Spruce Pirate

We gave bird cherries as wedding favours. Got them as plugs from Alba trees (other nurseries are available) from the cold store (it was the end of June we were married). Some took, some didn't, depending on green-fingered skills of the recipient.

Cutting rowans is considered bad luck, if you believe in such things. I must have cut hundreds of them! I consider it worse luck if the client is complaining that I haven't done the job right having left all the rowans. I've never actually noticed any correlation between cutting a rowan and an increase in breakdowns or cock-ups.

I normally do about a can a day on a harvesting site. Always have a jerry can about, so the fuel can gets brimmed from that in the morning. Some days you'll use all of it, some days you'll use a bit less. I don't know what an "average" day is on a harvesting site. Some days I spend all day brashing, some days all day knocking over over-size insiders and taking a log off, some days all day felling and processing outsiders, some days felling stuff off steep slopes to the head, some days off-rooting blow for the machine to pull out and process while it fights its way in, some days can be a mix of things. Brashing is probably the most fuel intensive as its flat out. Regards to rates, anyone capable of doing all these things productively, supplying own kit, PPE and fuel with the appropriate tickets and asking for less than £120 a day doesn't know their own worth. I'd laugh at anyone offering me £100 a day. Softwood harvesting sites I'm referring to.

Same here, but I'm going to do it better and for more profit! ..... at least that's the plan......, mind you, I had the same plan last year too.

Land Rover Defender Td5 90 110 or 130 Superwinch PTO H14 Winch Kit | eBay Try here.

The old tickets used to have units for maintenance of the saw and cross-cutting (10 & 14 when I first did saw tickets, I think these got amalgamated into CS 30?). I assume you can still do this under the new system, should keep things relevant for you and reduce the cost slightly. When you say the Inn is at the top of Scotland where are we talking? Caithness? Sutherland? Ross-shire? Some folk think north of Perth is the top of Scotland!

Very droll Big J. Both good videos in their own way!

Thanks for all the advice, looking into the Echo 280.

Yeah, I know what you mean, but they've got to do that every couple of years, especially as sycamore grow quite fast. Might be easier to suggest to them that they just take it out. Unless of course that's taking the job from you, which I wouldn't want if I were in your shoes, in which case get the shutdown for it.

Old school cutters used to take the rakers right down before using a chain, sometimes, like Big J says with an angle grinder. I borrowed a 262 off someone for a day once with a chain like that when I was new to cutting wood, it just about threw me round the tree on the first cut, but once you get used to it you learn to adapt. These days most cutters I know give the rakers three rubs or so every third sharpen or so. Not very scientific, but it seems to work for most.

Shouldn't the utility company be taking this down themselves?

Thanks. What exactly are the pro carving saws?

Money no object, I'd have almost the same set up as Tom D except I'd have two of everything. One massive shed with working things in it and another with shiny new things in it just to look at! The other difference is I'm sad enough I'd stay and play with the toys.

Resurrecting an old thread, but looking for similar advice. I've started doing little bits and pieces of carving, not artistic stuff like proper carvers do, but chairs, tables, stools, very basic stuff. As time and experience builds I'm finding a big, round-nosed bar on a felling saw is difficult to get into the corners of things, so was thinking of getting a smaller carving saw to do the finer details, I might get more artistic as I do more stuff. So, what do people recommend as saw and bar combinations? This will be a dedicated carving saw - I've got plenty of saws to use for felling or by the chipper, which also serve to rough out stuff. Having a trawl through here saws recommended seem to be: Stihl 181, 211. Husky 135. Echo CS-352, CS-360. I picked up a Husky 135 once and it seemed to be made out of chocolate. A guy who used to do rhoddies for me used a Stihl 181 and it seemed an OK saw. No experience of a 211 or the Echos. I've got dealers for Stihl, Husky and Echo within 20 miles of me, so I'd favour them, but wouldn't rule out a Dolmar or Makita, probably would rule out the Mitox. I'd probably go straight to Rob D for a Sugi bar as I like it on other saws, but I'd be open to other suggestions. Any advice or suggestions welcome.

Perfect hinge in the woods doesn't always have to be "perfect".

Looks like a fair old bend in the stem. Trying to keep it from pulling off to one side by tapering the hinge? Did it land where it was supposed to? If so, good job. If not, 24 carat cock up.

In that case, I stand corrected. Thanks for the update.

I think the wording of the exemption is "dangerous or to prevent a nuisance". You will go a long way before you meet a Woodland Officer who does not consider a dead/diseased/dying tree that does not fall into either of these categories! For one thing the FC very rarely stick their neck on the block and say something where there is a risk that they will be proved wrong - it is much easier for them to agree with an exemption than challenge it and have the tree fall (1-Civil Service always prefer route of least resistance and 2-They might be held liable or at least perceive that they could be held liable). Please note - I do not mean trees that have two dead branches can be considered as "dying", it has to be a genuine case of a tree on the edge of mortality and it is an extremely good idea to document and photograph this. Fundamentally you are right though, it might depend on how pedantic your local Woodland Officer is and how well you get on with them. I'm still convinced the school grounds constitute a garden or other public open space and are exempt. Garden does not necessarily imply a domestic garden. Hodge is right though, for the time and price of a phone call it would be well worth it.

Get that in writing!

They might be interested if they were felled because they were dead/diseased/dying as this is an exemption. Other than that, yes, volume of timber is what they are interested in, BUT, only in a forest/woodland environment. If a school has grounds that are woodlands (as many do) FC would be interested, if they are part of a 'park' or driveway or such FC are not interested it would be a LA matter IMO.

Think so, as CTS says:

Garden / public open space should cover school grounds. This would certainly have been my understanding when I worked for the FC in grants and licenses. I could be wrong though, but if they're open grown I don't think the FC would be interested.

Big winch plus a low loading trailer on the back of a big tractor? If the ground is hard plus a frost? Winch it onto the low loader?

Most importantly - are they in a wood? If its school grounds they shouldn't need a license, regardless of size. If they form part of a wood then they might depending on size.

Looks good to me. I like the vice, a really useful thing to have in a vehicle. As it's a bespoke item, designed and built by yourself, the question is really what do you think? Be interesting to see if you've changed it any in 3 months, 6 months or a year as your design adapts and progresses.