Spruce Pirate

I did a job by a road with a bus stop about a year ago. I had a Traffic Management company in to do the lights, told them there was a bus stop in the work area so that they could plan for it. All they did on the day was put a bag over the Bus Stop sign and cone it off, effectively removing the bus stop for the day. I asked them about it, as I presumed it would have to be kept open, but they just said that was the easiest way of dealing with it. Not sure if that's any help to you, but it worked for me.

I've done rhoddies, sycamore and exotic conifers in the past on arb tickets (even once did a bit of fencing), but I do think the days of this may be numbered. I think the aerial rescue thing should be alright if you're working with ground below you where you could lower a climber too. The issue would be if you're working in a gully with a river at the bottom, for instance, where a casualty would have to be rescued upwards.

The last time I asked that question the answer was that so long as you're tied to a tree you're OK with arb tickets (NPTC's). Aerial rescue techniques as applied to tree climbing don't exactly work in this situation though, so you might have to watch on that when doing the risk assessment. When I asked the question (to FC) I got the impression that no-one had really thought about it that much, they were just used to tree cutters having NPTC's and assumed that an arb climbing NPTC ticket would suffice. I think its only a very short step before a health and safety manager somewhere decides that IRATA tickets will be needed. I presume its Rhoddies you're doing?

Agreed, its even worse than the A9! Its unbelievable how long its taking to dual the A9! Don't see how spending money on average speed cameras is going to be a bigger improvement than spending it on on actual road improvements.

I'd steer clear of mesh guards if you've got the choice. Not only a pain to put on, also a pain to take off once all the branches have grown through, and don't pack up as easily as tubex type when you take them off. Also don't offer protection to the tree if you're spraying.

I think it would depend on the size of the tree and the progression of the infection. As I understand it, the infection takes hold in a leaf set and works its way back down through the twig, to branch to stem. The fungus then spreads from the leaf litter of dropped infected leaves. Therefore if its the first infection the tree would not necessarily wilt and die straight away (but branches could), but if its the second year of infection it would have greater effect. Please correct me if I'm wrong....

I believe there are many other diseases which can affect ash as well as chalara. If it is chalara you should be able to identify a clear point below which the infection hasn't taken hold. The diamond shaped lesions mentioned before are also a good give away, but I don't have experience of identifying them on larger bits of wood, only small stems/branches.

Haven't used a Solo saw for years. Used to use one, was about 45cc, and a semi-pro saw. Frankly it was a bit of a dog, under-power and unreliable, but it was what I was supplied with at the time. Got my hands on a Jonsered as soon as I could. Perhaps a bit unfair to judge a small semi-pro saw in a professional environment, but I don't have good memories of them. What is its intended use? Once a month for cutting logs it might be a lot better than 5 days a week felling and processing trees.

Oakwood, Buchlyvie?

Agree with both the above comments. Nothing wrong with having more than one string to your bow. Three different sites all coming back to the same source might even be seen as being dodgy by some.

I do not consider tree cutting to be a "profession". I do, however, consider myself to be a professional tree cutter. :confused1:

Production cutters on the ground use the chain brake less than climbing arbs. I think climbers have good reason for using the brake more often. I agree, to an extent, it is lazy not to put the brake on when on the ground, but if you're an experienced full time user, the saw is tuned right and the chain is tensioned correctly the risk of injury is low. For freshly certified cutters and those cutting their own firewood I'd always recommend putting the brake on. I also think threatening to dock someone's wages is a good way of backing this recommendation up. Full time production cutters need to live up to their name and produce - constantly applying the brake hinders this process - I don't think climbers should judge them to be not applying the brake enough, just as I don't think production cutters should judge climbers as applying the brake too much. The two jobs both involve chainsaws, but are very different. Please note, I'm talking about production cutters in the wood, not a groundy in someone's garden, again these two situations are very different. It should also be remembered that switching the saw off is a very effective way of preventing the chain turning - far too many saws sit idling on the ground for long periods for no good reason. Going back to the OP: I don't think NPTC should be teaching the full revs chain brake test any more. I think they have to teach testing the brake to the manufacturer's recommendation. In the case of Stihl I think this is apply the brake and blip the throttle twice? Husky might still be a full revs test, not sure. I think you should also be doing an inertia test by dropping the bar tip (saw switched off) onto a log/stump? I'll wait to be corrected.....

