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Unfortunately the real problem isn't the bits of soot that go up the chimney - these can be swept out. It's the tar and creosote that go up as vapour and condense out as they cool. Bits of soot then stick to this and the whole thing ends up like trying to chisel up tarmac - a brush won't touch it. The problem is worse with stoves than with open fires because they're more efficient. This means the smoke is cooler, so more condenses in the chimney rather than going out of the top. This is why insulating the liner helps - keeps it hotter so less vapour condenses out. The other thing that helps is to burn smokeless for a week before sweeping as it's drier, so the residue evaporates off and it's less sticky and difficult to shift. If you have a register plate with an opening, you really should have a liner to narrow the chimney above to the same size hole as the opening otherwise it doesn't do a lot to help draw and makes it impossible to sweep properly. Alec

That is absolutely brilliant. WorcsWuss, I won't ask what it is you get up to in your spare time if you keep posting things like this! Alec

I believe it can still be done pretty much informally in that if somebody is interested in hosting you can arrange it between yourselves, and the schools if needed, and carry out checks to satisfy yourself that the host family are suitable. The easiest one is a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check. It looks like a really good opportunity for somebody learning German in the UK, although that doesn't normally start until age 13 so the level may be very basic at this age. The UK is increasingly full of red tape, but there are still some things in which common sense rules! Alec

Like Big J, no personal interest, but I would suggest that it's very important to take into account what she wants to do with it as part of the decision. If it's to make wide, thick slabs it will need a reasonable sized mill and an Alaskan or a fair sized band mill would be suitable. If it's to make narrow planks then a Lucas or smaller band mill may do better. The day rate will be fairly comparable for most kit - in the range £250-350, but some will take two days to do the job which can be done in a day with other kit e.g. making wide boards on a manual bandmill means moving the log whereas an Alaskan can be used over the log, so access and portability become important as to which is more cost-effective. The one thing she really should bear in mind is that if she's got a use for the timber, somewhere to stack it (will need a good source of sticks) and is prepared to wait for it to air-dry (6mnths/inch thickness) she will probably get a lot of benefit out of doing it. If she has a prearranged market and mills to an agreed specification again she should come out up on doing this. If it's purely speculative on the basis that timber must be worth something, I'd go for firewood as it's a more certain return. Milling for profit is very risky unless you do a lot and always have something on offer. Hence why I only do it for myself. Alec

We will also be going to Weird & Wonderful Wood instead. Alec

There may be an answer in the thread - not hugely local but Elfinwood Saws in Durham did indicate that he did saw work Alec

What are you thinking they might do with the axes? If it's splitting, have you considered froes? My elder daughter (3 - in the avatar) is quite happy splitting wood with a froe. She first used it at just over 2, although she couldn't wield a beetle big enough to actually split anything. Since you have to hold it with one hand and the beetle with the other, you can't use it with your fingers in the way. She's quite good about safety - since the age of 2 one of her favourite bedtime treats has been to watch flaming-ace's grandad with his 070 on youtube and criticise his lack of ppe! Alec

Thanks Steve - there you go Rich2484, post away on all your good experiences For what it's worth, the Makita dealer in West Kingsdown in Kent is really excellent. Haven't used them for chainsaws, but they keep the salvageable bits of dead Makita tools in boxes in the workshop and will happily have a rummage around before you have to order a new bit! Alec

Steve, with reference to Rich2484's earlier comment: "No one would be able to name any good dealers as that would be against forum rules! " am I right in thinking that there are no issues with posting regarding good service? Alec

