chestnut

a member on another forum i belong too is keen to purchase locally produced charcoal - they live near Ashby / Coalville - if you are in that neck of the woods and would like a new customer - pm your details i will gladly pass them on for you

i have had an request for 250 chestnut posts - but we only do local stuff and this guy is in notts area - if anybody has some posts that they want to shift - let me know and and i will pass on the chaps details to you

did you sort something? my contact only got back to me today (been away with kids or something) and they wanted the chip

i know this is going to sound terrible - but try the insurance company linked with tescos - i actually bartered with them last year and got a very good deal on my vehicle (they were a few hundred quid cheaper than my then current insurer - when i changed vehicles )

i make wine not cider - and made 5 gallons of apple wine last year - but i used a juicer as it was small scale presses vary so much - and it really would depend on the quantities you want make - just to give you an idea of uk costs and of the standard (domestic) designs - here is another link for you Wine Presses & accessories : Art of Brewing Wine Presses & accessories UK

i have an idea - but i need ask someone first - it is a bit late now to phone anybody - so i will give them a shout in the morning what sort of sized load do you think it will be ?

although i am near andover too - the woods we have is near romsey - and am sure you'd be able to drop a bit of chip off there (we could lay it on the wood tracks etc) but it is probably a bit out of your way pm if you can get to romsey

we sell hardly anything else as firewood (once we have sorted out the good stuff for splitting up for fencing etc)

i don't think any of the hooks and knives we use are less than 40 years old - many are much older - they certainly knew how to make a good blade

depending what soil you have - you should be able to scoop up a big clump of them then pull them apart / split them up draw out a trench with your digger and space the saplings out then refill trench better get a move on though - as the weather is about to change - and it is likely to get very cold soon - so the ground will probably freeze - and you don't want to be digging anything in or out when it's frozen

we sell mostly chestnut - and my customers love it in their woodburners - fresher stuff will spit - so we don't usually sell chestnut to people with open fires (although i have one chap that prefers it to anything else) we season our sweet chestnut for 2 or 3 years - but it will burn ok with less time (but not as well) don't forget that fresh cut chestnut is going to be extremely heavy - so i don't know if you will get a good deal by buying it in by weight - much better to buy the cord by volume

we have lots of laurel on site - and it is a great log for burning it dries quickly and burns hot - also makes excellent charcoal it will spoil if left outside for too long though hazel is also excellent as firewood and for charcoal as for laurel giving off cyanide - it does - but we burn loads on the bonfires - and have had no ill effects - but then i don't tend to breathe in the smoke

and holly - they do love seem to love the stuff

sounds like a weird deal to me - and we deal in almost solely chestnut you either buy it at cord at volume at a set rate (be it seasoned or not) - or buy it by weight - at a set rate per ton no way should you agree to take it - process it - then split the divvy (unless you can't afford to buy the wood in the first place) - or you have been trying to do a deal with my dad just because chestnut has been cut a while - don't mean it will be seasoned properly, to burn well enough for joe public (they need to have a bit of a clue about wood that they burn - and most don't unfortunately) chestnut has a decent value - outside of firewood - so you might want to speculate that way - if you can use a hammer and wedges to split it into post 'n rail etc i would not dismiss doing a deal with the guy - but you need to have a good look at the timber - and see if it would be better sold as something other than logs for regular posts - either split or in the round - you want about 7 ft length (although 5ft 6 to 6 ft will be fine) for rails - the better money comes from them about 8ft - 10 ft long - clean split if all the wood has been cut up short - and stacked - it ain't going to be much good and will be a buggar to split if it's been down for a few years - so i doubt you could even get palings or hand cut boards or shingles out of them so with all that to consider - i would say that the bloke is trying to take the mick - and i would leave it be - unless you are really desperate for wood by the way - we don't process as many logs as the majority of guys on here - but we don't need a splitter or any other fancy machines to process our wood - we do it all by hand (and chainsaw) as chestnut splits like butter with the right splitting axe