Spruce Pirate

Walk-tax?? Blue/Black box that clips to your belt, thread spools out the back. Try Stanton Hope, I think they still do them. They can be a bit temperamental with the thread breaking sometimes. If you've got access to a GPS its probably easier to use that in this day and age. I've compared the two in the past and found them to be within 2% of each other, don't know which one is more accurate though.

What about executioners?? Don't get binary.

£0.60 per tree planted, staked and tubed seems a bit on the cheap side to me; £1.00 per tree a wee bit on the high side. I'd say about £0.80-£0.85 per tree is about right, probably £0.80 if its good flat ground with good access. The last lot of 60-90 trees I got came in at £0.50 each, but I only got 300, I think the nurseries will normally do you a discount if you're ordering over 1000 (do plenty planting, but don't normally supply trees). Stakes were about £0.35-£0.50 each, dependant on size, last time I got some from the local sawmill, I think tubes were about £0.60 each last time I got some, but that's a while ago. Ground prep can vary, you could simply leave it as is, plough it and roll it, mound it. I've planted some bits of good ground sown with reed canary grass - its hellish to weed, but if the trees are tubed at least you can find them and it does have the advantage that it keeps the other weeds out. Chemical ground prep is also an option. What is the intended use of the woodland? If you've any ambitions of producing anything other than scrub I would increase the planting density a good bit.

That is the situation I would envisage using it in, and only on quiet minor roads.

I've never used it, but have read about it in the book. I think it sounds ideal for minor single track type C roads.

Two-way lights on a simple set up generally between £300 and £350 + VAT. Can be more if three/four way lights required, dual carriageway, etc. Permits from the roads authority can add a bit to it as well. How much it costs might depend on where you are in the country. That is cost per day, including set up and take down.

Me too!!!

There are very few trees in this country that truly need a big saw, most of the time they can be done with a 660/395 or even a smaller saw. But, as said before, the big saws can come in really handy for ringing up or cross-cutting big stuff and for felling in one cut. I really like the big bar if there's any seriously big windblow that needs off-rooted, much easier than doing reduction cuts and moving around the stem. Well worth having access to a big saw in your arsenal.

Short answer - no (not got one).

There are people out there who insist changing them every 3 years - regardless of what the manufacturer says. If you feel your ear defenders aren't up to scratch I'd say change them, you only get the one set of ears after all.

Don't see a strap - is it highlighting the dangers of an insecure load?

It's always nice to see someone doing something for a good cause. I've never done services in a raffle, but I've put in a few loads of logs into different things. I always make them transferable as some folk don't have a fire, but I always put limits on it both in terms of time and location. So for example in the last Christmas raffle I said the prize could be delivered within 20 miles of my base and had to be claimed by April. You could probably do something similar. It's good to do things for charity, but some folk have very high expectations - you don't want someone winning a transferable prize and then expecting you to travel hundreds of miles to trim their parents hedge.

I was told laurel releases cyanide, hence the reason for feeling crap after working with it. Never heard of ODTS before, so good to know something about it.

Is the thread title meant to mean the oldest saw that physically runs, or oldest saw that goes out and works for a living? It doesn't make any difference in my case, don't know if it does for anyone else.

Following a recent adventure with a fuel cap, I have two surplus keys for a Td5 fuel cap. Key No: A125. If anyone needs a spare of these drop me a note and I'll quite happily post one or both on. Apologies if this should be on Arb-Trader, but I'm not sure how to do that.

I agree, but in this health and safety conscious world in which we live in I think we can expect to see more of them. I was once told, unfortunately I can't remember by whom, that it would/should replace normal felling cuts, ie every cut should be dog-tooth!!

I assume this is at least a semi-rhetorical question? But it does stop things moving both on forward and back leaners. Forward lean, obviously stops it going too early, back lean lets you get the hinge set and a couple of wedges in, tension the winch line without pinching the bar of the saw. Seems very much the flavour of the month at the moment, but it does have its uses. If the tree is biased or leaning towards where you want to fell it then why the winch?

It is amazing how many people think that wood is worth a fortune. People are continually surprised when I tell them it will cost more to take their wood away, rather than leave it for them as firewood.

Well put.

Felling should certainly be a viable option, even with only a 24" bar. That said, dismantling is also an option. There are plus points to both, which you choose to do is up to you. As with so many things in life there is more than one way to skin a cat and it often depends on what you're most comfortable with. At the end of the day the tree is on the ground, you're safe and the customer is happy - you can't argue with that. For the record, I'd have dropped it in one. Also agree monolith could've been good, but if the client doesn't want it, then what can you do?

I still like the 254, it's a little heavier, but other than that it still feels like a modern saw to use. We've been taking dead hedge material up there for them, so I've seen the stick in place, but I've not taken any photos. I think there might be some more stuff to go up, so if I remember I'll get a couple of pictures. Personally I think the dead hedges spoil the whole appearance, I can't understand why they didn't plant a proper hedge instead, but, hey-ho.

254xp from 1997. Not used every day by any stretch, but still fires up and still gets occasional use if needs be.

Its not a question of how much the pile is worth, its whether or not you think its worth your while cutting it up for that. If that's the whole lot in the picture I'd be round like a shot (if I was in Lincolnshire). Looks like easy money to me.

he who ......... into wind gets his own back.

Don't know about CS 30, but my old CS 14 covered cross-cutting, it was a stand alone unit so, for example, saw mills could put guys through CS 10 & 14 (as was) so that they could cut a 7.4 log into two 3.7s without having to go to the trouble of having a felling ticket for someone who was never going to drop a tree. I presume the cross-cut element of CS 30 is still in place for this reason, so it would seem daft to have it limited to 15". On the 15" diameter thing for felling, I totally agree, we had a job a we while ago thinning some southern beech, knocking on 100' tall, less than 15" diameter, and yet the 30' tall beech sub-compartment just 100 yards up the hill couldn't be felled without a CS 32 ticket as it was all over 15" diameter. Ridiculous situation.