agg221

Is the front of your wheelbarrow as flattened as mine I wonder....? In similar vein, I used to move 20ft oak planks up to 2ft wide x 2in thick on the roof bars of my Ford Escort van. I had to get the Escort as the Combo was too tall for my wife to lift the other end of the plank on. Alec

Totally agree on telehandlers - although I've always 'bought' the tree from the farmer (who wanted to get rid of it) and asked him if he could just move it for me. I reckon if they worked out what a hire rate on a telehandler might be then it would cost me a lot more. In similar fashion, a quick look around the area for construction sites has yielded a JCB in exchange for 4ft of 6x6 beam for a fireplace lintel, and I once met a very decent Lithuanian bloke who worked for the local farmer and was taking the mini-tractor home with a 12ft trailer on one evening having just delivered a load of lettuces. £20 secured his services for 2hrs of lifting and ferrying the milled product of two decent sized oaks in the local wood. Alec

I can see exactly what I would have done to it, based on the angle shown in the one photo - might be different if viewed from more angles. The challenge is describing it! Apples will sprout epicormic growth all over the place, so this is going to turn into a forest and although the leaf cover is quite light following the pruning, it will be very dense (too dense) next year. My approach would be to try to thin rather than reduce in the first instance. The thinning would be to create an open centre, with layers of branches about a metre above one another. On the left hand side of the image you can see a branch which loops out from the upper break of the crown and dips downwards - if that overlays the other one I would take it out. In the centre of the image is a break of about 5branches - at least two of these would go - the more upright and internal ones. I think the upper centre break probably has too many as well - but would want to make my selection based on walking round it. I have a set of images I took earlier this year on a large apple that I'll try and upload for comparison. Alec

There are quite a few models of these, with variations. A picture might help (and your location). I don't have a spare, but I do have a bench, so could take photos/measurements of the part in question if it helps. Alec

Milling being a more of a hobby for me than a job I am in a similar position with regard to justifying investing in plant, so everything is manual. I have a pre-'97 driving licence, so I use an 8x4 plant trailer with a 2.3ton rating - my Volvo will tow 1.8tons so I can shift anything I can get in to or on top of the trailer. This usually means that if I've milled it in-situ then I can bring it home so long as it's under about 16ft. For longer stuff, I hire a 7.5tonner which has a deck of just over 20ft. I prefer a drop-side, but these are getting harder to find. I try to avoid curtain side ones, but have done it with suitable roping. For moving timber, long levers are good. I use about an 8ft length of steel box section with a bit of half-inch plate welded to the end. This will move almost anything, either directly if I can get it under, or chain it round to roll it - particularly useful when rolling up faces during milling if you don't want to mark the faces as you tend to do with a cant hook. I also use an old railway toe jack with a 15ton capacity - these sometimes turn up cheap through the free-ads. I have an old trailer axle cut down to about 2ft length, which I use to roll anything I can get on to it. I intend to upgrade this with a log arch at some point. This will move a surprisingly large piece. I use an engine hoist - decent quality one but they're cheap from Machine Mart or similar - which will lift a ton. With a strop and a few wood blocks I can get just about anything up onto the trailer that it is capable of carrying. I recently moved two 8ft lengths of oak butt, 2ft or thereabouts at the thin end, which took about half an hour to load and the same to unload and roll away, working on my own. I reckon that was near the capacity of the trailer/car combination. At the moment, everything I need, including mill, can be put in the boot of the Volvo, and moved around to the site with a wheelbarrow, working singlehanded. Alec

Think of wood as a whole bundle of paper drinking straws with tiny holes punched in the sides. The water goes out of the ends of the straws far more easily, but can slowly cross from straw to straw through the holes. When the wood dries, it shrinks (the walls of the straws all get thinner as the water comes out of them). If they get thinner at the ends faster than in the middle, it causes stress and the board splits from the end. To stop this, you seal the ends so that the water comes out only through the sides (via the tiny holes). The holes are very small, so the water diffuses out gently and the wood is less likely to dry faster in one place than another, so it doesn't crack. So in answer to your question, leave them long as cutting short won't help and will just give you more end cracks so more waste. Alec

Don't know the brand, but I don't like anvil type secateurs as they tend to bruise the bark opposite the blade and you can't get in to awkward cuts, as you often need to when taking back apples etc. in a renewal pruning system. Alec

It can - I had it with a rim sprocket once where the chain jumped the sockets. It happens more easily with long bars and milling as the long cuts warm the chain up and the total 'give' is greater. With a spur sprocket it tends to drop into the low-spot at which point the chain goes slack - tension it again and it will stay in place, but it's a sign that it's time to change it! Alec

I would agree with above - both have gone at various points with my 066 which is mainly used for milling. If you do have to replace the sprocket and currently have a rim sprocket it's worth replacing with a spur one for milling - they last better apparently under constant load conditions. Alec

It seems to have been particularly bad this year. I think magnesium is easily leached by heavy rain in the growing season, so it's less to do with the earlier drought, more to do with the subsequent rain. I've got the same problem with most of my young fruit trees (when the deer don't get them) and stuck some Epsom salts down a week or so back. I'm watching for the recovery. Alec

Magnum is doing nicely thanks - it got a quick run at about 8pm today for trimming snags off the next log - 026 would have done, but not such a good noise - the neighbours prefer the bigger saws! It's the 076 that gets choked to stop it - had to strip it down when it ate the starter cord and upset something in the wiring. Since it has a convenient choke button next to the start/stop button it hasn't been a priority to take it apart again - too busy milling! Alec

