agg221

I agree that it would be hitting it very hard. My thinking was based on two observations - the first that there is a crack running down from the left hand side of the fracture to the ground and the second that the remaining section on the right hand side looks rather weak, just below where the branch springs off to the right and I would be particularly concerned about that section failing further. I think I would definitely make the two right-hand cuts asap on those grounds. On the left hand part of the tree, would you reckon the overall remaining cross-section of the trunk is sufficient for it to carry more sail? If so, I'd be interested in how far back you would take it, and whether you would go for reducing height or reducing spread as the priority? Alec

If it was mine, I would look to keep it, so long as it was not going to hit anything important if it went (or was reduced to size where it wouldn't). I would regard the risk as small enough to outweigh the enjoyment I would have from it being there. It will never be a stately tree again, but it would become gnarly and interesting, which personally I like. I wouldn't pollard it as oak doesn't sprout out fast enough to re-grow the crown quickly and hence tends to die. It does retrench well though, so I would go for a heavy reduction using drop-crotch pruning, on the grounds that it wouldn't rot out from the exposed heartwood on the high sections before it was brought down further. The aim would be to form a new, much smaller inner crown which was gradually worked back to, much like natural retrenchment. I would probably plan to spread the work over 10-20yrs (really!) and do it in stages 3-5yrs apart. Given the immediate need to reduce sail, I would go hard on the first one. I have drawn lines on the attached where I would look to cut, to reduce height, weight and leverage. It might look better aesthetically if fracture pruning was used but this is personal taste. Personally, I would regard formation of bat habitat etc as a good thing, but then I like veteran trees with all their interesting imperfections. Do bear in mind that I am not a professional in this field and my experience is much more with preserving veteran fruit trees but certainly it has been my experience (both with fruit trees and from observation of veterans of other durable species such as oak) that they will remain standing with a surprising amount of damage, so long as they are kept short, levers are minimised and they are fairly well thinned. I would be very interested to see whether David Humphries comments on this thread (and what he thinks of my pruning strategy and locations!). Alec

Absolutely the critical point. Walnut can be tremendously variable - a 2ft dbh tree can have anything from half an inch of sapwood to no heartwood at all. Generally, as the tree slows down the heartwood/sapwood ratio improves but you can't really tell until it is down. You also need to check the heartwood at the top more than at the bottom as this is what determines the useful board width. Walnut is often short, particularly if it is open-grown. Not a problem but bear in mind that a 4ft length is of minimal value whilst 8ft is considerably more useful. I bought a walnut butt from someone on here last year. It was of modest size and we were both happy with a modest price. I was also very happy with what I ended up with. I would be happy to buy another butt if a similarly mutually beneficial arrangement could be reached, but not as far away as you are Alec

Don't take too much off at one go - it will bolt instead of making steady growth and you will then have an even bigger mess to sort out, together with several years of no fruit production. I wouldn't worry about subtleties like tip vs. spur bearer at this stage. I would start by removing the ivy and have a good look for a graft - with multiple stems I suspect there isn't one and that if there ever was, what you now have is growth from the rootstock so there is unlikely to be much point trying to get fruit production. Assuming you end up pruning for fruit, removal of one or two of the most upright branches is where I would stop this year. Use a drop-crotch approach, taking them right back to something which is the shape you actually want, which is low down and outward growing. Aim to spread the work over about 5yrs, so you will need secateurs in a couple of years time. Alec

