agg221

I would welcome it on my field - any that anyone wants to tip here will be stacked through until harvest, meanwhile I'll add as much green stuff as possible to maintain nitrogen balance and accelerate decomposition. Depending on how well broken down it is, it will either be spread before ploughing or after sowing. I'm on heavy clay and it will give me better soil structure and ultimately better yield. Alec

I use a 6"x1". A lot depends on which approach you want to use. I mill the surface flat first with the Alaskan so I don't need rigidity in the board (it's on a flat surface) so would rather keep it lighter and have the extra depth of cut - even with a 36" bar on it doesn't always go clean through when quartering big stuff. It is also easier to counter any warp the board develops as I can knock the nails in to hold it flat to the cut. If you want to use it for edging up logs prior to milling, a 6"x2" will support itself better in free space above the edge of the log. Alec

Eucalyptus is pretty heavy, as Jon (Nepia) and I can attest! It also turns out to be pretty hard. It can be extremely challenging to season though. I do have a lump which has been kicking around in my garden for about 10yrs - probably wide enough and long enough. It may be dry by now - I can have a look if you like? Alec

The Stihl online policy no longer applies Rob D has what you are looking for. Alec

Yes it can be done, but ideally you want to put a crosscut chain on. It's all in the set-up so consider your pricing carefully. To get it right you will spend a lot of time setting levels and positions relative to the very short time actually cutting. In a typical milling job you bang out board after board after board and the customer forgets the set-up time (if they're watching then it's all the in the building excitement phase). I would make the cut by pivoting about a single point at the powerhead end. Anything else is hard to avoid rocking the nose end backwards, which will create ridges on the surface. I love this kind of stuff, Burrell hates it (he likes flying through the boards) which is one of the reasons we work together well! Alec

Pear may be worth a go. Very very heavy and about the hardest thing I've milled. Big enough too, but would need staining if you want it dark. Alec

It is impressive - you could drop in on Kew whilst you were there too! I can't find a close-up picture of the dates, but this link (assuming it works) is quite informative. Cathedral Grove | Big Trees: Pictures & Politics | Big Trees as Trophies Alec

Link works fine on mine (smiley is at the end), however yes, I did mean that one. I was at a conference at the Materials Department of Imperial College a few years back with a couple of my people - one French, the other Italian and now the Natural History Museum is free it's possible to just drop in for ten minutes so I took them to see it. They were both seriously impressed. Alec

I like this one File:Sequoiadendron giganteum wood - Natural History Museum of London.jpg - Wikimedia Commons Alec

I bought a backing pad and a box of discs for the angle grinder from my local welding supply place. Very cheap and extremely effective. Alec

You can get the board to curve by heating it, either with a wallpaper stripper or a hot air gun. You need to get it really hot but not scorched so if you use a hot air gun wrap it in rag and keep it damp. You can get some serious curves this way if needed. Alec

I have run a 36" bar on an 044 once - I don't wish to repeat the experience. Basically, anything which fits the 660 will fit the 441. If you need to run the bar to make a small number of cuts for ringing up, I would get a skip-tooth chain to go with it. Halving the number of teeth in contact with the wood has a significant impact on the load on the engine. Not common in the UK but Rob D may have some left. Alec

Looking at the stepped nature of the external surface, and the internal surface which shows a series of regular straight lines, I suspect it's real but made up of a series of segments and layers. Alec

That sounds like an excellent idea. It's a pathway anyway so the shape is naturally defined - it's not like you would need to cover over the whole garden. Properly designed, you would actually end up with an attractive feature, which the hornbeam is unlikely to be if hacked back (I like proper pollard forms, with growth out at a height of 6-10' or so, but this will not make one). It will also cost a lot less than the work on the tree, particularly considering the ongoing commitment. If you want some inspiration, not sure where you are in the country but try visiting David Austin Roses near Wolverhampton in June/July/August. The garden is surprisingly child friendly and the cafe is excellent. There are several avenues and covered walkways done in different styles which may be worth a look for ideas. Ultimately, in 5-10yrs time, your children will have grown and the problem will be gone. It would be a shame if a really good specimen tree with a lifespan measurable in centuries had to be sacrificed to overcome what is such a short time in its lifetime. Hopefully there is a fix Alec

