Rob Stringer

I agree, i'm already splitting most of it, just milling the really big stuff that would be very hard work to split! Makes good outdoor furniture for the same reason as it is so durable (and the sapwood doesnt rot significantly like oak does).

hello all, i'm considering getting a firewood processor that I can tow behind a car/van to deal with cordwood stacked at rideside in the woods. Have been using hydraulic log-splitter/axe and chainsaw up to this point which works fine but cutting tons of billets into logs with a chainsaw gets a bit tiring and it seems to take hours to fill my trailer. Have seen that there are basic processors such as the hakki pilke hawk and japa 300 available which could make lighter work of it and was wondering if anyone has experience of these and whether they are any good/worth the cost? As mentioned I have a log splitter which can deal with anything too big/knotty/crooked for the processor but thought maybe a processor would save some time/strain and i'd then have more time for other work. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks, Rob S

probably a good idea, but i'd like to use some of it myself as well. Any ideas on good uses for ash or beech? Better to mill them into waney edge slabs or clean planks?

hello all, i have various pieces of oak,ash,beech and sweet chestnut timber (mostly 12-24" diameter) which I plan to mill with my m7 sawbench in the near future. The main use for the oak and chestnut will be slabs for outdoor furniture but I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions/tips on potential uses/products for any of the different species (and guideline prices?). Particularly for the ash and beech as i've never milled these before and they're less suitable for outdoor use. Thanks, Rob S

as above but chain&padlock it to something as well.

I just had a similar thing when I tried to get onto the website from google, a warning message came up saying pretty much the same as above and that i'd be accessing the site at my own risk.

my trailer is about 150kg empty so yours must be built very heavy

Thanks for the replies, re the quote above its a twin axle and has brakes which probably explains the extra weight. A quad could easily be towed to site on the trailer, be handy if I could hitch same trailer on to the quad when I get there!

I was wondering if anyone has any experience of using 4wd quads for woodland work and how useful they are for this. I've seen there are various timber trailers,arches,winches etc. available for them and thought they could be handy for extracting coppice material, getting into awkward places etc. Also handy that they can be easily towed to site in a trailer. As they are fairly small with around 500 cc engine I'm having trouble visualising what they can tow comfortably. I have an 8' by 4' light weight twin axle trailer with an unladen weight of around 300 kg, guessing they'd struggle with this? Any information or advice would be much appreciated.

as above, has a very high moisture content so people write it off but once dry kicks out plenty of heat. Heard people say it spits and sparks but I've never found this. Firewood and charcoal are the only uses I know of for turkey oak!

I use a logosol m7 and have so far been very impressed with it. The results are good but the main drawback i've found has been the time spent getting it on/off the roofrack and setting up so in future i'm thinking about spending days at a time with it on site rather than going back and forth. I know nothing about the logster pro.

I dont understand how beech and oak are listed as the lowest weight per cubic metre and softwood the highest, i'd expect the opposite, wondering if some of the figures are mixed up. Interesting thread though.

its not..the seat and backpiece are separate but the legs were dug 2 ft in the same hole could have used a crosspiece to join the legs but didnt think it was needed.

hi you seam to be in the same boat as me, ive got really good quality logs that are well seasoned but i cant seam to shift them, im, charging £55 for a level pick up load and they just dont seam to be shifting, im starting to wonder what im doing wrong?

i have changed the price a few times down to as low as £45 and yet they still didnt go, i cabt possibly go any lower because i'd be robbing myself!

hope things pick up for you mate

Strange,I could only guess you're not advertising enough(or in the right places) as that sounds cheap (depends a bit on the size of the pickup obviously).

Heres a picture of a bench I installed in a local nature reserve recently. The seat and back are oak and the legs round, peeled sweet chestnut.

Re the comment from grizzly7 above,LEZ only applies to old diesel engines due to particulate emissions, nothing to do with carbon dioxide or anything else, apparently most old land rovers would fail even if retrofitted with a particulate filter.

good stuff, re picking up a cheap truck I've looked at pickups going for 4k or so which have had rust problems &generally looked like they'd been hammered whereas I've never had trouble picking up well maintained estate cars with tow-bar for a fraction of this (and i've seen plenty of 2nd hand foresters going for less than this). Also, as I understand it with the LEZ with most pre 2002 diesel pickups/landrovers i'd soon have to pay £100 a day to drive into greater london (as I often do). Glad to hear the forester is a good tow vehicle, whats it like on muddy tracks?

thanks, I do a lot of towing,log deliveries etc. however so anything less than a 2 litre engine would struggle.

I need a 4wd vehicle for woodland work and was thinking of buying something like a subaru forester. I work around the edge of the London low emission zone so old land rovers/pickups are mostly off the menu and newer ones are costly. I tend to hire a forwarder for the heavy work so I just need a vehicle to carry my tools to site and pull my trailer filled with split logs/planks/chestnut fencing/equipment/whatever. I've been using a volvo estate without problems except getting up unsurfaced woodland rides as I cant even rely on summer being dry (not that great in snow and ice either!). Anyone any experience of using a subaru for this type of work or any thoughts/ideas? Thanks, Rob S

How do you find moving it around as the one A12 is something like 290kg (petrol). Depending on how there balanced I dont think i'll pull it up my 8ft ifor ramps without an electric winch.

I use a strap winch to get it on my trailer though its probably do-able by hand. It is lighter and a more manageable size than the 12 tonne+ splitters which was why I chose it. Fairly easy to move around with one person on level,solid ground but bumps and mud can be a nuisance. The bigger splitters looked like they'd need two people/mechanical assistance to move around. The main advantage with them that I saw was that the knife goes right close to the ground which would be handy when splitting long billets but I've found with the 'quicksplit' wedge blade attachment they can usually be forced apart even though the knife on the A11V stops higher up.

I have the A11V (11 ton) and have yet to find anything it wont split including knotty stuff etc.