Hi Anthony, I don't like laying timber directly on concrete as there is the potential to trap damp areas through condensation at the cold back face, or any spills. I prefer a small air gap, created by laying battens on the floor first. This also makes fixing a lot easier as you can use rawl plugs in the concrete for screws through the battens and then just use ordinary screws for the boards into the batten. I prefer screws to nails as they don't work loose and leave the boards squeaking (and if they do, you can just nip them up). This is important with your own air-dried timber as you can never get it quite to the right level without conditioning in the room. The minimum thickness on the battens is set by the ability to hold the screws. I have used 25mm but you might get away with 19mm if you use a larger (coarser) screw such as a No.12 and a hard timber like oak for the battens. What this does allow you to do is put the battens slightly closer together to eliminate the bounce in thinner boards. Without calculating it, 300mm centres on the batten should allow you to use 19mm finished thickness. I would get the boards half-lapped on the edges (easy enough with a router, even a cheap one if you use a decent cutter - that's how I did my first one, alternatively find someone with a spindle moulder). That way, if they move about a bit you don't get gaps opening up through the floor which you can lose credit cards or coins down. You can get a drill bit which makes the pilot hole, the counter-bore in the board and the countersink at the top all in one, which saves a lot of time. I found that running two drills, one to drill and the other to screw, did the job a lot more easily. I would use brass or stainless slot-head screws as they look nicer, particularly if you are anally retentive enough to line all the screw heads up in the same direction Hope that helps. Alec

To the OP, you asked about use as flooring in the house. Whilst this isn't a common use, this is probably more due to availability. There are three characteristics you need for flooring - strength (to span the gaps between joists without breaking), stiffness (so it isn't too bouncy) and hardness to avoid the surface being marked. You can overcome lack of the first two by making the floor thicker. The wood database has figures for Monterey Cypress of: Janka Hardness: 620 lbf (2,750 N) Modulus of Rupture: 11,770 lbf/in2 (81.2 MPa) Elastic Modulus: 1,133,000 lbf/in2 (7.81 GPa) By comparison: Oak (Quercus robur) Janka Hardness: 1,120 lbf (4,980 N) Modulus of Rupture: 14,100 lbf/in2 (97.1 MPa) Elastic Modulus: 1,544,000 lbf/in2 (10.60 GPa) Norway Spruce Janka Hardness: 380 lbf (1,680 N) Modulus of Rupture: 9,130 lbf/in2 (63.0 MPa) Elastic Modulus: 1,406,000 lbf/in2 (9.70 GPa) Scots Pine Janka Hardness: 540 lbf (2,420 N) Modulus of Rupture: 12,080 lbf/in2 (83.3 MPa) Elastic Modulus: 1,461,000 lbf/in2 (10.08 GPa) So in summary, it looks like it is plenty strong enough, the surface shouldn't mark too badly (but you will get dents if you wear your stilettos on it!) but it may bounce a little so using inch thick finished size would be a good idea. To do that, I would mill at 32mm and reckon on cutting boards down to a finished width of around 6" before planing up. You could go a bit wider if wanted but you would end up with more wastage. You could do a very large area of flooring with what you are taking down! Alec

I didn't catch last week's or today's but generally listened as I was driving home. It sounds like he went downhill fast in the end as the last I heard he was partway through a cycle and it looked like his liver was not getting worse. I found it very hard. Dad died of cancer 10yrs ago, 6mnths after diagnosis and 2mnths after his 60th birthday. Listening to the interviews brought back a lot of thoughts and there were many parallels. The thing which he achieved (and we failed to get) was absolute honesty about the position and projections as to how things were likely to progress. I remember finally talking to a young doctor in Guy's who was prepared to answer straight questions and being told that Dad probably had around a fortnight to live - the previous day Mum had been given vague statements and intimations that the treatment might be working and several months was a likely timeframe. Steve Hewlett's clarity did not make easy listening but the brutally honest, no holds barred style was compulsive and far more accurate than seems to be the normal NHS style. RIP Steve Alec

Willow is a lot better than most people give it credit for. It is not durable outside so bear that in mind. It is also quite pale with very little grain, so you would need the design to make the piece special, rather than relying on the timber, but it is quite well behaved in seasoning, dries fairly quickly (give it a year and it will be dry enough to work) and it is quite light which is a good thing when it comes to moving it! When milling, think about your leg design as you may want to make some thicker sections (3" or 4"). I think I would be inclined to make the top from a series of planks butterfly-jointed together with a contrasting colour such as walnut or a nice dark piece of brown oak. I would use Danish oil as a finish, as willow is not very hard so something which will move a bit with any marks would be good. Alec