Very much agree with Graham. Only things to add - if you want something UK grown then ash is the toughest and has a natural spring which takes the sting out of your hands. One day though the fibres will just snap off after enough punishment, not because they are rotten but just due to there being a limit to how many impacts they can take. It takes a long time though. Hickory has similar properties to ash but lasts longer. Privet is apparently similar to hickory if you ever find a suitable bit. Making it, as per Graham but rather than whittling I do what I was shown by Bruce Wilcock who is a smith who makes tools for a living. He works at a vice and uses a horse rasp, first to round up the eye, then once fitted to shape the haft. The eye won't always be perfectly straight but you can correct for this by the side you rasp down, periodically looking down the handle to check by eye and also checking the swing. This can also correct any slight twist between head and handle. Finishing is with the fine side of the rasp, then wire wool and wax, applied with the handle warm. With hickory you can warm it over the forge which singes off the fibres, making it easy to rub off the charcoal. It also crystallises the sugars, turning the surface a uniform satin black as the wax is rubbed in to the warm surface with the wire wool. The same trick works with cherry and other prunus species; ash just goes a muddy brown. Alec

I would love one, but I have no practical use for it and sadly therefore can't justify the expense. Alec

There are several things which you can vary in theory. In practice, not all the parts are available to do them all. Bar mounts: what is the longest bar which fits the mounts on your saw and lines up with the oil holes, assuming you're not inclined to re-drill these? Some saws share the same mount, so in theory you can fit the longest bar available for the biggest saw to the smallest saw. For example, the Stihl MS660 and 034 share the same mount so you could in theory fit a 42" bar to an 034.... Power: What will it physically pull? Longer bars mean more friction so more of the power of the saw goes into pulling the chain round. This means there is less power for cutting. This means counter-intuitively that the longer the bar, the narrower the cut the saw will actually handle. A smaller capacity saw will not pull as long a bar. Torque vs. revs: There is a power curve for torque vs. revs, so the faster your saw is pulling the chain the less torque available, so the easier to bog it down. If you use a sprocket with fewer pins it will slow the chain down, so although it will cut more slowly it will not bog down. Chain pitch: smaller pitch chains bog down less as they take a smaller 'bite' but cut more slowly. Chain type: the fewer teeth engaged in the wood, the less power needed to drag them through so semi-skip or skip tooth chain will allow you to run longer bars. For the ultimate then, you would find the biggest saw you could with the same mount to identify the longest bar physically made (with a replaceable nose sprocket), use 3/8" lo-pro chain in skip configuration and associated sprockets and use the clutch sprocket with the smallest possible number of pins, which would mean running a rim sprocket and finding one with the right splines to match. I'm not convinced that this would let you run a 42" bar on a 50cc saw, but it might. It would be slower than a very slow thing though! Alec

For fairly rustic benches for outdoor use, I would simply through-and-through saw them. It depends a bit on the design - I would work this out first so you know, for example, whether you need any 3" or 4" sections for legs, and if so how long you need them. You can then plan your cutting accordingly. If you do need thicker sections, cut these from the outer parts of the tree. This is because thin boards cut from the outside will be prone to cupping, whereas a 4"x4" won't. Also bear in mind that if this is for outdoor use, the sapwood will rot off very quickly. With that in mind, decide whether you are going for a crisp, clean edge, in which case you will need to remove all the sapwood, or a more rustic look, in which case you can leave it in on corners and edges and let it rot away naturally or skim it off with a drawknife. As an example, imagine you work out that with what you want to make you are going for a slightly rustic look and you need 4 lengths of 4"x4", the rest in 2". You would start by fixing your rail to the top, then measure down to the point where the heartwood is close to 8" wide, at each end. Take the greater depth and set the mill to that depth, less the thickness of the bar (the mill setting is the depth to the top of the bar, not the bottom). You would then skim off the top at this setting, leaving a flat face with the heartwood about 8" wide. You also want to measure up to the equivalent point at the bottom of the log, so that you know where you need to stop. Set the mill to 4" and take a slice. You will then need to rip this in half width-ways and then rip it to 4" widths. If you don't have access to a mini-mill or a big circular saw or bandsaw, the first cut is best made full depth with the biggest circular saw you have, then finished with a panel saw. The cuts to get 4" widths out can then be run with the circular saw with the fence on, from both sides, which will complete the cut. It will be a bit rough but can be dressed off. You can then set the mill to 2" and take your boards off, keeping an eye on when you only have 4" to go to the bottom mark. Once you are at that point, take the last slab off at 4" and rip to width again as before (note: in reality you would do all the milling first, then all the ripping to width of the 4"x4"). This will then be fine for seasoning, or use if you are making the benches green. btw, the reason for ripping the 4"x4" down green is that a) the board is liable to cupping which makes it hard to get a cut square to the face once dry and b) a 4" thick slab is extremely heavy and much easier to handle once ripped down. Hope this helps! Alec

