sime42

I'll second that. You won't believe the difference compared to any other hand saw the first time you use a Silky. Just be careful though! They can be deceptively dangerous. Also as Kriss says, learn how to use it, or lopers or secatures, to prune trees and shrubs correctly. It makes a big difference to the ongoing health of the subject and the final look of the job.

Yeah, I used to frequently run my Stihl Kombi all day doing strimming and/or hedge trimming, stopping only for refueling and clearing up. It loved it! And Stihl does! They're proper work horses. Definitely worth spending the extra for a proper brand in this case. The other thing about cheaper brands is ergonomics. I got pssed off with the expense of Stihl at one point so thought I'd save some money and get a Ryobi hedge cutter. It was half the price and started and ran pretty well to be fair, but the vibrations were a killer. I had numb hands after only about 10 minutes. I could only stick it for a week or so and then had to sell it and buy a proper one.

A good garden shredder, electric. As big a throughput and thickness capacity as possible. Or a real, but small, diesel/petrol chipper. A Wee Chipper in fact! See the popular thread of the same name here on Arbtalk. Makes waste disposal so much quicker and easier if you're working small scale. The Stihl Kombi-system is great as far as performance and reliability and versatility goes. Expensive though.

Cheers mate. Yeah I was thinking about that, I do use a TM.

Carl1991;- how do you attached the long strop to your bridge, exactly? I occasionally use the same approach or attach one of my normal strops to the bridge. It always ends up too crowded though as it all has to clip into the single ring..I've also tried using the spare hole on the Hitch Climber but thats too crowded as well.

Climbing line. It's a useful technique for long branch walks and far out horizontal work.

Don't forget about redirecting your main line

One of these micro-pulleys is pretty cheap. Well worth it to improve the climbing experience. Even if you don't upgrade the friction hitch knot just yet you can still use it with the dirty old Prussic. The rope slack tending and knot advancing function of a pulley make the whole system so much nicer to use. It frees up one hand for some of the time at least to start with which is a huge advantage. To save money you can buy a whole length of friction/prussic cord and just cut off the required lengths as required. And then tie your own fixed eyes on both ends. Cheaper than buying ready made eye-to-eyes. And even if you get a Hitch Climber pulley it's still much cheaper than a Zig-Zag!

https://www.frjonesandson.co.uk/products/isc-36kn-swing-cheek-micro-pulley-red/#

Steve has created a very useful Knot Guide App and also there is a section on here, Arbtalk, somewhere about climbing knots. Good places to start some research.

Bear in mind that any knot is going to be a lot more sticky and awkward in the wet. You could try something like a distel hitch instead, (with a slack tending pulley). This is so much nicer to use than the horrible old basic prussic hitch. But if you do try it make sure it's on a few "low and slow" climbs first, just to get used to it as it will feel much less grippy and freer initially. Also the performance of any knot system depends on your rope/prussic cord combination, I don't know what you've got. I think the only reason they still teach the prussic on the courses is because it's so simple and so hard to get wrong hence safer in that respect. Any knot in the family of "more sporty" friction hitches is actually much better in terms of performance. I'd never go back to a prussic for climbing. It is useful for rigging though occasionally. I think the Distel, (or similar), is particularly good as a compromise between the sluggish prussic and very rapid but potentially unforgiving VT. Btw; a Hitch Climber pulley would be a very useful purchase.

Then Ash

Nice one, thanks kkk2. It does look fairly easy to do. Though I'm sure not as easy as the guy in that video makes it look!

How about Stormsure?. Great stuff in my experience, sticks just about anything and it's flexible. They use it for making and repairing neoprene wetsuits.

I've been aware of this stuff for a while now but not had a use for it yet. How exactly do you go about welding it?

I'm in the Erbauer camp too. I've had their tools for years, corded and cordless. Their performance and robustness is excellent for their very reasonable price. As others have said I think they can't be bettered for value for money. My only quibble really is that the rechargeable batteries don't seem to last much longer than a couple of years. After years of cheaper brands, (mainly Erbauer), I decided to treat myself to a couple of Makita tools, firstly a drill driver and then an impact driver. Mainly to try to overcome the short lived battery issue. The impact driver is great. The difference compared to a drill driver is dramatic I think, so much faster and more torque. Well worth having one if there's lots or some tough screwing to do! The Makita drill driver I'm not so sure about;- I had to send it back once already for a wobbly chuck, and its still not right now. Wish I'd registered for the guarantee in time. Battery life, it's a bit too early to tell yet how they compare to cheaper brands.

I think that's a good idea Stuart, sounds feasible, especially with the rooting powder. It'll be an interesting experiment anyway. I've noticed the new shoots coming from the cambium roll around the top of the cut stem as well on Poplars.

Yeah, I think you're right, thanks Paul. I was so busy looking at the ground for chestnuts that I didn't really notice the trees apart from chestnuts and some oaks. But as you say they're definitely pine needles and that bark looks like a big pine tree as well. I'm pretty sure now that it was a Sparassis crispa. A new fungus to me, my lesson for the day. Common name Cauliflower Fungus. It's edible apparently.

This is the beast;-

What is this?!!! Looks like a real sea sponge. Never seen it before. Found it this afternoon when out collecting chestnuts. It was at the base of a chestnut tree, or possibly an Oak, (wish I'd taken more careful note at the time).

First snow here in Birmingham. Not frosty but feels that "raw" kind of cold.

Yeah, good point. I think resistance to wear is not exactly the same as strength in terms of material properties.

I didn't know that. That's surprising. I knew they made lawn bowls from it but just read that it was also used for other sporting stuff like cricket balls and croquet mallets.

Interesting. So I wasn't quite right, they were using wood for gears at the same time as iron. It was more for quietness and easy of replacement. It shows how hard the wood is anyway if it was rubbing against iron.

Greenheart is also denser than water, ie doesn't float. That's quite interesting to see.