Hi Garden Kit, I hope I don't come across as anti-dealer, as I have used many for different things (from cars to saws to other tools etc). I think it's also interesting that, of the three dealers who have posted on this thread, only one (yourself) gives a location and none of them give a business name. As such, no direct implication can be made of a connection between any comment on this site and your specific businesses. It must therefore be taken as generic comment. There are several of the named dealers on here who get good reviews. However, as you correctly state, as in any business there are good and bad. Pleasant's post about the requirements placed on him in his capacity as a dealer is a good summary. One thing to take from it though, is that for some work a non-dealer route is significantly better, specifically when you aren't looking for work where the person is obliged to cover themself in performing it. However, the issue as I see it is that dealers (collectively) do seek to justify their service, rather than listen to the service that the customer wants, and then complain when the customer goes elsewhere to get the service they want, rather than take the service offered. For example, when my 066 took out another pot and piston, the local dealer suggested that because it was old I should buy a new saw. I'm happy to accept that, at their rates, it wasn't an economic repair. However, I'm not happy with the suggestion that I should not use another service with lower rates that made it an economic repair but should in fact buy a new saw from them as a first choice, particularly if you take into account that at the time it was unclear whether I had a fuel supply issue, which had it destroyed the brand new saw would have been classed as my fault. I pointed out the flaw in the logic, they felt I should buy a new saw anyway and find out, so if that was wrecked I would buy another brand new saw and change my fuel supply. I have seen a few threads in the past year or so where dealers have offered an explanation of the benefits of buying through a dealer, however they are only benefits if they are things I want, otherwise they're just extra cost. I don't think this point is often accepted. My professional life is spent in a very high end service industry, with commensurate charge rates. There are people we don't work for, as we do not offer the most appropriate solution. We are happy to point them in the direction of more appropriate alternatives rather than try to force-fit their needs into our services. I think this is a lesson that some of the dealers I have encountered need to learn. Alec

A question for pleasant, Garden Kit, Megatron and any other dealers. Is your car still in warranty? If not, do you still use the main dealer to service it? If it is still in warranty, would you appreciate waiting six weeks to have it repaired? If you drive an old car that you're happy with, would you appreciate a derogatory attitude and a suggestion that you should scrap it and buy a new one fom them? The issue as I see it is not that all dealers are bad - but some undoubtedly are. They are also more expensive, for reasons of overhead making some work uneconomic. We live in a freemarket economy. If dealers collectively want our business they need to offer a service at a price that is competitive, otherwise they will be out-competed. Anything else is protectionism. Advertising on this site incurs a cost in exchange for a benefit - it's an executive decision whether or not to do so. This is separate from word of mouth recommendation which is based on customer experience. For what it's worth, F.R.Jones seem to get both. In the meantime, I am open to using anyone competent, timely and reasonably priced. Four local dealers failed to meet these criteria (actually, it wasn't price that any of them failed on). Saws are well out of warranty so I went independent, and am happy. Alec

Do you want the 090 then? Or, if you want to go really retro, as in cloth cap and pipe there's always the 2-man Teles Smith.... Alec

It's not a straight tapping operation - it's a volatile extraction process from the sap, which can either be harvested by tapping or from the wood. If you use the wood you need to chip it first, or you can 'crack' it as part of the decomposition process leading to charcoal and wood tar. It can be done from a range of pine species. Extraction from sap gives you the advantage of yielding solid rosin residue which may be directly useable. Extraction from wood chip is obviously easier if you're chipping the trees anyway, e.g. for biomass. This is done either by solvent extraction or by steam distillation - on the 'domestic' scale, steam distillation is probably easier to manage - literally pass the steam through the chip and extract the condensate from the top, then separate the oil (turpentine) from the water. Cracking it can be done fairly easily - you need a sealed vessel with a pipe off the top, fill with lumps and then heat the outside, usually with a fire. The wood decomposes and you collect the various fractions through a pipe off the sealed vessel. You get a mixture of water, methanol, turpentine and tar. What's left in the vessel at the end is very high quality charcoal. The turpentine and water are first as they're being boiled off, not cracked. If you switch collection once the tar starts coming over then the first fraction can be split out easily as above. The second fraction is the cracking products - a mixture of water and methanol with wood tar. These separate into two layers. Note, the gases coming off here contain a reasonable amount of flammable hydrocarbons, with some hydrogen and carbon monoxide, so ideally you route the outlet from the cracking vessel down a long tube to condense it, into a sideways T-piece. The 'down' goes into the collecting pot, below the surface of the liquid while the 'up' goes into an elbow and back up into the fire to burn it off. By keeping the collecting tube below the liquid it always creates a slight pressure that way so it's easier for the gases go off and get safely burned. If you want the methanol it can be separated from the water by subsequent distillation - same thing applies if you just mix the lot, it can be fractionally distilled out. The only added complication with fractional distillation is that you need to know the temperature at the still head. It's easy enough to rig this (I once did it with some old plumbing fittings and a thermometer) but it's a bit more fiddly, so it's easier to do it as two batches. There is another method based on running a very long collecting tube with a series of strategic 'down pipes' based on knowing what has condensed where along the tube, but this requires a lot of experience to get right. Hope this helps! Alec

