Big J

Not long, I'd expect. As far as redwoods go in the UK, that's fairly small. There is one at Cluny House gardens at Aberfeldy that is 14ft in diameter. That's me for scale.

I have 20ft spruce and larch in the yard that I can cut to order. I'm in West Lothian.

Star shake and suggestion of ring shake means fairly limited value. Definitely mill in cold weather and dry slowly. Don't hold your breath though. The walnut we have up here doesn't dry well.

Again, for some I agree. However, I reckon if a cutter is allowed to progress organically from smaller to larger trees (I've felled up to 5ft diameter and 135ft height) then perhaps further tickets are not required (for ground felling). That being said, I certainly don't think that they would be a waste of time. However, having contracted in a lot of cutters for various jobs, I'd take an experienced cutter with few tickets over a fresh, fully ticketed operative any day. To bring the thread back onto topic, I think the kind of accreditation that is coming under scrutiny here focuses more on the paperwork side of tree surgery (tickets, insurance and risk assessments) and I think that perhaps that is deemed to be more important these days than years on the saw and correct judgement.

True enough, but I suspect that these old school cutters are not the ones making rookie errors? I may be wrong. Either way, learning to fell trees in an environment where mistakes aren't generally disastrous gives you the opportunity to make your mistakes, learn from them and also to fell trees of every kind, with every lean, every level of butt rott and in all weather conditions. Don't get me wrong - hate felling trees in urban settings and never choose to do it, but having a lot of trees under my belt gives me a bit of confidence and experience that I think serves me well.

Good post. It just comes down to practice. A forestry operative will fell many times more trees in one day than most tree surgeons will fell in a month. We used to average 40-70 a day (hardwood, 12" dbh, 60-70ft on average) years back when I still felled trees regularly. As someone who is at the relatively inexperienced end of forestry, I've probably still dropped 30,000 reasonable sized trees. How many tree surgeons have done that? I don't think tickets are the answer. I've only got CS31 and have never felt the need for more for ground cutting. Experience is what counts, and it wouldn't hurt budding tree surgeons to go spend a few months in the woods.

Fair enough. Not trying to rip you down, but in all honesty it is the kind of log that I would near enough give away if it came into my yard. £25 a tonne at most. It's potential uses are so limited that there can be little market for it - it's far to ugly for firewood and milling which really only leaves carving. Even then, it's only suitable for someone with a specific project. It's not what you would describe as a blank canvas.

If I were in your shoes, I'd be quite chuffed to get rid of it for free. It's one of the ugliest logs I've ever seen!

Very true. A couple of years ago we had 4 large elm along a fence line, all leaning into the field to varying degrees and all but one of them presenting some sort of decay at the base. Three out of the four went the right way with the tirfor, but the fourth didn't. Even with the line on it it swung nearly 90 degrees round and took out a short section of fence (the landowner had no issue with it and we put a gate in there, to aid future forestry ops). 4ft diameter elm, with a 3ft hollow in the middle. The point is that the only reason we attempted it was that we had no real targets. Given the circumstances and trees we were working with, 3 out of 4 was fairly good going. You just cannot approach tree surgery with that kind of mentality. You have to be absolutely certain that it will go to plan or you cannot take on the job. There will always be someone more experienced, better qualified and simply better at felling than you. There is no shame in saying the job is beyond you and walking away.

I've run or reasonably extensively used most of the saws in that class: * Dolmar/Makita DCS7901 - excellent saw. Light and extremely powerful. Would be my first choice as a felling saw in this class. * Dolmar/Makita DCS9010 - torquey and heavy. Good cross cutting saw, but I wouldn't really recommend it for felling work as bloody heavy. * Stihl 660 - very good, but I think not as torquey as either the 9010 or the Husky, but a good all rounder. * Husqvarna 395XP - would be my first choice. Staggering quick on cross cuts and despite being heavy, relatively nimble on felling.

As a reasonably confident occasional (though previously nearer to full time) tree feller (forestry mainly), I've felled more trees than most tree surgeons, including some against back leans and side leans with nothing more than wedges. I however know my limitations, and I would never have attempted that fell in those conditions. Felling against a side lean (which given the prevailing wind, this tree effectively has) is always risky. With targets (such as cars and pedestrians) it is quite simply not an option, particularly with a tree species with a reputation as being brittle (I say that reading only what has been posted here - I have never felled a Lombardy Poplar). A competent climber could have strips that down and dropped out the top in an hour or so. If it was deemed that the tree was not sufficiently sound to climb it could have been dismantled by MEWP. However, I do not think that that was the case as they elected to fell from the ground. As a former forestry worker, I know well that trees that go the wrong way (and it's happened to me - sometimes with fences suffering as a consequence). That makes me very tetchy when felling larger trees in urban settings with targets. Caution is no bad thing and the company in the video need to ask some very serious questions of themselves. I'm not sure you come back from that - it's like a surgeon whipping off the wrong testicle!

I think that that is a smidge high. £45 would be more reasonable. You'll struggle to get it dry without defect having milled it in the middle of summer. Store is somewhere damp and cool. The dry summer heat will cause surface checking beyond your wildest dreams!

