it. So the area for cutting and chucking into is a bit too small. Just the bit beside the shed between the fence on the left of the picture. Hence why I decided to rig it. I did think about a speed-line initially but then got put off by the sideways forces it would create. I like the idea proposed by Arrozdoce - of effectively having a double sided speed-line. I'm pretty sure it would work, makes good sense to me. Trouble is its neighbour’s gardens behind the tree and I probably don't have a long enough rope anyway! (I've been reading the article about the importance of angles in rigging work, that someone put on here recently on the rigging forum. I think it’s great, really useful. I’ve attached it again to this thread in case anyone facies a read.) I’ve decided that I really don’t like Lombardies. I did some over in France a couple of years ago. Once I’d got them down to the stump I discovered that most were rotten in the middle to a greater or lesser extent, (no wet red cheese though thankfully Timon!) As someone else said though, they are stronger than you think. It’s only really in the outside rim of a tree where most of the strength is. Think how strong a scaffold pole is. Even knowing this doesn’t stop “the twitchy feeling in the pants” though! Good point raised by Jamie Bray. I’ve thought about this in the past. Sometimes there is a huge difference in stability between the tree at the start and the pole left at the end before blocking down, if you strip it as you go up. It’s all about inertia and damping I reckon. I’m sure it’ll be a real pain in the ass to lower through, (I’m imagining Velcro), but I’ll try an experiment this time. To see if the trade-off between stability and lowering is worth it. I’ll pass on the compliments on his stylish attire to my groundie! Who happens to be my bro! Working-the-Angles-i.pdf

Evening guys I'm halfway through this job of seriously reducing, (and ultimately removing completely) these three Lombardy Poplars. The first one, multi-stemmed job on the right was fine. I just climbed it and rigged off the second, the middle one. The second was more nerve racking but we sorted the worst part of it without any issues. I rigged it from itself, but because it was unpleasantly "mobile" towards the top, (and also has a large section of trunk rotted out at the butt), I anchored my lifeline to the third tree on the left. Topping it out wasn't very nice, it whipped around like a b*stard. So I'm left with the one remaining tree to take down. I'm nervous about this one as I don't have the option to lifeline off another tree. It's also higher than the others were. I'm hoping for some advice or reassurance. Maybe I just need to "Man-Up"! I've not had much experience in this type of tree. How weak, or strong are they actually? There seems to me to be a trade off between anchoring the rigging block as high as possible, (to minimise the size of the topped off piece), and making sure its attached to a strong enough section of trunk wood. What's the minimum diameter you'd rig from? What's the minimum diameter trunk you'd climb up to on a Lombardy? I went up to about 5" which didn't feel nice at all, but there was still a good 15 - 20 ft above to the top of the tree. I think the picture should show the situation but just in case;- it's all got to be rigged down unfortunately because of the shed directly underneath the trees and neighbours gardens all around.

Thanks. Fair comment about a weaker attachment point being safer. I use a so called "tear-away" strop anyway but have never tested it. I'll use the back handle in future then.

Hi guys How do you attach your tool strop to chainsaws that are not top handled only, i.e. saws other than the likes of the MS200T, designed specially to be used aloft? I was doing a job today where I needed to use a bigger saw, I think its a Stihl MS361, so not huge. I attached the strop to the top handle of it, but have previously tied on to the back handle. I'm never sure which is best as probably neither were designed to be used to suspend the saw from. The back handle looks weaker, but has the advantage that the saw hangs with the bar pointing downwards so obviously safer. Any thoughts, tips or advice please anyone? Thanks Simon

Thanks for the suggestions. I know Chris Cooper-Abbs is very good, he used to do my stuff years ago. But only on the back of a bigger outfit that I was subbing for at the time. It wasn't worth his while just to do my stuff as I'm only a one man band.

BTW Arctostaphylos uva-ursi;- I've just noticed your avatar. Its great. Crazy, a spiral that's not a spiral. Messes with my eyes!

Thanks guys. Some good feedback there. It looks like I've not completely wasted my money so that's reassuring. I still haven't tried mine yet as waiting for my Silky to get too blunt, which seems to take forever! So I guess that says a lot,

Hi all, I spent an interesting day at the APF at Ragley a couple of weeks ago. Whilst there I was drawn into the Samurai pruning saws stand. They were offering a Silky Zubat equivalent saw for £20 and a spare blade for £10. Since I was planning on getting a spare blade for my silky anyway I couldn't resist the bargain. My question is;- does anyone have any experience or opinions of these saws? I've not tried mine yet. I've always been very happy with the performance and durability of Silky, but they are too expensive. Since these Samurais are less than half the price they must surely be a serious contender. Any thoughts? Are Silky really worth it? Ta Simon

Can anyone recommend a good LOLER inspector to me please? I'm on the south side of Birmingham. I've always had a very good guy to do it for me in the past but he moved away from the local area last year unfortunately. Thanks Simon

Thanks Gary I found something similar but more detailed, (too much mechanics for me to completely understand!). So the essence is that as long as the thickness of the wall, (of intact sound wood), of the hollow trunk is greater than 1/3 the radius we should be OK. That's reassuring as it seems that a lot of the central wood of a trunk can rot away before the strength of the tree is too much impaired. This is obviously only theoretical so each tree is different. The rot is very rarely perfectly central in the trunk for example, so if it was over to one side you could still end up with too thin a wall thickness from a relatively small cavity. In my example that started this whole thread the t/R value was about 0.75. Or maybe more like 0.5 as I remember the rot wasn't central. Either way it was fine. I was worrying too much. But as someone else said; a little fear is a healthy thing!