When people ask for experienced workers is proficient what they are meaning? In my own opinion you know if you're experienced or not, if you read a job advert looking for an experienced groundy and have to ask yourself, "am I experienced?", then you're not. If you're replying to an advert however, all you can do is give them what you've got. If you've got two years under your belt its up to the guy giving the job out if that's experienced enough or not. I'd agree with the general sentiment that five years of work will give you a good all round experience. I've been in the tree game for 18 years and I've done a lot of things, I'd consider myself experienced, but there are still things that I have no experience of. After two years you should know the basics, but there are still an awful lot of things that you'll know nothing about. Two years experience: OK, five years experience: good, ten years experience: better, and so on. I still know some people with more than five years experience who I wouldn't trust to turn up blind and unprepared to do any job. To some extent it does depend on the individual.

Most of the commercial conifers: Larches; Scots, Corsican & Lodge Pole Pines; Sitka & Norway Spruce; Douglas Fir; Grand and Noble Fir; Western Hemlock; Lawson Cypress; Western Red Cedar. Commercially important broadleaf's: Oak, Beech, Sycamore, Ash, Birch, Poplar, Southern Beech. They're the ones in the Thinning Control Book, don't have a copy of the Yield Models to hand, can't remember if there are any more in there or not.

That's certainly what I had in mind.

If you continue to study and do tickets you will learn how to cut bigger trees safely, blow etc. You can then do a certain amount of learning on the job and building your own experience, the trick is to know when you're out of your depth and need to turn something down or get someone in with more experience. Working with a tree frim would undoubtedly get you experience quicker. I would guess that most of us on here have probably got a mixture of formal training and working with others learning from them. I think that's a very good way of learning.

The closest I can think of would be to look at the General Yield Class Curve for the species you're interested in. That will give you an idea of the range of heights a tree "should" have achieved at any given age. You used to be able to buy a set of these, but I think they were quite pricey, and I don't think they're available anymore. There's a copy of at least some of the curves in the back of the Thinning Control book, but again I think this is out of print. You might be able to get a look at them by going into your local FC office.

I know the Land-Cruiser has a good reputation in Oz, the Middle-East and Africa, but does anyone know how well they hold up to our Maritime climate? I always liked the old style Land-Cruiser, but they were pretty utilitarian, are the new ones any better in terms of comfort? If they are, are they still reliable? £45k seems an awful lot of money to me, it would take an awful lot to persuade me they're that much better than the competition.

Always has open fires. Like you say, sparky wood is best avoided, keep the lum swept and don't forget to put the guard in front before you go out or to bed. Other than that enjoy, I always prefer an open fire to a stove.

Are you extracting, or is it to waste?

Did a job for Go Ape a wee while ago taking a couple of branches off trees as they were beginning to get close to peoples ankles going down the zip line. Accessed the trees from the zip line, tying my system into their pulley system. Good fun (free go on zip line), and certainly easier to access the top of the tree from above than climbing. The zip line flexes though, so difficult to climb back up, twice the effort of normal climbing.

I find them a bit uncomfortable on long trips, wouldn't want to be doing long journeys all the time in them, but I can put up with them when I need to easily enough. My brother-in-law, gets out groaning and moaning if he has to do a long trip with me, he's not driving, so I think different people find them easier or harder to bear. Maybe just depends if you're a Landy person or not.

I've done days when its been 150 - 200 mile round trip in the Land-Rover, and while it can do it, I find it pretty uncomfortable on a long journey. I prefer to use it locally and use the Disco if there's anything far away to do. MPG for defenders can vary hugely depending on 90/110/130, specs and what you're carrying/towing.

Sorry, but I don't see how you're able to get the work if you don't know what you're charging - most folk I know won't give you work unless they know what they're being charged. If you need a loan for the chipper you should be working out what to charge based on the cost of the loan, plus your other day to day operating costs. Work out all you costs, then you can figure what you need to charge. Once you know that you can figure out what you can actually charge, this should tell you whether it's a viable business option.

Go for the 560 if you're looking for something like a 357. I loved the 560 before it got nicked.