Marginal I would say - do you happen to have any pictures of the top ends of the lengths that are down (and an idea of length - looked from the pictures before that it would be 6 to 8ft)? The key information is the diameter of the heartwood at the top end. If there is still 10" of heartwood then it would be worth a go. Is using a chainsaw mill on site an option? There is a lot of useless stuff to come off top and bottom of each butt to get down to the coloured section. Taking this off where they lie to just leave the central section would take out around 40% of the weight and volume, which would make moving all three in a single load a lot easier. If the remaining one has a similar ratio of heart to sap, I would guess only a similar length is likely to be useful. Alec

Yes - on trees like that you could find anything from the tiniest streak of heartwood (dark) right through to around only an inch of sapwood. It's the heartwood which is worth milling so the more the better. Alec

Which day are they coming down? Alec

Pretty much any acid will do it. I would go for citric myself as it is environmentally less harmful and won't do you much harm either (although wear rubber gloves). It comes as crystals which you can dissolve in water - use hot water, a concentrated solution and a scrubbing brush and it should come off. Failing that, oxalic acid will convert it to iron oxalate which is colourless so at least you won't see it! Alec

Don't cover the sides. Cover the top to keep the rain off (you can use the waste sections from the log if stacked right) and let the wind blow through. Keep it out of the sun and it will be fine. If you need every last inch, paint the ends as it will stop any degradation at the very ends but otherwise it is seldom worth the effort. Alec

4ft across x 4m length will weigh rather more than a ton. Some ideas you might find useful for future reference. There is quite often demand for arb arisings, the challenge is pairing up what you have with what someone wants in a timeframe and location which is mutually convenient. The more notice you can give, the more it gives people a chance to line up transport or make sure they are available on the right day, rather than tied up on another job. Most things will end up as firewood, however it is worth mentioning some things in advance as sometimes someone might want it for milling. The obvious ones are oak, cedar and walnut but sometimes yew, cherry, plum, apple and pear might be of interest. Other less common species such as hard maple and service tree are also worth mentioning. If you put up a post when you know the date of the job, you lose nothing and might find it gets collected for you for no effort and sometimes some money in your pocket. If you have already ringed it up and now need it cleared quickly, this is less likely to happen, leaving you with the effort and cost. Alec

Discussion with Alex Brownlie (B of BSW) certainly indicated that circular saw lines are faster than bandsaw lines. The Dalbeattie line is incredible to watch. Overall production speed does seem to pretty quickly become more about log handling than the actual sawcut rate though. Easiest option for videos is to put them on Youtube and link them from here which automatically embeds them. Alec

I think on the construction method a lot depends on how much pleasure is in the doing and how much in the using. If being there building it and working with wood is something you really enjoy then I would look at a jointed construction. It is more 'crafted' which can be really satisfying and if you really wanted to it would be possible to construct the whole structure without any metalwork at all. I wouldn't worry too much about experience - it isn't too difficult to do it well enough that it will last, you can always ask for ideas about how to do particular things on here and there is a lot of tolerance to bad joints, with some suitable fixes available if you mess it up! If you just want to get it up quickly so that you can enjoy using it, minimum jointing and maximum use of metalwork is the way to go. Alec