I'm Devon born and bred so you'll find no Brummie accents here! (I have a great liking and respect for all Midlanders though;- before any of you get offended! I've been here a long time.)

I've thought about this as well Paul. In this case the cavity was off center though so I might have had to drill holes all around the tree before I found it. Hence weakening the tree further .......................... Small cautious sections was definitely my way forward on that one. There was enough sway from the wind, without adding extra with reaction forces. Actually it was quite a dilema between keeping the sections small and wanting to get it over and done with as quick as possible to remove the wind loading area!

What's this t/R formula you mention Gary? it sounds interesting, not heard of it before. I just done a quick calculation and I estimate that the 6in hole was only 6.66% of the total cross sectional area of the tree's 24in diameter. Doesn't look so bad when it's put like that.

A resistograph sounds like a good idea. A worthwhile investment I guess if the budget will stretch to it, sadly it would be way above mine though. I would have preferred to fell all the trees. The problem with the last two was that the lean and overhang were too great to overcome with just wedges, and I couldn't get access for a pull line in the right direction due to rough and tree covered ground. It was the opposite situation to normal urban working;- there was nothing around to be avoided, (except the barn), but no clear access. Maybe a re-directed pull line could have worked, thinking about it ...................

My insurance is sorted thanks. Though it probably doesn't cover working abroad ............. It was more damage to myself or other that I was concerned about anyway, rather than property.

Thanks guys Ty: You're spot on with the location of the job. It was in Broons, just S.W. of Dinan. I'm impressed, almost to the point of disbelief! It was only the end of a barn that could be seen in those pics. The house itself is very pretty. How on earth could you tell? What are the distinguishing characteristics of the architecture from that region? I guess you must know the area. I'm actually based in Birmingham. I was over in France for a bit of a working holiday. Some friends of mine own the property. I've been a few times, always to take down dodgy or mis placed poplars. I love it there, it has a proper old rural France feeling. Plus I don't have the normal headache of getting rid of everything I cut down, that I always have working here in a big city!

Morning all I'm hoping for some thoughts or advice on how best to deal with suspect poplar trees, (or I suppose other types of trees as well). I recently had a job to take down a number of trees. I completed it successfully without any mishap, but have been wondering since if I did it safely and in the best way. It was a group of about 9 trees most of which were about 20 -24 inch diameter at the bole and in a close group about an arms width apart. I think they were Lombardy poplars or some kind of hybrid. A couple of them were clearly dead, most were sickly looking and a couple were overhanging a barn. Hence why the customer wanted them down. (Two or three had already fallen, away from the barn luckily). I felled about four of them from the ground, the sickly ones. No problem with a few wedges. Once down I discovered that they were all rotten inside at the base. The two dead trees I also felled from the ground, with the help of a pull line. This just left me the two overhangers which luckily were the healthiest looking of the lot. I decided the only way for these was to dismantle from the top down as the overhang and lean was too great and I couldn't get a pull line in the right direction anyway. Number one had quite a severe lean so I life lined off it's neighbour as it was only a couple of feet away, and then lowered and dropped it in bits to avoid the barn. The final tree was the one that made me nervous, (well I was slightly bricking it at times if I'm honest! ), as there was quite a breeze at the top so there was a fair bit of swaying around. I found it particularly unpleasant having seen the state of the other trees, (even though this one looked healthy), and my brain kept telling me that since I was tied into this one remaining one I had no insurance if it went, "if it goes I'm going with it!!". Anyway, it turned out fine and boy was I relieved to get back down to ground with just a section of stem to fell! Having done so I saw that it too had started to develop a rotten cavity in the base. (About 6in diameter in a bole of about 24in). Hence my consternation! So any thoughts anyone? How would others have handled that situation? Am I just being unduly nervous or was it risky to climb that final tree with the unknown cavity? It felt really solid apart from the movement at the top but that was just due to the wind that day. Apologies if this is an overlong post! I just wanted to give as clear a picture as possible of the scenario. I've attached a few pics as well. Thanks all. Simon

Dean - At one point I used a second lifeline, from a second tree next door. I figured that this should reduce the swing in a bit, but more importantly I would not swing in directly to the trunk but in between both trees instead. I admit that I don't normally use two life lines. Contrary to what they teach you on the NPTC courses!

Thanks guys for all your thoughts, some good ideas and advice. I feel re-assured that there doesn't seem to be anything obvious that I've missed. . OMTC - I find it difficult to walk forwards as the attachment point on my harness is on the front. I tend to walk sides ways, crab style. I find that works well, I can still lean back into the line and grab branches as well. AG - Good idea with the slings for footholds. I've not tried that so will try to remember next time. Also I forgot to mention that I was actually using a redirect. That always helps. The only problem is that sometimes the friction gets a bit too much with both ropes going through the same Bina, (I use DRT). Obviously using a separate one for each rope will resolve this, I hadn't thought of this so I'll be trying that next time as well. I think someone suggested that SRT makes re-directing easier. Can someone explain this please? Because I've always found it easy enough with DRT, especially if I use two binas as previously mentioned.