Squaredy

It's an interesting shape, but I don't think it is a proper burr. It all depends what you plan to do with it but I would say £50 was a very generous offer.

Very useful looking setup I must say.

Very stable and beautiful timber Sycamore. Can spalt and marble, but often most sought after when kept clean which means drying in a good summer, or kilning. Not good outside of course, but perfect for endless indoor projects, kitchen worksurfaces, doors, all manner of furniture, mirror frames, indeed any indoor furniture you care to mention. Sycamore is of course a Maple which is used loads in USA/Canada, so very useful timber indeed. Certainly more suitable for furniture than Oak!

Has the thread title always been REWOOD....? Can't believe I didn't notice earlier!

The value of the trees as firewood will certainly be a lot less than the cost of felling.

I had your furrows recently on Western Red Cedar. It was unseasoned pieces that were left by my woodburner so they went from fresh sawn to dry very quickly. So that does seem to be the answer. Drying too quick.

Well it certainly isn't harming the rainforests... I hope we in the UK plant lots of Elm of the disease resistant varieties.....although I somehow doubt it.

Very jealous Andy. I know I can get it shipped down to me for about a grand extra, but my business is all about local and sustainable, so I don't tend to buy in from foreign lands like Scotland...!

Well yes it certainly is worth far more when converted to planks. You have to find multiple customers for it though and selling may take years. Depends what you want to spend your time doing!

In fact I have just remembered that the load I am buying is Coastal Redwood (Sequoia Sempervirens) which is far superior timber so you could argue that Giant Redwood (Sequoiadendron giganteum) is worth less.

I recently did a deal to buy a load and price is £100 per ton delivered to my yard. Some people may pay more but it is not a tree the usual mills will want - it is a specialist niche tree.

I bought a few cheap head torches a few years ago.....what a waste of money. I will make sure I spend £30 or more next time and get a good one - there is some rubbish out there.

I have not bought any for a while (due to lack of availability in my area) but Elm sawlogs should be worth around the same as Ash, or maybe a bit more. So maybe from £70 per cubic metre up to around £120. A lot depends on what they are like - if hedgerow or street trees (as many will be) then this will make them likely to contain nails and wire. If with better provenance ie estate or forest grown then they are more desirable. If you want Elm sawlogs you may have to get them from Scotland.

And thank you to all the people who have replied and enlightened me as to why chippers have become so normal.

Glad to be of service! And well done for questioning yourself.

Mmmm yes funny thing is you have reminded me I do use a chipper at home....but it is this one....about fifty years old and still perfect....

Well Dan, the reason I asked the question is (as I said in my original post) I recently witnessed one being used right by me in what seemed to me a totally pointless way. It actually added an extra step for the workers and achieved nothing good, yet caused pollution and created a hell of a racket! I do get that on many occasions they are useful, but I wondered if there was some other compelling reason why one would be used, that I hadn't thought of.

It is all about starting a debate Mr Otter. No harm in questioning methods every now and then I would say.

Well there is a neighbour of mine who needs to be bumped off as it happens. But as Rowan Atkinson said many years ago there are drawbacks to this I believe....

Well I was meaning when the trees were cut on the verge, not brought from elsewhere!

Any trees containing nails, horse shoes, fencing wire, etc.

Yes I did say I understand lack of space in gardens....but what about huge roadside verges?

Yes now this is different of course, but most tree surgery waste is chipped and left on site (eg road verges) or removed and tipped simply to dispose of - hence the tip site directory on Arbtalk.

Yes I realise this, but what about when there is no need to remove waste, like my neighbour?

OK I know chippers are to chip brash and help clear a site. But what I really mean is why do tree surgeons and arborists generally dispose of waste with a chipper? Forgive my ignorance as I am a miller not a tree surgeon, but unless there is no space (eg a domestic garden) why not just leave neat piles of brash and small diameter logs? This would be far better for the environment and the thousands of species who need deadwood surely? Is this driven by the customers eg road authorities who think leaving piles of logs will invite trouble? I got to thinking this when a neighbour of my work site had a tree surgeon in to reduce a Red Oak in her garden; and the tree surgeon chipped all the waste (on to my site). It was totally pointless as I would have quite happily given permission for them to leave it all unchipped, and the forest where this took place has thousands of trees felled every year as part of forestry thinning and none of this is ever chipped. What am I missing?