Big J

Very good. Long firebox meant that on the 11kw version we had, 45-48cm logs were the standard. The door latch has a wonderfully elegant closure mechanism and the convected air from pipes works pretty similarly to a bank of stove fans.

More expensive than they used to be. About £2k. About 6 years ago, I bought one from German eBay from Eastern Germany and sent it over on a pallet. It was used and about £550.

They look incredibly striking in the right room. Much more interesting than the tedious square boxes that seem to dominate the market here. This is my daughter sat next to my uncle's Bullerjan in his lounge a couple of years ago:

The ripple isn't likely to manifest itself in the timber, sadly. Beech doesn't often show rippled figure, even if the bark suggests it would. I may be wrong though. Alternatively, find a lady giant and market it as the sex toy she's always needed. Ribbed for her pleasure, and all that. ?

I imported one of them for anithrt arbtalker and I think he's been happy with it too.

You're mistaken Steve. That heat you feel is just the engine on fire ?

I absolutely love heated seats and much to my displeasure, don't have a single vehicle with one at present.

No, all done now. Thanks for getting in touch though.

Pol is very good indeed. He's been milling with mobile LT40 Woodmizers for about 20 years now, if not longer. A horse won't be able to shift a log of that size unless cut very short, so you'll need to make alternative arrangements. I was a member of the Association of Scottish Hardwood Sawmillers for about 8 years when we lived there, and yes, you are right about the push to use homegrown. There is a limit to that though as almost 50% of Scottish forestry is sitka (which won't grade past C16 due to the rapidity of its growth). Larch can grow wonderfully in certain spots (old growth European springs to mind) but it's mostly poor as it's either Japanese or Hybrid, and often full of tension from growing on exposed sites. Douglas is always nice when you find it, but one to really look out for cladding (internal or external) is Crytomeria Japonica, otherwise known as Japanese red cedar or Sugi. Far superior to Western red cedar but rare. I had one batch from Argyll and sold it to a customer (milled) that only ever took WRC. After having the sugi, he said he'd take any and all I ever found.

We've got about 900 odd tonnes of the stuff to do a couple of miles away in June/July and despite some of it exceeding 3 cube a tree, minimal fluting. Wonderful trees!

You can't really make the comparison in quality between American/Canadian softwood and what we have here. Our climate produces rapidly grown, but low-quality timber. Having milled huge amounts of western red cedar here, and seen Canadian stock, they are different entirely. Anyway, with reference to your douglas fir, don't chainsaw mill it. It's not economical at all. Best to use someone with a mobile bandsawmill to cut it up for you as the cost of the bandmill hire for the day will be recovered easily just on minimised kerf. Chainsaw mill is 10mm, bandsaw blade less than 2mm. A 10m stick, mid diameter 800mm has a hoppus footage (volume measure accounting for sawing waste) of 144 cubic foot. Off saw, depending on the specification (cladding boards, beams, posts etc) you have a value of around £10-18 a cubic foot (low end is low-grade cladding, upper-end large section, long beams), so a recoverable value of around £2000. Using someone like Pol Berguis (Black Dog Timber, near Perth) with his Woodmizer will cost about £500 for the day, and you'd get it all done easily enough, plus more if you had it. Just don't do it with a chainsaw mill. Douglas is hard and dry and you'll be cursing yourself before you've finished your first cut!

Nice walnut. How are you finding the little Trakmet mill?

Possibly, but with the demise of larch and the upswing in demand for durable cladding, western red cedar might be hard to beat.

That seems like the best bet as it already grows well in the valley in question.

I've since moved to Devon and now exclusively work in forestry. No sawmilling any more, at least not in a commercial capacity. Had a reasonably smooth 32 mile drive this afternoon in the tractor to take it from one site to another. Just over 2 hours!

Quite popular in Germany. We only got rid of ours as we needed a bit more heat output (it was 11kw) and the fireplace recess we had couldn't accommodate a larger version of it. Works really well as a stand-alone, feature stove in a large room.

The pipes act as convectors. Cold air sucked in the bottom, pumped out the top. It's very effective indeed. Lovely long firebox on it too, so no stupid short logs.

Superb! That's the way to do it. With some domestic elm trees I used to dismantle, we'd pay the customer for the tree despite me having to pay for the climbers to dismantle it, and the crane lorry too.

I loved my Bullerjan, and look forward to having one again in a future house:

It's a nice lump, but a shame about the shitty felling (noting the deep saw cut gouging into one side of the board). If tree surgeons could reliably recognise a valuable tree and then fell it without damaging it, they'd seriously top up their salaries.

Forget tree surgery. Get yourself cutting and into forestry. Constant work and increasingly well paid.

Well I do work exclusively in forestry, and it would be a tool and fuel carrier for me, as well as transporting machines to and into site. I have a 4x4 Sprinter, but the Mercedes 4x4 system isn't amazing. Oberaigner fit a full mechanical (as opposed to electronically engaged and managed) all-wheel drive system with diff locks all round. I spoke to Oberaigner the other day to look at the possibility of getting a 319 4x4 built, but finding a 319 base vehicle is very hard.

I wonder if a simpler route would be to get something 3.5t plus and just apply for forestry exemption? Would anyone argue with you that this wasn't for forestry:

Really appreciate all of the info. So, if I were to budget a block of time for going through my C1 + E, how much time would I need to allow?

It's still daft that I can jump into a tractor with a train weight of about 18-19t and drive that on a car licence. Stupid laws.