In the meantime, flicking to choke position is very effective.... Alec

Generally speaking there are two forms of pruning - summer pruning and winter pruning, which are self explanatory. Winter pruning is used to generate vigour. Summer pruning will generally reduce vigour. Winter pruning is generally from October to March - the earlier in that window you prune, the more vigorous the response. Summer pruning is usually June/July, but you could do it now. The description you give of the work that's being asked for, and the fact that it's a cooker and they tend to be more vigorous in general, suggests that about now wouldn't be a bad time to do it, if the customer doesn't mind the reduction in crop. Alec

Normal overlap is 1" so you're looking for 7" boards. This may well be within the size range of commercial volume products - I'd try BSW in Carlisle - they definitely do mill larch cladding at one of their mills and in staggering volume - not sure on the max width they do though (8" from memory). They may supply you directly or put you on to one of their outlets. You may well already know this, but if not, larch moves about quite a lot. The best way to handle it is to fix the boards with a single row of nails, placed about 2" up from the lower edge (so they only go through one board). This allows the top edge to be trapped by the board above, but free to expand and contract a bit which stops it from splitting. There's a really good page on installing cladding in the guide here: http://www.the-edi.co.uk/downloads/architecturaldetailsfinal.pdf Alec

Plums used to be germinated for use as rootstocks, and my edition of "The Grafters' Handbook" by RJ Garner has the following in respect of Prunus: "The treatment begins some eight weeks before sowing. Air-dried seed is mixed with rather more than its own volume of a mixture of one part sand to three parts pulverised peat and placed in small sacks, so that the sacks are never more than half-filled. A large vessel of water is heated to 74degC (165degF). Each sack of seed is submerged and moved about in this heated water for ten seconds, then the sack of seed is removed and laid flat on slats to cool for thirty minutes, when the dipping process is repeated. On taking out of the heated water the second time the sacks are plunged, and moved about, in a tank of cold water and then put into a cold chamber maintained at about 2degC (36degF). The sacks of seed must remain wet, yet aerated. he bags should be turned and shaken every day or so and watered thoroughly as required. After about three months the seeds begin to germinate and a close watch must then be kept on samples taken every three or four days and sown in warmth. The appearance of roots in these samples in four days indicates that the bulk of the seed is ready for sowing outdoors. At no time from the beginning of the treatment until they are sown must the seeds become dry." Looks like a lot of the same principles apply as in the above answer. If you can get away with using the fridge for such things, and maybe turning it down a bit colder than normal, this would probably do the trick for the cold treatment, the weather being somewhat unreliable. Alec

It'll be fine, but make sure you aren't overspeeding at the top end of the rev range. Getting the revs set with a tacho is the best bet, and unless you really want to lean it out, I'd go 1000 below top to give yourself a bit of leeway when you're running out of fuel, running in different atmospheric/temperature conditions etc. Alec

The good news is that if there is ever a time of year to take bits off prunus of any sort, it's about now. It could heal superficially, but it will only be in the new growth, so you would have to brace it permanently and it would always be weak. There are other ways to brace things which are less unsightly, but it's not ideal. As such, it's probably better on balance to take it right off. It's a relatively large wound, so there is a strong risk of decay setting in. If you make the cut sloping upward from below, with the brace in place, and trim it up neatly, you give it the best chance of shedding water and hence less likely to create an ideal environment to decay rapidly. In the meantime, I'd be inclined to get another tree going, and ideally grow it on a single stem to a suitable height as it will give you a stronger base overall than your current multi-stemmed one, which would be rather likely to split apart eventually anyway. Alec

Yep, I've had wood from Brogdale before, bit dependent on the growth rate they get. I think I know where you are - other side of Maidstone from where I was. Alec

Apples D'Arcy Spice, Adam's Pearmain and Merton Charm. Pear Josephine de Malines. Whereabouts are you in Kent btw - I grew up in Kent and learned budding at Keepers' Nursery before it was bought by the present owners. Alec

The other advantages I find are take rate - slightly over 90% for me; less susceptibility of the union to late frosts and it's just nicer standing around outside at this time of year! Alec

Not really commercially, but I'll be doing a few cherries later this month. I don't have a good source for the apple or pear varieties I'm after so will probably end up buying them in. Alec

I still use the same pair of Felco No.2's I was given as a birthday present in 1989 - and have used them every year for the pruning of the orchard I grew up on. One new blade, otherwise original. I have used them on rather heavier stuff than you're supposed to - just take care to cut with no twist. Alec

Hypothetically you can sharpen any of them - it's just not usually worth the trouble. You won't cut the impulse hardened teeth with steel files, so you need diamond ones. On the untempered blades, only the teeth are hardened (impulse hardening), so whilst you can re-sharpen, you can't re-cut teeth or take out significant chips - just re-touch dull edges. If you look at the last couple of teeth near the handle you can see the correct compound angles. With the right combination of diamond leaf files you can take the tops back to the right profile (straight or curved), then cut the teeth back to the right depth with a thin blade leaf and finally re-create the compound edges. Every tooth has to be equal, as otherwise they work unevenly; you want a modest cutting rate (fairly fine file) and regular checks every couple of strokes with a lens. I have also done this successfully with handmade japanese carpentry saws where it really is worth doing - the last one was a 600mm saw which took me about 4hrs. Alec

Genuine I think. He's got a lot of feedback, over a reasonably long time period, , mostly positive, as a seller but not in this field. I suspect he's just got hold of it for some form of sideline and now want shot. Alec

Hi Pete, no I'm not in timber production, I'm in contract R&D - we're the ones currently developing the alternatives. I take it from your earlier comment that you're on the building surveying/remedial treatment side? Alec