arbmark

ah, the upmarket south! north devon here. i worked for the East Devon C&CS briefly about 12 yrs ago. Nice patch, havent been that way for a while. Give one of the donkeys a pat from me.

funny you should mention that one yes i got the ms341 and it runs 18 & 25" inch bars nicely. i'm not sure it is available any more tho. its in the right area though, with the 362. If you got the budget, i'd go for it. I expect you'll be fighting over who gets to use it tho! you'll think its a nice weight, your umpalumpas will want it for its manageable power.....says me whos 5-6"....where's your patch Pete?

Hi Pete. I started in conservation work. Its a difficult compromise and i dont know your workload but I would have thought having a saw in between would be a good idea, expense allowing, since you have a range of operator strengths and machine power requirements. I wouldnt ditch the lighter saws because a day of small trees/clearance/rhody bashing is much safer and probably more safely & effectively performed with the 260s.

Sorry Steve, no more thinly disguised expletives!

alright if you promise:001_tt2:

keep finding inconstencies when you get down to this level - species names change, but cultivar names especially annoying. books say different things, nurseries say another.

yea good fell. thought the guys were at less than 90 so they'd go slack, but you had that well calc'd and under control. was just trying to make a point about expecting hinges to defy gravity

i cant get it to play now!

but all credit if you were sure about it.

usually the tension side of the hingegives way too easily under the shifting stress and the thing falls somewhere between the hinge direction and the COG direction. i play it safe these days and that was a play it safe for me. I'd still be there tho!

side leaners are tricksy. i always pull them 'over-centre' where possible to keep them balanced. i think there was still too much weight on that and it clearly fell way out of line with the hinge. A testament to the tensile strength of ash ( and maybe theyre judgement ) but hey i wouldnt call that a controlled fell. ive seen those situations go bad. and that fence got off lightly. I wouldnt have done it.

i was just going to say cut-leaved beech but then it seems that isnt enough!!! from a bit of googling it looks like fag sylv laciniata. sexy.

the fell takes such as short amount of the time its wise not to rush it. the big ones are scary and theres no room for guesswork so for what its worth heres what i do if i want to make sure...

line stuff up. cut the gob & letterbox if required. if you nick either end of the hinge to stop tears, nick them level. rest the saw flat on the bottom of the gob, then bore through from both sides to 'set' the hinge the size and shape needed. Knowing the hinge is a goodun, i work out backwards from the hinge which avoids alignment issues trying to meet the hinge. So like for a heavy lean with fell - it falls hard but always lands accurately.

very much so indeed

Nothing wrong with a well maintained leylandii hedge - i still like em. they just say yea i'm big, i'm plain, i dont get sick and i suck up the wind like nothing else. If you like green theyre a bloody good green. Love cutting the tops when they are so dense you can walk/sleep/s**g on em. Bark rips off easy when climbing but they dont complain. Found some green and white caterpillars munching in a hedge the other day, so some wildlife inem. Good winter cover for birds. yea theres better alternatives, but hey dont be so harsh on the old fellaz, fellaz.

Larch is at its best off the ground, but since you got it i'd use it..... larch in the round is pretty good au naturel but id lie the cut n' pointed posts on the flat and slap some preserver on the 8" that will be above and below ground level (easy if you mark your posts befoe driving them), rolling them as you paint. they always fail at soil/air interface. They'll last at least as long as the MVF rubbish. Champfer off the tops too (especially the highest edge). I'll be doing the same in about 10yrs time hopefully.

**** i meant bypass

yea i'd second that kev7937 - anvil best. Got a pair of chunky bahco's that leave the worst bark tears since the flail. i also use loppers for hedgelaying or on leylandii. I think 'orchard loppers' leave the neatest cut - had an old bahco pair once very tidy cut - lost them in a devon hedge. arse. anyone got a good way of taking loppers aloft - they always seem to open up and look like they want to cut something i might need