Big J

This whole Velvet campaign makes me chuckle - a complete marketing gimmick if ever I heard one. 3 trees for every one used is a fairly poor ratio - the estate for whom I sub contract plant approx 18 for every one felled. 3 doesn't even begin to cover planting failure and thinning to final crop. Whatever dupes the public though, eh?!

10 stone? Aw bless! If 880s with 6ft bars are going to be used routinely, it's time to pack on some serious weight! Cracking fell - wise with the brash mat regardless of the lawn as sequioa is supposed to be quite brittle (though very durable). Jonathan

Great site - getting all excited at the impossibly low prices only to get massively frustrated with not being able to order anything Stihl or Husqvarna! Will be making a log splitter purchase in a month or two though. Excellent, thoroughly excellent!

Keep the cherry, replace the wife!

Not able to take any Douglas Fir on account of me being bloody miles away, but just want to say that it's a beautiful wood to work with if you've not come across it for carpentry/furniture making. My neighbour at my workshop (a cabinet maker) is a huge fan of it for exterior stuff and says it will even take an excellent, fine finish for interior stuff too. Jonathan

A cabinet maker I share a workshop with is of the same opinion - you never make much money from chairs. Too many angles to do quickly. He uses a jig and spindle moulder for dining sets as it means he can get a degree of uniformity in a reasonable time frame. Excellent furniture btw Gray.

Difficult to say, especially as it is really quite thick. Oak is resistant to giving up it's moisture, and 2 years won't be enough for a 4 inch slab. Generally needs a year per inch minimum. £50 a cube is more what you would expect for kiln dried. £35 a cube might be more realistic. Ask for £120 for the slab.

I've really been struggling with the heat of late. We've been thinning for the last couple of months and as the heat has passed 20 degrees, our ability to put in longer days has disappeared. When it really cranked up towards 25, it took us a couple of days before we were able to get past lunchtime. In the stand, the temperature is close to 30 with no airflow - bring on winter!! Any tips beyond the obvious for surviving summer on the saws?

I did have one of the orange handle saws (MS250) and I have to say that whilst it might have been OK for the odd evenings firewood chopping, in a professional setting it fell a long way short. Now upgraded to MS260, which seems to be a huge improvement.

That is the one, though it is considerably more advanced than that. It's right on the edge of a woodland that is frequented by folk from the industrial yard. Unfortunately quite a dangerous position. I didn't have time to get pictures today, but I'll be along next week to get a definite identification. Thanks for all the help. Jonathan

At the industrial yard where I have my workshop there is a small woodland that I keep an eye on. There is a large, old beech suffering from die back with numerous black, bulbus, burry fungal growths around the base, primarily between the root buttresses. I meant to take photos yesterday, but will get some today. Just about every space between the root buttresses is occupied with these fungi, and by my best guess, the tree is hollow to about 6-7ft. Does anyone have any ideas as to what it is so I can inform the manager? I did have a look on this forum, but if I missed a relevant thread, I apologise! Jonathan

Quick Stihl MS250 review, reviewing a non professional saw in a professional situation. Predictable results! Anyway, bought an MS250 for hardwood thinning as I didn't have any other option at the time (needed a saw quickly - I only had two 088s for milling prior to the 250). I was assured that there had been no problems with the saws previously sold, so went ahead with it. Over a period of about 5 weeks it felled perhaps 1100-1300 trees up to a maximum size of 20 inches or so (on an 18 inch bar) with about 50 tanks of fuel put through it. It developed a recurrent oiling issue where it would oil slightly after being scrubbed clean, and then block up again after a couple of days use. This developed about 3 weeks in. It also threw a plastic bung from the AV system resulting in me having to make an alteration to keep the handle on. Anyway, as a saw to work with for more than short periods, it's not to be recommended. It is fairly powerful and light for small tree felling, but the vibrations are quite high, the air filter is poor and easily blocked and the saw doesn't disassemble in a logical or user friendly fashion. It is however quite frugal on fuel, using half what my colleague with an MS361 was using on the same workload. The build quality seems to be much lower than that of the professional saws and bizarrely chains and parts are more expensive than the MS260. Speaking of which, the dealer from whom I purchased the MS250 is replacing it with a MS260. I realise that this review may be an exercise in stating the obvious, but I am still quite bemused that the saw lasted so little time, on what wasn't a hideously high workload (I imagine that cross cutting dry firewood for a couple of hours would tax the saw considerably more than a days thinning 6-12 inch beech, ash, sycamore and oak). So, if anyone is thinking of purchasing a small saw, don't, for the love of God, buy anything lower than an MS260! Jonathan

Best thing Rob might be to speak to Chris directly. If you google Chris Holmes Cabinet Maker, he has a website and blog with his contact details on it. He would be happy to chat to you about it. Jonathan

Whacking the wedges in too hard, especially at the end, seems to drive the saw on a downward path too - something to watch for. Regarding the little raised bit, I just have my little Makita TH saw handy and wizz off the burr.

Chris reckons it's 6-7hp, so the inverter won't suffice sadly. With it running a 24 inch cutter, it needs a substantial motor.....

Been milling cherry today and might have a daft little solution for that perennial issue of mill droop at end of plank. Simply start the cut at the end you will be milling towards, cut 4 inches in, take the saw out and mill as normal from the other end. This way, the front bar of the mill has full support all through the cut. Be careful to not hammer the wedges in too far as you can sometimes end up with a small raised burr where the two cuts meet (trims off fine with small saw). It was just a thought, as it seemed to fully solve a problem I've had for some time, resulting in probably my best milling today. Jonathan

I was just curious if there was an overall consumption increase per workload, in the same way that a performance car versus an economy car will use more over a given distance at the same speed......

No probs! I did see Chris Holmes again today and he said should you want the planer on the off chance, he's more than happy to chat to you about it.

That does seem to be very quick! Have you found an increase in fuel consumption with the muffler modification?

18 stoner - about 25-28 litres a day presently, though a slightly lower rate today as the humidity builds back up again after having had the doors open. Rob - hopefully not!! Pretty damn skint so needing the timber out and sold asap!

First, and hopefully last hiccup in the kilning - the fan on the dehumidifier broke yesterday leaving me in a situation where it was extracting no water. Had to get into the kiln and reposition one of the other fans to blow through the coils. Horrible hot work, but seems fine now! Timber looks good - at about 20-25% moisture content, so not too far to go. Jonathan

Hi Rob - a tree surgery company locally who I get logs from have a large (24 inch) planer thicknesser they want to sell. If memory serves they are looking for somewhere in the region of £1500 for it (though you might be able to haggle a little) and you'll get it delivered for around £150. Jonathan

Some progression on this..... Decided against the original Oak on the basis of there being better oaks available. There are three coming down in winter which I'm very interested in. I won't be felling them as the they already have a contractor for the larger stuff. I'll briefly describe them: Tree one: Oak, average diameter 28 inches over 15 foot. Fairly straight and well pipped, though not very burry. Tree two: Oak, average diameter 40 inches over 10 foot. Perfectly straight and 100% burred. Tree three: Haven't looked closely but I think it sit's squarely between the two. From speaking to a cabinet maker colleague, he would be expecting to pay anything up to £10 a cube for tree two. It really has the potential to be exquisite. I was thinking of offering about £8 for tree two, £5 for tree one and £7 for tree three. I'll get some photos up shortly. Suggestions? Jonathan

Roughly £100 a slab (at £50 a cube) - beautiful stuff!! That's assuming a maximum of 12% moisture content.