Big J

They are very good. I use mine for sharpening the chain on the 088 for milling - I still hand sharpen everything else though, unless I've hit something nasty. Main reason for the electric sharpening apart from the speed of it is that I don't need to take the saw out of the sawmill to sharpen it. That in itself is a huge help.

Tricky when you're in a rented house - took enough to get them to approve the Rayburn installation (paid for itself in the first two winters by not having to buy oil). Access to our loft space is a nightmare - the hot water cylinder is fairly tiny.

Our Rayburn is on 24/7 and is stocked up fully overnight. As Billy says, we get the temperature up high prior to closing it down (and we don't close it to the point of smoldering) and it's fine. We sweep the chimney fairly regularly so any tar build up isn't an issue. When you rely on the fire for all heat and hot water, an overnight burn is a necessity.

You do lose the pipping, or at the very least you render the pip/burr more unattractive. Instead of a nice cat's paw figure, you have a fan of pipping that just doesn't look as good. I guess this is why with burr elm logs, you cut the log precisely opposite to quarter sawing. Jonathan

Very good videos Rob. My experiences with quarter sawn Oak is that it is sawn slightly differently, as detailed at the start of this thread: Quarter sawing tutorial with pics I like quarter sawn oak, but not always. I think that there is a lot of stunning figure that can be missed out on if you only quarter saw. Any burr or pipping is more or less lost, and wilder grained Oak can have some fabulous figure close to the crown. Never the less, excellent video and will prove useful!

Looks like a cracking little truck. Would be great with a crew cab and tool storage for getting cutting squads to remote sites.

Minus one with a light frost here. The strange thing is the low humidity - it hasn't reached dew point over night at all here. This is just wonderful weather - now if it can just keep this up but put 3 inches of snow down first, I shall be very happy!

Very good really. Usual 40-45 minutes per tank but the tank is only half the size of that of the 346xp. However, if you are cutting more than 4 inch branches or stems routinely, it's a bit too slow. It is however the perfect formative pruning saw. Jonathan

First day out with the little back handle Echo pruning young oak and singling out elm and sycamore clumps. Very positive overall - so so much lighter than the 346xp (4.1kg versus 6.8kg fully fueled) and perfect for pruning. Slightly higher vibrations than I'm used to, but the tiny weight means I'm far less fatigued at the end of the day than with the 346. Couple of funny quirks - came set with the idle far to high and you can turn up the oiler to the point that it empties the oil tank 10 minutes before the fuel runs out. I would certainly recommend it!

Sounds quite reasonable. There is something very satisfying about taking a small neglected woodland and turning it around by yourself. I did that with a small woodland on a local industrial yard. Please feel free to post before and after photos!

£13-20 an hour, depending on overheads I reckon. £20 if you are coming in with heavy machinery, £13 if it's you and your saw on someone else's insurance.

I'm not precisely sure as I bought it as part of a wagon load last time. I am however in the process of getting a couple of orders together up here for about 150 cubic foot in total (he charges about £4 a cubic foot for the poplar off the saw). A double pallet would be about £105 delivery cost and you'd get about 100 cubic foot (£400) on it. If you want stickers in the near future, perhaps Steve can do a day of sticker cutting for a few different folk, you and I included. Jonathan

I am not sure as I've never used them. I try to avoid cutting stickers myself as it drives me nuts, so I buy them from Helmdon sawmills in Northamptonshire. Paid about 3 pence a foot for 18x30mm poplar sticks.

That's lovely Steve. Really quite something.

All timbers are best felled when the sap has fallen. White woods are prone to sap staining if sap is present in the timber, and sycamore is the most prone to this. Traditionally sycamore is winter felled, winter milled and then end reared (dried vertically) to encourage as little sap staining as possible. Drying straight from green in the kiln is also effective at preventing the sap stain. Some furniture makers don't mind a bit of tainted sycamore but traditionalists are a fussy bunch.

Seems like a lot of effort for a mediocre Oak, and it's a bit of a lean looking 400 tonnes!

Ensure that sycamore felled for milling is felled during winter and is milled fairly shortly thereafter. Beech is also better felled and milled in winter. Other than that - what they said! ^^

I've just ordered mine today. I did order from the Titan Pro site over the weekend but they no longer stock them, so I ordered mine for £231 plus £8 postage including VAT from Garden Machinery Direct. As you say Chris, only a 12 inch bar option but I'll see how that fares before ordering something smaller.

Hi Martin, I have some wonderful quality fully air dried lime in 3 and 4 inch thick slabs, 8-9ft long and up to 32 inches wide. Mostly flawless (without pips, knots, shake or cracks). £22 a cubic foot plus VAT. Jonathan

Very good to hear. People who attack one's livelihood by theft of tools should have no rights in court. I'm glad that this seems to be the way the legal system is starting to head.

I've been doing regular part time work for the estate I live on for 2 and a half years now doing self select hardwood thinning. Mostly 30-40 year old stock, sycamore, beech, oak and ash with elm, birch, willow, lime and cherry in minority. It's been pretty good fun on the whole, but we're starting to change tack slightly. The aims of the estate initially seemed to be more financially driven and we would cut on tonnage more frequently, on doing what was needed to make the job pay. These days, they are much keener on a complete job, so we only work on hourly rates and spend more time on pruning and general tidying. Just recently, I've expressed my feelings that I enjoy working in very young stands (less than 10 years - formative pruning and singling out/removing sycamore clumps, willow and birch). I get the impression the forester finds this unusual, so we might spend a whole lot more time in wee trees! The difficulty I have has always been finding good, reliable cutters. I've got a couple of guys who are able to do odd days, but finding guys who are local, can cut well unsupervised and who can deal with the payment timescale of traditional estates is tricky. I think that I pay pretty well (£13/hr) and I make very little from the work - main reason I do it is that I live here and like to improve my home and it's surroundings. I don't envy folk doing the plantation hand cutting, I really don't. I do take my hat off to you though!

I've been seriously considering the wee Echo too this week for exactly the same reasons. I think the 346 is overkill on first thinning/scrub clearance/formative pruning and it does get tiring when doing a lot of delicate pruning. £231 inc VAT is the best price I've found so far. Jonathan

I think provided that you have a reasonable amount of space and hard standing, you can get a heavy lifting forklift for good money. The problem with telehandlers and 4wd forklifts is that they won't lift much. Something like this would be ideal: CAT 6 Ton Forklift Diesel Caterpillar 6 Tonne 3.7 Mtr Reach | eBay

Redwood timber when green is incredibly heavy. It's almost all water, though it is amazing how quickly it dries out. I'd go for any and all lifting equipment you can hire!

Marvelous stuff. I'd strongly encourage any sawmillers nearby to grab it - makes wonderful cladding.