agg221

If that's the case I should be fine. Although I am employed primarily in another business, my field is a registered agricultural holding and I am a registered sole trader. So far I haven't managed to make a profit, but that isn't really the point (must be all these training costs ) Alec

I have nothing to add, but your finding will be very interesting to me - I hadn't even considered it to be honest but I am doing PA1 and PA6 wholly to enable me to undertake spot treatment spraying on my field, rather than calling in the contractor to spray the lot. This appears to meet the definitions of 'wholly' and 'purpose' but, since PA1 would classify as a 'new skill' (to bring it in house rather than under contract on cost grounds) this may be my undoing. I'll be interested to see how your investigation progresses. Alec

Personally I don't have an issue with people doing this to me. I am doing something unusual, they are concerned about what I am doing but don't feel confident to approach me about it and they are taking photos in a public place. The police then check that everything is above board; if it is they go on their way. I have had it milling on a farmer's field with a public footpath across it; I had it years ago milling some of the bends from parkland trees along the line of the channel tunnel rail link and, most recently collecting bend sections from a collapsed tree on Corporation of London land, where the stipulation was only fallen timber and no chainsaws. The latter was Corporation of London rangers rather than the police and they did get a bit officious to start with, but I waved my permission at them, they went and rang the person who had given it (who was empowered to do so) and went off rather grumpy about what I was doing, but more with the person who had given permission for not informing them than with me. In all cases, I considered that the alternative that I was just left alone effectively would have indicated that anyone could turn up, fell anything they fancied and milled it up without anyone batting an eyelid. I considered my minor inconvenience was trivial compared with that potential outcome. Alec

Your saw will pull the bar but don't go in too hard. You need something with a sprocket nose, ie not a Duromatic, but otherwise it doesn't make much difference to performance. Sugihara are very long lasting, there are Stihl options and Oregon. Because it exceeds the maximum recommended length for your saw, you may not see options listed, but if you look for bars for an MS440 then these will fit as they have the same bar mount. Standard chain would be fine - unless you are only cutting very clean wood I would go for a semi-chisel chain such as the Oregon one. If you want an idea of bars which will fit, you can find a selection here (I am affiliated with this site): Guide bars and enter MS440 as the model. Alec

I now have a mental image of you trying it with a whole Christmas cake....! Alec

Bad luck Peter, my shed was done in similar fashion (Sturmer) a few months back and I believe there have been a lot of others in the area. They don't seem to be very targeted, more domestic but occasionally they hit lucky. Alec

Steve's interesting chart throws up another option - if you can get hold of a proper railway sleeper a lot of the new ones are jarrah (pinkish/orange colour), which is also on the highly durable list. If you ripped one down the middle and then cross-cut you would have four decent legs. Alec

Mark, my wife (who is a teacher) says you are doing a great job Alec

Treemoose on here would be worth contacting. Alec

Are you gulleting the blades? It's a trade-off on this in that if you do it every time then it takes a lot longer and the blade reaches end of life faster than necessary through being too narrow but if you only ever sharpen the tips it will give you premature failures through microcracking in the gullets. Microcracking is almost purely a function of running time whereas sharpness is - apart from exceptional events, also a function of hardness. This means that you can do tips only more times in succession on more difficult timbers such as elm than on softwoods. You would need to find the balance for your set-up through trial and error - on my little Ripsaw it is three to one on hardwoods for example, but it may save you time and money in the long run, depending on the consequences of a band failure in your set-up during the learning phase. Alec

I have a Homelite XL which was my cheapest saw, since I was given it free as a non-runner by a colleague. Put some Aspen in and it fired straight up. Not much use to me mind as a non-climber, but it fills the shelf up! Alec

Funnily enough I have done exactly that twice. 090, 47" Duromatic bar, Granberg chain, no winch, Burrell on the other end of the mill. We didn't time it on either occasion, but the running time of an 090 on a full tank of fuel is about 15mins and it took about half a tank, so around 7 to 8mins cutting time would seem right, around 10mins all in including sticking in wedges and pumping the manual oiler a few times. Alec

Yes but Jonathan you don't really like chainsaw milling do you? There's also a difference between commercial production and personal interest. I have run an 88" bar full width on a single 090 powerhead. It is quite boring but gets there in time. Alec

Comfortably. Not quick but will slog on through. Alec

What diameter is the trunk? As stated above, you will almost certainly have to pay for having the tree cut up and removed but if the main trunk is a good size with a lot of dark coloured heartwood it may be possible to sell it to offset some of your costs. If it has about 18" of heartwood you might get offered around £100 for the trunk after everything else has been removed. If you want to go down this route then photos as it is now and of the trunk after clearing, particularly showing the cut end, would get you more interest. Alec

The 3120 is pretty old school with more torque than revs so a 6ft bar on a 56" mill would be OK. You can go slightly bigger with skip tooth chain. Alec