Got anything big enough to justify an 090 with 4ft bar? Alec

Looks nice. I spent some of the Thursday of Easter week doing something similar - 6"x9"x15' ridge beam in this case, going up on to the floor joists as it's easier before the first floor walls are built. It will be lifted to ridge height once there's a gable end wall to rest it on. Unfortunately I don't have the five people to help - just me. Pics below. Alec

For what it's worth, I've found spruce one of the most difficult timbers to mill. It was much harder on the chain than oak or even elm. I'm hand sharpening at the moment and I suspect that, however good you are, it will never be as absolutely even as if you set the lengths with a jig. I'm going over to one of Rob D's sharpeners once my wife gets round to ordering it (it's last year's Christmas present!). Alec

If there's enough Robinia to fill a plant trailer with straight bits and they can be got out at that sort of length (8ft or so) then I'd be interested for fenceposts. Alec

Stihl 064 with a 25" bar. Practiced a bit with a tree surgeon for a weekend, then the first thing I did on my own was fell a 3' oak. Unfortunately the saw got scrapped when it destroyed its third pot and piston inside three months - this was when the problem with fuel life in unleaded was just being identified so it was assumed that the saw was the problem. Alec

Nice shape, but with no leaves is a bit early in the year for cherry. Stone fruit (cherries, plums etc.) are best pruned between the start of blossom and the end of August - otherwise you run the risk of silverleaf infection. Alec

It's a wild plum of some kind. I can't see any evidence of a graft, so I don't think you're looking at a wild root sport from this particular tree - could be a sucker from a nearby one though. St. Julien A is a common stock for plums, but it's usually smaller than this. A selection like Brompton would be more likely, although it could just as well be a seedling. In terms of what you can do with it - well they're a bit small, probably not very sweet and may or may not have a good flavour, but wild plums are suitable for cooking or wine if you can be bothered. Alec

Sycamore wouldn't be a bad option - not particularly interesting colour or grain, but food safe, cheap, works green and easily available. Other option would be beech, but you'd want it a bit drier. Alec

Never bothered with hoppus feet as I don't have any tables or tapes - I just used a 'real' cu.ft conversion between tonnes and cubic feet based on geometry. I entirely agree with you though that location and mobility makes all the difference. I've bought a fair few standing dead or fallen oaks from farmers who want them gone. They then lend me the teleporter for the day to shift it. I look on it more as a free tree and a really good deal on hiring the teleporter, so it's all in the perception, but everyone is happy! The next one is going to be interesting though. 3ft heartwood, but with a big taper, however still around 15in heartwood at 20ft and I want it long. I move most of my stuff on an 8ft plant trailer, but was going to get this brought down by a neighbour on his hi-ab lorry, who now can't do it. I'll split it into sections under 3/4ton so it will be legal, but it might have a bit of an overhang (extra lighting board needed). Alec

For comparison between the indications above, there are about 35cu.ft in a cubic metre, which weighs about 940kg green. If you work this out Big J's suggested range is £2-4/cu.ft. In small quantities I'd say the prices are up a bit on this as otherwise it tends to just go for firewood. Makes sense that you've cut them shorter since they were originally for your own use rather than sale - just worth bearing in mind if you plan to sell butts in future. Alec

A few factors to take into account. How wide is the sapwood band vs. the heartwood? Sapwood in oak is not durable and is therefore usually pretty useless. Are they clean and knot-free, or are there large branches or any rot-holes? Are they straight? Is there much taper over the length? Is any of it brown? Presumably you can load it, or at least there's roadside access? The above can make a big difference, for example a 12" log with a 4" sapwood band won't even make a 4"x4", whereas a really clean 24" log with an inch or so of sapwood could be very nice. I'd be looking around the £3/cu.ft for less good stuff (more knots, less straight, smaller) and £5/cu.ft for the best stuff, although they're a bit short really, but in this case the buyer is happy with that. This would compare with firewood at about £2/cu.ft Alec

It's actually black mulberry - Morus nigra. It's really hard, very close-grained and it does have a bit of ripple to it. I suspect the pink will fade out as it oxidises but the grain is really interesting. No idea what I'll do with it, but it's better than using it for firewood. Alec