This works but an alternative is to move to holding the round bar rather than the handle - you can then sort of push forward while pulling to twist it to stay level. Hard to explain but easy to do. Also a good idea to make sure your centre support is bearing on the wood. That way, firstly it doesn't tend to tip so much (moves the leverage point) and secondly if you watch where it is bearing you can see if it lifts and correct early. Alec

Whichever way you do it, you will lose the same thickness by the time they are flat. You need to think about what you want to do with it, which determines how flat you need it. If you are making outdoor furniture, flat is not necessary, fine cabinetwork you will need very flat and each board the same, etc. Assuming you want pretty flat, the first thing to do is in the milling (too late now I know) - quartersawing improves things a lot as the boards are more stable against cupping. It does mean that it's worth selecting the boards which are closest to quartered for use as wider boards. Further out from the centre will be more cupped, so better ripped down narrower to save more thickness. Once milled, good stacking whilst drying, with plenty of weight, will keep them flat. Planing - the easiest way without a thicknesser is to find a flat surface, such as a benchtop or an old door etc, then clamp the board to it, as hard as you will be fixing it down when finished. Play around with it a bit before clamping it hard, to get the bit furthest from the surface as close as possible by tipping another bit upwards, so that it is as 'level' as possible. Then take a pencil, shim it up by taping on bits of wood until, when lying on the flat surface, the lead is level with the wood to be planed at the point of the widest gap, ie it just reaches your board. Holding the pencil against the table (taped to its shims) draw round the whole board. This tells you how much to plane down to to get a level surface. Flip the board over, then use a panel saw to make a series of cuts across the board, down to the line on each side. Don't overdo them as there will then be more to take out, but cut gently, at an angle to start with, then bringing the saw gently down to just touch the line both sides when resting in the cut. Put a cut across as close together as you feel comfortable aligning to. More cuts makes it easier to stay accurate but takes more time - I've found about 6" apart to work fairly well. You can now plane the surface, just down to the cut lines, then just take them out and the surface will be flat. Flip the board back over, clamping back down the same as before and it should lie flat - if not fix any problems. Once it's flat on one side, and clamped down, shim the pencil higher, either to just reach the lowest point on the board or to the thickness you want. Repeat the marking, cutting and planing as above. The above deals with warped or cupped boards, or wavy surfaces so long as they reach the edge. It doesn't deal with slight dips in the middle. If you need a series of boards, the same thickness, so long as you keep the second pencil taped to the same shim, all boards will come out the same, or at least close enough for final finishing when fixed up. I used to do the above before I had the thicknesser, and have used it for boards which are too wide, and for strangely shaped stuff like boat knees. Alec

Do you only want seed propagation? With community involvement, other methods such as cuttings might well be worth including. If you have some dedicated propagation space it's also worth considering stooling for some species. You don't get the genetic diversity with vegetative propagation but it can give good results. It's a bit more labour-intensive, but labour is something you shouldn't be short of. Old-fashioned, but accurate, try Evelyn's Sylva on google books for propagation methods. Alec

Keep an eye on ebay and an 026 can sometimes be had within your budget. Alec

Yes, but it will need heat-treating again afterwards, otherwise it will probably crack again very quickly in the heat affected zone next to the weld. Alec

Yep, that's what mine is. I dug out a stump about 6" across and use the root bole as the head, the very base of the stem thinned down as the handle. I use mine for driving the froe (you should use a mallet on hardened metal such as an axe or froe, not a sledge). It has taken some serious beating and shows dents, but no sign of breakage after 3yrs abuse. Alec

Do you still want the sycamore I milled for you? Alec