Big J

My wife just got back from Aviemore (I'm still here) and went to empty the fire of ash (I stoked it last at 1100 yesterday) and there were still a lot of embers. So that's 34 hrs. Bloody fire won't go out!

Can do you waney edged 25mm larch cladding for £6.13 a square metre, plus VAT and delivery

I have a 20kw stove from: http://thechampionstovecompany.co.uk/ It's not listed on the site yet. £425, stays lit on hardwood for 24hrs, very economical (2-3 cube a month on full tilt), whole house (127 sq m) heated at 18-21c very easily. Spend the rest of your £1500 budget on going towards a log splitter!

Thread revival. Just about to get to the bottom of a huge box of Wykabor that has lasted me over three years. This thread discusses some of the alternatives, and I was wondering if anyone had had any positive experiences with timber treatments that were not borax/boron based?

Good mate! Enjoying a day off (first in nearly three weeks). It's just a bloody thick bed of embers. It needs a minimum of 24hrs to go out, and I really think that this stove is better suited to a more softwood biased mix. Perhaps hardwoods are better suited to grated stoves?

Really struggle to get our stove to go out. Stuck with rather more hardwood than I'd like (usual ash, sycamore, cherry, hawthorne etc) which leaves more ash than softwoods or lighter hardwoods like poplar. Consequently, you have to leave the fire at least 24hrs before the embers burn off. 24hrs on hardwoods, about 10-12 on softwoods, but more heat.

Good post Andy, did see the bit on your website on the walnut grove - looked like a fascinating job. I think in the context of the original post, the log that was ringed up was certainly worth milling and was converted to firewood before finer uses were considered. All I'd ask is that if a walnut (or indeed any other good quality timber) is to be felled, that consideration be given for milling and that firewood is regarded as a last resort.

You are right - timber does indeed grow considerably more slowly up here. I had some nice flooring grade beech through earlier in the year which was on average about 25" DBH and 95 years old, so 7.6 rings to an inch. Nevertheless, I still feel that the first port of call for any batch of reasonable timber should be a sawmill. If it's deemed to be unsuitable, then firewood options could be explored. At the end of the day, it's you (the seller of the timber) that has the most to gain should the timber be of higher value. Nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that.

Nice dark heart on that - lovely.

That is pretty sad regarding the beams. I've had difficulty shifting more unusual timbers when sawn (I tried milling up about a 100 cubic foot of poplar a couple of years ago for rough joinery, and whilst I've sold enough to cover my costs, it's only trickling out) but run of the mill species like Oak, Elm, Ash etc always go eventually. You just have to market them hard and price accordingly.

I couldn't see the faces of the boards from the video or the pictures, but they might be a bit too good for garden furniture. Obviously, you have to sell it one way or another, but they look like good quality boards and I'd certainly be looking to sell them as cabinet grade (if I had them up here). Is there a barn you can dry them in? They'll dry in literally half the time.

I wouldn't though. If I were quoting to fell it, I'd quote assuming minimal heartwood. Assume worst case scenario and sometimes you'll have to firewood it and other times you'd cash in. You ascertain heartwood content, shake and colour before approaching any sawmills.

I've milled walnut of that size with plenty of heartwood.

No need to stock pile - as soon as you get the job start finding a buyer for it. It's just a case of ringing around sawmills in the area. You're in a lucky position as you could just have it hauled to Helmdon, milled by Steve there and offered to other sawmills sawn (attractive as sawn timber is easier to transport). I often try to discount my own timber purchases as a sawmill by selling loads to other sawmills. Finding good timber is the hardest part, and if you're on the ball in terms of ringing round, cutting the timber in an attractive manner to mills and having a few good folk who can help on the cutting and extraction, you could turn a good profit.

I do completely understand your logic, but 40 trees (if you included a few of the second lengths) is an artic load. Not many artic loads of walnut come onto the market, even second rate stuff (which I am assuming yours was, only due to it's relatively young age). I'm confident you could have sold the lot roadside for £10 a hoppus (£4270) for no more work than getting it there. There are a lot of large mills that process huge amounts of timber that would happily take a punt on a wagon load. You are a stone's throw from Helmdon Sawmills in Brackley, who are one of the largest hardwood sawmills in the UK.

Any interest in good quality european larch for materials?

That's just a bit silly though isn't it, when you think about it. I'll explain. Assuming an average trunk diameter of 17.5", you've got 437 cubic foot in those 40 lengths. A good mobile bandmill operator will cut those in two days. Even though they are fairly small, you'd still have no problem shifting them at £18 a cubic foot, meaning a revenue of £7866 for two days graft (before delivery or dealing with customers) less about a grand for the sawmill hire. £6600 profit once additional labour has been taken into account if you like. 437 cubic foot translates to 16 tonnes, which would yield 40 cubic metres of firewood or thereabouts. More than two days work with a splitter and a maximum retail of £3200 or less. More work, less money and you have to wait a year to see a return. If you air dried the sawn walnut, you could double your £7866. Why the hell people even consider firewooding trees like this is beyond me. It's like saying that you'd like to make less money for more work and you'd like to deal with a more difficult customer base just as a bonus

We're nearly finished with a windblow site with a nice little parcel of European larch and smaller diameter Oak. The 4.9m larch is possibly a bit good for fencing (average 50cm bottom, 35-40cm top) but happy to offer the whole lot for the same price: Larch: £7/cubic foot (£245 cubic metre) through sawn, £8.50 dimensioned Oak: £10/cubic foot (£350 cubic metre) through sawn, £11.50 dimensioned All plus VAT and delivery. Would ideally suit anyone doing a large amount of fencing that they want to last a very long time. There is probably 10-12t of good oak and 30 odd tonne of larch, maybe a bit more (it's not quite all out yet). Jonathan

I'm with Cardsave and they are equally crap. 12 month rolling contract that you cannot get out of if it rolls on. Signal crap almost everywhere and more often than not I have to ask the customer to do a BACS transfer anyway.

Got round to actually watching the video, rather than just spouting my double powerhead propaganda. Things to note: * Wedges are definitely required. No wedges mean than the trailing edge of the saw chain is being pinched, meaning slower progress, inaccurate thickness of board (as trailing edge skims off more material) and increased saw marks. * The jerky movement of the mill is likely to increase saw gouges - a winch would result in smoother, easier progress and would produce boards with a better finish. * Finally, it's just worth pointing out how different the cut rates are with 1 versus 2 power heads. It took that chap 2.5 minutes to complete half that cut. Stands to reason it's 5 minutes a cut, though they would get longer in the wider section of the log. Completing that same cut with two 880s, I'm fairly confident it would take 90 seconds. So hats off to the guys for producing a bloody respectable stack of timber at the end of the day - they must have been sporting adult nappies, 'cause there's no way they would have had time to stop to pee!

Wedges, winch and second powerhead

I use RD Anderson, but it does work out more per tonne to shift logs.

I always need a bit of low grade timber in the yard. If you can organise a lorry load, I'd take it at some point.

Bloody tired! On day 12 of 17 without a day off - just trying to get as much work done before Christmas as I can. We've got family up, and it will be nice to get a bit of time off. Yourself?

Haha! Not to worry Breffni