AHPP

That can’t be real?

Would still be interested in seeing it though. I assume the high and low gears are the opposite way round down there.

Ah. Well spotted.

I’d be interested in seeing it, maybe even buying it.

Mine is the Marlow stuff, white with black flecks. Polysteel (green) sold on ebay has a good reputation. The garden variety blue stuff is silkier. Couldn't say for sure but gut feeling is that it won't be as good.

A big steel biner saves tying knots btw.

My three strand is 16mm. Compared to thinner stuff, it's easier to grip and more resistant to damage from nicks, abrasion etc (with cross section increasing by pi as diameter increases). Still knots fine and is piss easy to splice if that appeals. Kernmantle or double braid "nice" rope is stronger and just generally nicer for a given diameter but you don't want to ruin it natural crotching or just being a brute. I'd be amazed if you needed 16mm in nice stuff. I do 95% of my rigging on 12mm double braid. 16mm double braid is heavy chunking rope. You wouldn't be asking for advice if you were doing that. I don't know your use but if I had to guess, I'd say 16mm three strand would look after you pretty well.

I personally want a small one that I can use for odds and sods, up a tree etc, more like the Notch. If I was buying one to use as my main rigging device, I'd go for the Stein RC1000/2000 because they have the top hanging point that saves you bending over to thread it.

Plus what Mick said.

I'm always surprised at how big saws hedgelayers use but that's coming from someone who doesn't know much about hedgelaying. I assume you need the power for those long, steep, diagonal cuts?

I rigged for years on hairy three strand. Still comes out on most jobs for a tagline, driftline, buttline etc, if not principal rigs. I often use it to flop something down and then pass it onto the main system (usually Hobbs). There are tricks to make friction quick and relatively repeatable up in the tree. I like it. Portawraps are mint (begging the question why I still don't own one - someone sell me a small one please). Mainly like them for pulling/lifting stuff with a truck and being able to let it off. I used one to do a poplar the other day, the base of which was so tightly crammed between sheds that the Hobbs would have been a pain to use. Bollard wouldn't have been any better but would have been heavier to carry from the van and harder to strap. I'd rather have a portawrap than a fixed bollard used by a less skilled rigger. A bloke nearly killed me twice because he couldn't strap a bollard tightly enough and the wraps tipped onto themselves and held a piece that needed to run, twice. You can't balls up a portawrap as easily.

Not sure if it's the reason but butter bubbles and burns at a lower temperature than oil, I've only ever used oil. Next batch I do I'm going to pop it in oil and then melt butter and toss in the pan off the heat.

Fixed with higher heat. Popping in seconds, way better results.

Yep. That’s civil servants for you.

They’re brilliant. I’ve just used my 120 in the living room. I do walloping takedowns with the 220 with 16”.

Took ages to start popping too. I used quite a lot of oil and butter. Might have slowed it down with that as well.

Any experienced popcorn men here? I've just ruined a batch. Burned, majority unpopped. Did I use too low a heat?

I bought a set of narrow ones but they were shit quality so went back. Got a drill as well. And forks and bucket.

I once rolled a diesel Sherpa about twenty feet from the river Thames. It ran completely upside down for a good minute before I could get to the off switch. Stood it up with four men and a lever and left it for an hour. Worked fine for the rest of the week. Lessons were learned.

I'd have had the narrow Sherpa but I didn't have the money at the time. This will do for now. It's still a million times better than carrying things.

Mine in action in Cambridge earlier in the year. Two skinny kids just about keeping the back down. Sopping wet poplar. The grab is big and heavy, I suspect homebrewed. Probably slightly too big for the machine but a wide pinch is nice for big diameter rounds.

Probably. It was one of the relatively pivotal moments of deciding to offer a proper service rather than be just another worker. Comms sets was another. Buying my spikes from you in my early days was even a reasonable commitment at the time.

I used to only take small saws to climbing jobs and rely on those hiring me to provide big saws. I was up a pine in Liverpool and called for a 660. I'd used it several weeks before. It was a bad starter and bad runner then and I'd remarked on it. It came up running, cut out when I blipped the throttle and wouldn't restart. I was getting annoyed. I adjusted my position to get a really hard pull on the cord, pulled really hard on the cord and full-force twatted my elbow on a stub. I properly saw red. Honestly some of the the most intense rage I can remember. Bought two big (ish) saws on the way home. Never looked back. People are now hiring me because they know I come with reliable, big saws, sharp chains, and spare chains.

Well done. You’re cutting better than 80% of tree surgeons.

You get it. Let the saw sing and feed itself. Depth gauges very important for that. The biggest difference most people can make to their sharpening.