Needing a fair bit of 3.7m beam grade oak. Largest beams to come out of it are 190x100, so they don't need to be big stems. At least 10 tonnes needed, but could take a lorry load. Jonathan

Does anyone need a fair chunk of western red cedar? I've had a customer cancel one element of an order, so I'm left with about 21 cubic metres of cedar which has been topped and tailed to leave a thickness of 203mm. I can cut it to a variety of thicknesses, but 25mm or 50mm would be easiest. It's in 3.8 to 3.9m lengths and it's very good quality stuff. It would be £290 a cubic metre on the basis of someone taking the lot, excluding delivery (which can be done very cheaply nationwide) and vat. That is discounted by £25/cubic metre. Would make excellent house cladding/fencing/decking/floor boarding (as very stable). J

I would say so. A stem that size is an undertaking though. Where are you, out of curiosity.

Lack of diff locks and limited range of motion on axles is an issue. I have a fairly large Manitou telehandler (LSU 628 MLA) and it's relatively poor off road compared to my ancient old Coventry Climax masted forklift which has longer travel axles and diff locks. Might be worth trying to find a good example of one like that with a power hitch. I got my Climax from John Kerrs and I know they have another, but they are loathed to part with it. It will also lift nearly 4 tonnes.

Can anyone help with timber stacking this week at the sawmill? Struggling for bodies. Just stacking relatively light cedar boards. Get in touch on 07832 106156 if you can help. We are just west of Edinburgh.

I only have one neighbour at the yard and they breed labradors. Hard to say who creates more noise, but they are great and I'm lucky to have them as neighbours. My mill is far quieter now it's electric, but the whistling of the blade is still loud enough. Their house is over 100 yards from the mill and separated by various farm buildings. Industrial processes produce industrial noise. We should just be glad that people are still involved in primary and secondary industries in this countries and we aren't all selling insurance and mobile phone contracts.

God no. Sharpening and setting blades is awfully dull. I don't think that they are better because I'm better at sharpening, more that I am able to play around with different parameters to see the difference in cutting. Can't really ask a saw doctor to do that. Either way, I still can't find a set up that cuts larch well!

I have the sharpener and setter from Trak Met and it's very good. £2000 for both. Have sharpened more than 200 times, so I think I'm running in profit now. I also find that the blades perform better than those I've had back from saw doctors.

Just wondering which film scores folk would recommend? I listen to very little music that isn't classical in nature, but have a soft spot for a ruddy good film score. I currently have the theme from Star Trek: Into Darkness (Michael Giacchino) stuck in my head, and I think I'd go so far as to say it is my favourite overall. Here it is: [ame] [/ame] It's the perfect combination of classic Star Trek themes with an overlay of dark, brooding minor key tones. To complete my top ten (and in no particular order): Terminator theme - (can play it on the piano too, composed by Brad Fiedel. Das Boot - bit of 80s synth for the win (Klaus Doldinger) Back to the Future - Alan Silvestri. Star Trek: First Contact - Jerry Goldsmith at his finest. The theme for Generations is also excellent. Jurassic Park - John Williams (Mr Hollywood). A classic score, and whilst I can get a bit tired of his scores sometimes (many are quite similar), this is superb. Toy Story - You've got a friend in me by Randy Newman. Not classical, but wonderful nevertheless. Forrest Gump - Alan Silvestri. Touching and warming piano theme. Schindler's List - having said I get tired of John Williams sometimes, you can't ignore the power of the score to Schindler's list. Wrenching, in all honesty. Lord of the Rings - Howard Shore. Anyone got any particular favourites?

Total overkill. It's better to overbuild than under, but that is too much. Right, I have a reputation as someone who overbuilds, and this is how I would do it: I would not put the posts in 1m - 50cm would suffice with two bags of poscrete. Go easy on the posts and overspec the joist. Breaking ground takes time and costs money. Posts ever 1.5m, with 8x2 joists. 500mm centres, so a total of 76 posts. So 133 bags of postcrete is about £500 plus VAT You have 61 linear metres of posts (presumably 100x100mm) which would be £212 plus VAT from me in western red cedar. You have 114 linear metres of joists which would be £399 Planed all round cedar decking boards at 25mm would be around £670 for 54 square metres. For fixings, I'm a great fan of the turbo coach screws from Screwfix. Great for fixing the beams to the posts. You have 76 posts, so assume four 100mm screws in each post is around 300 screws. They are about 10 pence each if memory serves, so about £30. Stainless decking screws - I've no idea what they cost, but I guess they are fairly expensive. Budget £200. So, total of £2011 in materials, plus VAT. Can't comment on the labour side of it as I've not done many decks.

Everyone above has covered all the bases I really like poplar - cuts well, smells terrible and is usually cheap or free up here. Only thing I find is that is shrinks terribly when it dries. A mezzanine I have in one of my barns has 35cm planks that were laid green. There are 25mm gaps between them now and they were flush when laid!

It's worth improving the finish of the saw cut as a smoother finish equates to a smoother (and quicker) cut. I've cut with both full chisel and ripping chains and find that it's not the angle that determines it, rather chain tension, tooth length and raker depth. Get all of those right and you'll get a fine finish. That being said, chainsaw milling with a 62cc (Chinese, so presumably no anti vibes) saw is my idea of hell, so I take my hat off to you. My chainsaw milling days are behind me.

I dearly hope we do not, but I don't think that the cost is an unreasonable one. Whilst it was a long time ago, the last country in the world to give up it's nukes was Ukraine. I wonder if the situation in eastern Ukraine and Crimea would be different today had they not disarmed.