Big J

Chamfluerie Estate: Logs and Woodfuel

"Sings to self - Nana nana nana nana Hidden Metal!" Nice little job but I reckon I'd want to have a metal strike contingency on the job!

Will certainly get some sorted when I get back (I still have vast amounts of spruce to cut) to work in a weeks time, but this week has been so busy, I've barely had chance to think about much but cutting. J

Lunatic day cutting the timbers for my new barn (except for the 40ft beams that they forgot to deliver!). Totally smitten with the mill - it demolished some pile of spruce today. Overall timber cut: 4@ 16ft x 12" x 12" 26@ 20.5ft x 6" x 3.5" 4@ 20.5ft x 3.5" x 2" Around 50 @ mainly 20.5ft x average 8-10" x 17mm cladding (some 27mm). All still waney edged, but will be mostly used as such. Around 190 cubic foot I reckon. All cut in 5 hours on 1 band (except for the first log which had the old band on - 8 other logs, and they were big, all done on one band). Cut almost without any deviation at all, and I really was gunning it. Also cut and split half the firewood offcuts in that time for my helper to take. Used 13-14ltr of petrol. One minor design flaw is that a fair bit of the saw dust ends up on the track roller, which will be remedied by extraction. Otherwise, a simple baffle would be fine. Can't tell you all how chuffed I am with it. Jonathan

Glad you asked! Oak is the toughest timber in the UK to dry well. It checks so easily that milling in the months of winter gives it the slowest start to drying, and the least chance of buggering up. Thus, November and December milled timber will have several months of cool temperatures and relatively high humidity to get a slow start drying. Trust me, the rest of the year is very busy! Kilns to load, unload, timber to sell. Other hardwoods can be milled during most of the months bar summer, and I find it's really only July that I am quiet. Then there is processing the firewood from offcuts, cutting softwood, remedial work at the yard putting up barns/buildings, and then if all else fails, consider taking a day off! Jonathan

Hi Tom, I'm deferring transport solutions until spring. Almost all of my work is statically based and I need something big to tow it. Could very well be interested in the poplar. I'll message you. Jonathan

Be good to see a few photos? Avoid milling it until next month. Cut thick, as it moves quite a bit and put a fair bit of weight on top of the stack. Jonathan

Peterson Mobile Saw Mill Forestry | eBay Not that long to go. Northern Ireland though.

Further milling today on the Logmaster. Cut two wild pieces of elm to great success. First piece was lightly burred and the second as knotty as hell (straight, large stem, but about 6-7 branches ranging from 6-12 inches wide). The knotty piece was actually spectacularly figured, but was cut more as a test piece. Any of you who have band mills will know the issues that oversized knotty elm will present. However, it cut stunningly flat. Even when it hit metal is just blunted it, resulting in the remainder of that cut being slow, but still completely flat. It's just so easy - I always used to have to try to feather the feed to get the exact right speed. Too slow resulted in poor production, too fast, a wandering band. Now all I have to do is set it going, watch the guide arm (the extra two inch width of cut is useful) and repeat. The guys at Logmaster are currently designing a mill to 'European spec' (ie smaller so as to be towed behind a normal 4x4). My mill is going to be used here as reference for what I think needs to be changed or not. Anyone is welcome to come and see it in action, and I'm quite excited to see what they come up with as a hydraulic mill for general use here. Jonathan

Interesting aside, but the convection pipes on our Bullerjan stove seem to act in the same way, distributing the heat far better than our old stove did. Don't know why all stoves don't have them!

It being in Glasgow, I am sure that Stephen has already snapped it up!

In answer to the original question, Stove Fans are pretty good as far as I can tell. A friend in Aviemore has one on his wee Dunsley, and it does send the heat down the corridor from the living room rather well. Being a Sterling Engine, it's also mesmerizing to watch.

I read the title and thought you were asking if a stove was worth it, full stop! Consider me a fan of stoves!

5 day in, it's a very good phone. I've used it quite a bit and it's still only half way through it's first charge!

Very slick video, and nice to get a glimpse of what you guys do day in, day out.

As my father would say, it won't hurt when the pain's gone! Very nasty - speedy recovery!

Good stuff. Glad you got a good price for it!

Two days into using the Aldi Tough Phone, I'm very impressed. Much quicker between menus than the Sonim and light and slim comparatively too. Still on full battery too.

Well I'm 29 and text speak, poor punctuation and poor annunciation all drive me nuts. That said, it's something that has always annoyed me, so I don't think that it's an age thing. Language is only truly valuable when it's universally understood (amongst those who claim to speak it). Yaffle Trees - ditto! Didn't have any problems reading that at all!

Got my Bullerjan on almost all of the time. When it's 13-14c during the day and 11-12 at night, it's just not warm enough not to. The new house has a much better layout than the old one, so heat dissipates throughout the house, meaning no central heating is needed, and the living room doesn't get too warm. That said, it's still too warm for trousers!

https://www.aldi.co.uk/en/specialbuys/sunday-29th-september/product-detail/ps/p/rugged-mobile-phone/ Picked one up today to replace my Sonim that intermittently turns itself off. Seems pretty good and certainly worth a punt at £40. Jonathan

Very good! Just to reiterate - don't watch it if you haven't seen all the episodes!

£36 for lower grade, £40 for high, roughly 45/55% split. Plus VAT.

You'll achieve a much higher price for good white sycamore/maple than sap stained stock. We delivered 78.5 cubic foot of figured/rippled in places sycamore today, and it was all very white. Wouldn't have sold had it been stained.

What an incredible show. It's just finished, and I'd ask any and all who have seen any of the shows not to divulge plot details or spoilers. It's been a series we've been watching for a couple of years (we were late to the party - it was on season 4 by the point we tuned in) and it is (irrefutably) the best show that has ever been. Even has the Guiness World Record for highest ever rating on Metacritic for 99/100 for it's final season. I'd urge you all to go out and watch it if you've not already seen it. American TV from the likes of Showtime and AMC is just excellent (generally - Dexter finished last week rather poorly) and I can't think of much produced this side of the pond that can hold a candle to it. Jonathan