If you look at the heavier structures (including a couple of the ones with pictures in this thread) they are resting on stone pads on the ground, not actually fixed down to it. I would also add a rail low down myself if I was doing this, to reduce the potential for any sideways movement of the uprights at the base. Coincidentally, my whole house is built like this and is not technically fixed down to anything. It has lasted 500yrs+ so the method seems sound enough! If it is in a wood it should be sheltered enough not to blow away, particularly if you put the entrance out of the prevailing wind, which I would guess you want to do anyway. If you need to anchor it down, I would concrete in steel strip (pre-drilled), bringing the concrete a few inches above ground level, then bolt the steel through to the uprights. You might find this thread useful: http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/woodcraft-forum/88433-green-larch-timber-frame.html It's a bit more formal than your construction and bear in mind that you are planning to use more of a box frame structure so won't have the same loading on your uprights. Plus, I am presuming you are not subject to building control and can therefore scale down a bit as you won't have to prove calculations. Alec

Quite a few questions in there. Firstly, yes, one person can do pretty much anything (albeit slowly!) if they have some way of lifting and moving things. You get pretty good at working out how to prop/wedge/manoeuvre things on your own and it can be done with wedges, levers, jacks etc. rather than machinery. Similarly, the whole lot could be done with hand tools rather than battery operated tools if you need to. A bit and brace isn't that bad and decent quality hand saws (I use Japanese ones) are reasonably quick. Power tools are undeniably faster though. You will need to decide on the biggest thing you think you can lift, or get all the main frame sections together first and then get in some help for a day to get them up, which will be a lot quicker. Think about the base - anything in contact with the ground directly will rot relatively fast (even oak) compared with putting it on something to keep it off the damp. If you want a 'raw' look but the timber is too large a diameter, look at halving or quartering it and leaving it rough on the face. This will also give you a flat face which makes building a lot easier. I would try to use oak (heartwood) for the main frame, particularly anything structural which comes down to the ground and the biggest timbers. If would use ash (or cherry) for the structural members higher up such as the roof, where they will stay dry. For the cladding, if you plan on making this it will take a while! I would be inclined to buy in larch or western red cedar for this, but if you are going to make it yourself from your available timbers, I would be very heavily and repeatedly treating it. I would avoid using the beech completely as it has no durability outside. Alec

They aren't silent but the battery Stihl is a lot quieter than a 2-stroke. A friend of mine bought one for firewood etc. in his own city centre garden and it doesn't annoy the neighbours. The sound is at a different pitch and doesn't seem to travel. Alec

The fact that you don't mind it being a log suggests green is OK? If so, are your dimensions finished size or green size? It would take at least 15" diameter to get that size out if you need to avoid the pith, so a fair sized log in the round. I definitely have something big enough (cricket bat willow) and might be able to get it to Port Talbot if you aren't in too much of a hurry. It would have to be sawn out as it would be in the boot of a car. Alec

Buyer's market, £4/Hoppus, seller's market, £6/Hoppus. Alec

I have done it in the past, on canal structures. I presume that, like with canals, you will have very little flow, which is good for avoiding scour (which can be an issue with unbonded structures, particularly if you want wide enough gaps to let ferns grow through. It's pretty straightforward, just fill and position, but remember that the bags aren't really bonded together so they don't resist pressure as well as a solid wall. You either need to build the wall as a triangle in section (wider at the base with a good batter) or, slightly counter-intuitively, if the face is vertical you want it wider at the top so that it tries to 'lean' back into the bank. If you do the latter you will need enough of a foundation to stop rotational slip. Alec

Elder daughter's 8th birthday today and we went out to Mersea, stopping by at Fingringhoe on the way. Alec

Looks like the problem has been diagnosed here but just to add, you don't always get mayonnaise from a failing head gasket or cracked head. The pressure in a diesel engine is so high that the water doesn't immediately run through. We had it on my wife's car (unknowingly) and did about an extra 20k miles before it went, and still managed to start and drive it to the repair place. The symptom is that it starts to overhead when idling, getting progressively worse, then eventually runs hot on high speed motorway runs. The final one was the run back from the Lake District to Essex, after a week trekking it up and down mountains including Hardknott Pass! Alec

If you grow Red Sentinel then the red colour comes through when you make crab apple jelly Alec