Spruce Pirate

I used to get xzl's from Witham SV. They'd send them out individually or on a half pallet for four. I'd think they'd be a good bet for Wolf rims too. MOD Sales, Military Vehicles & Used Ex MOD Land Rovers for Sale

I sew better than my wife. I used to do all the repairs on my saw breeks, but there's a lassie in the next village who is a seamstress and has an open fire. Didn't take too long to come to an arrangement.

Pretty sure it is the same emissions, only the timescale is quicker.

Anywhere between two and eight!

If you're only felling the 395 has more torque. If you're processing, the 390 picks up quicker for snedding, you can sned with the 395 but the 390 is slightly better. I had a 660 and liked it, never tried a 661. I don't find the vibes on the 395 excesive, not used a 390 that much so couldn't really comment on the vibes on that or the 661.

Have you kept some of the stumps high on that job in front of the castle Tom? Are they being kept for a reason?

Had this to deal with today - a lot cleaner and a lot cheaper to fix than most of my saws, and a very happy four year old customer!

Just beat me to it on the reply. In reality you have to sometimes consider working for what you can get, rather than what you'd like to get - it can come down to a simple choice of working or not sometimes. I think the ball-park costs mentioned are about right. Also agree on the starting at the bottom of the ladder thing, the trouble now is a lot of the middle rungs on the ladder are missing. All very well starting on scrub cutting or rhoddies and getting a feel for the saw, but there's a world of a difference between that and felling over-size, awkward and steep slope trees. Very little chance for someone to progress from scrub to small trees to the bigger stuff. Also far too many people seem to think a cross-cut/maintenance and felling small trees ticket makes them a "fully qualified" wood-cutter. Plenty more threads on this.

Keep trying - it will be well worth it if you do find someone.

No, but not too far away, it's Loch Chon. I do forestry and arb, more forestry at the moment, but things come and go. I think being a cutter makes me a better tree surgeon and doing tree surgery makes me a better cutter. There is enough cross-over that both can be beneficial to each other. Big ol' stick. Had a few 4.9's that sort of size a while back, they would've been 6.2's, but would've been to heavy for the lorry to lift.

That site's a fair mix TCD, steep and rocky with flat and boggy in between. The 1st picture I posted is one of the flatter bits, but not as flat as it looks. There'll be a bit of winching to do there as well, but amazing where a harvester can get to these days. These might show it a bit better, last one to prove the sun does sometimes shine around here!

Cheers, hardly wedged any. It's a nice spot I when the weather's good, covered in snow the last couple of days and the road like glass this morning though.

Felling to the head, much better than processing hairy beggars.

Too dry J? I always found oak held an ember really well. Trouble with burning Sitka is you never get to sit and warm your feet by the fire - every time you sit down you need to get back up to put another log on. Good for kindling though.

That'll work, hit them in as far as you can, then every time you're trying to wedge over some back-weighted, back-leaning horror-show of a tree it'll go in tighter. Often to the point where burning them out is the only option! +1 for the two rings as well.

+1 here. I'd be willing to travel if needs be.

Yeah, from memory they're 4 to 5 times more expensive, but easily last 4 to 5 times longer - worth it for not having to change the bloody things all the time if nothing else!

How big was it? I like working with Dougals.

Would a far more effective solution not be to simply ban all chainsaws? We could hand our existing kit in under some sort of amnesty. Chainsaws are, after all, so dangerous that anyone using one without certification and a hi-vis is almost certain to kill or maim themselves, and professional users face almost the same level of risk unless clad in armour suits and clutching bundles of risk assessments! On a serious note, to the OP's question: no, I don't think brining in a mandatory chainsaw license is a good idea, its over-kill and un-necessary government interference.

Done - not sure I got the right order for Q2. Same thoughts of source of wood being important.

We used one last week to tidy up two wind damaged trees. A poplar and a willow, first just over 15m tall, about 12" dbh, growing at the edge of a nature reserve over a road, a split from ground level to about 5' that you could put your arm through. Other trees behind it, so couldn't just winch it back in. No other trees about suitable to anchor into and then work it. The whole thing was very wobbly and had the boundary fence underneath it. The second tree was just along the road with a long limb with a split in it over a bus stop. It had dropped following the split and the end of the limb had been fowling the busses before the reserve staff cut it off with a pole saw, branch was probably 10m out over the road, same fence in the way again as well. The tree could easily have been climbed and the branch cut, but work position would have been awkward and it was much easier to work with the MEWP taking smaller pieces. There were several reasons for using the MEWP: 1) access was good, 2) it felt safer than climbing the first tree (and I hate MEWPs and normally feel much safer in a tree), 3) it was quicker and easier to work the second tree with the platform and 4) the client was willing to pay for it. I think MEWPs are more common and more affordable these days, hence we'll see more of them. In general though I try and avoid them, I think it is normally far easier to work a tree if you're climbing it. Of course, there is a H&S element to their increased use as well which I'll not comment on as it's been discussed at length in many other threads.

Round this way it's normally the Mountain Rescue they send to forestry accidents rather than simply an ambulance. They're a bit better at finding things without a post code.

I'd always recommend saw boots, I hate seeing people cut without them. Saw gloves are rubbish. Get a good pair of well fitting gloves which keep your hands warm, protect you from scratches and let you keep a good grip. Then get another pair so you can put them on in the afternoon once the morning's pair are soaked. Like said, you'll need proper saw gloves if you're doing any training.

Looks like Dougals to me, yup.

I agree with you 100% Tom, but there are a few important and sinister points I think you're missing: 1 - Refresher is already unit specific. Basic refresher only covers small trees (CS 31 as was) and seems to only be suitable for scrub cutting and felling to waste. There are separate refreshers for harvesting sites and windblown trees (CS 32&33 and CS 34/35 as was respectively) - as far as I'm aware if you do refresher on the harvesting site you automatically refresh the small trees, but windblow is separate - and it wouldn't surprise me if someone decided that refresher in all three units is required at some stage. 2 - By joining you do get a sticker (), but that's about all you get. As a member you don't get the chance to put your, very valid in this case, opinions on refresher training to the board. They will still continue to railroad on ahead regardless of your opinion, because they will not ask for it and there is no voting system within the membership on which way the organisation should go. In my opinion FISA exists solely to protect forest managers from litigation and potential charges of corporate manslaughter. Since its inception it has done very little to actually improve safety in the forest industry, it has done a lot of blustering and a lot of posturing, but if you look at what it has actually achieved it is very little. I think there is a long way to go before we are in a position to bring down the system from the inside, but I'm delighted to see people like yourself thinking this way. We need something to happen to stop the industry becoming lead by clip-board toting imbeciles with no real world knowledge carrying out hazard assessments rather than risk assessments. Already a member of FISA by the way, and the sticker is the best bit!