It matters that your oak was a Turkey Oak if you want to use it outside and have it last a long time without treatment - either the Sessile or Pendunculate will last extremely well but Turkey doesn't except in salt water. It will do very nicely for indoor work though, which also means the sapwood will be usable. Oak whilst green is very easy to work with hand tools - easier than that rather dry piece of pine. There is an art to hewing which requires finding your rhythm but once you have it, is very satisfying. Gransfors Bruks make some really nice side axes, with a side or centre bevel, but if you want something cheaper they pop up on Ebay. Try searching for "side axe", "bearded axe" or "broad axe". Quite a few decent ones seem to pop up in Bulgaria and Slovenia. Alec

What section do you want to finish up with? The biggest square you can get from 20" dia is 14". This would be boxed heart so very strong but would split to the core giving a rustic look. If you want a section less than half this width then splitting with wedges first would be a good option. Splits run radially to the centre so you can split a half, a quarter or a wedge. For removing the rest, I would be inclined to use a chalkline to mark up the lines and then cut to shape with a sideaxe (if your fiancee will allow you one ) - much cheaper than a big saw and very satisfying once you've got the hang of it. I find reasonably fast too - not as fast as milling with a big saw but not too slow for squaring up so long as you keep the axe razor sharp. Plenty of videos showing how to on Youtube, such as: [ame] [/ame][ame] [/ame] Alec

In a minority, yes, but not a minority of one I am solely ground-based, and don't actually have any chainsaw boots other than wellies. They are fairly convenient and I lived in old army boots for years so they are no less comfortable. I preferred the old style Stihl ones to the new ones - the tops seem to be a lot tighter on the new ones which makes them harder to get on over trousers, and I am only putting them over jeans (I use chaps) so I would imagine getting them on over chainsaw trousers would be extremely awkward. Alec

Thanks, I'll give that a go. Alec

I use a 300mm Gomtaro and will soon need to replace the blade. I did have a Hayauchi pole saw but it was stolen. Very annoying as it was the full 7m one and I need it at full length so am keeping an eye out for a replacement. Alec

The principle is correct, but there are two fundamentally different strategies you can adopt for water management. 1. A comprehensive drainage system, from the small ditches and culverts at the top end of a watercourse, right through to deep dredging and high banks on the lower watercourse. This is designed to move water as fast as possible from where it falls to where it exits (tidal waters) and prevent the level from rising. 2. A series of features designed to keep water where it falls and slow its progress as much as possible. This includes features such as bogs, ponds, pools/meres and natural floodplains. You can combine elements of these but ONLY if you have 1. downstream of 2. So for an example of 2. If a farmer raises the outflow level on a drainage ditch 500m long with a cross-section of 1m square (deliberately or just by letting it choke up) the ditch will hold back up to 500 cubic metres of water. If he does that on 10 ditches that's 5000 cubic metres of water. Getting the approach wrong (1. upstream of 2.) if the ditches drain into a brook with a restricting bridge, which at times of high rainfall runs at full capacity under the arch then when the farmer digs those ditches to remove the obstruction, you now have an extra 5000 cubic metres to get through the bridge, which won't go. Assume normal slope away from the brook and you find that houses standing about 50m from the brook get flooded to around 1m depth. The owners of the houses don't like this (obviously) so they campaign to get the flow under the bridge increased by widening it or deepening the channel. This just moves the water down to the next obstruction (2. is still upstream of 1.) so it does the same again, and so on all the way down to the sea, ie you eventually end up with 1. but with misery for everyone down the line in turn. And this is exactly what happens when the plan for a watercourse is not joined up, people all do their own little bit as they please and other people who were previously at no risk of flooding suddenly find that they are, as a direct consequence of the actions of others upstream. Which is exactly what is happening to us. Alec

One approach you could take is to try to track down a contact for HR at the FC. We had a stand-off a few years ago between our HR department and our H&S department over minimum age (this was for laboratory-based work). H&S had previously set internal policy that the minimum age for practical work was 17, which they applied to work placement students. We then started taking on apprentices who have a minimum age of 16. H&S kicked off about it, HR told them it was the law so they would have to deal with it. I now have 16yr olds with no problem. You may find that if you ask HR at the FC whether, in the light of the rules on modern apprenticeships, it is legal to restrict the minimum age to 17, that you get the change in policy you are looking for. Alec

This. In fact, I go so far on some occasions as to let the sapwood rot off oak butts before I mill them. You do get the odd bit of worm in the heartwood while it's still green but there is so little that I tend to ignore it and it gives up anyway once the wood is dry. Alec

Excellent post and something I am really struggling to convey to our village 'flood action group' who, in a desire to achieve some 'action' are busily accelerating flow through the village, which I live at the very bottom of where there is a fixed structure (Dutch ford). This is badly designed and jams up with rubbish. Every little bit of work they do to accelerate flow helps raise the river slightly higher at the ford, flooding us a bit higher in the process, so I spend my time prising rubbish out of the pipes with a grappling hook and a pitchfork. I would love to convey the concept of SUDS to them, but it is sadly way beyond their comprehension as 'doing something' is far more interesting to them than understanding the concept of removing obstacles starting from the lowest point and holding up water as much as possible at the upper end. Alec