agg221

I'm very disappointed by your post here - I was hoping you were going to give us more revalations about Geoff.....

On road or off road? ie is this a legal question or a practical one?

Yes there is - if you look at the poster's name box on the left hand side, under the avatar, there is a red triangle symbol. Alec

Have confirmed the milling spec. It's 33" at the base (so I would guess around 28" at the top) and needs to be milled through and through into 2" boards. Alec

It's also worth noting that in large commercial operations the wood goes straight from mill to kiln under very carefully controlled conditions of temperature and humidity, which stops checking from occurring. As I posted somewhere else, I have milled oak in mid August in a heatwave, with no checking, but the lengths I had to go to to stop this were not realistic if there was any other way. Alec

Oak, as per image. The section for milling will be 10ft long, and you can drive right up to it. Looks like a metal detector would be advisable, but otherwise should be a simple half day job. Not sure on the cutting spec, and I reckon from the picture that the tree is more like 2ft than 1ft across. If interested, please contact Steve on 07966572998

Yes, but I think she's planning on buying him something nice Alec

It's a nice idea, but it's not as simple as it sounds. The lettering is stamped in when the metal is hot. Afterwards it is heat-treated, which involves heating it right up, quenching it (which makes it hard but brittle) and then heating it gently to a set temperature, which is 'tempering' (which makes it a little less hard but a lot less brittle). If you heated the head to re-stamp it, firstly you would have to take the handle out, secondly you would have to repeat the heat-treatment, then re-handle etc. This all makes it rather expensive and tricky. As an aside, the usual stamp letters are fairly big, and you (well I) can only get a few in in a heat, so you might get initials but not much more. Taking the original idea though, if you wanted to put something on it I would have it engraved. If you google 'engraving' and your location you will turn up dozens of people who can help. Alec

If you can get out lengths of 4ft and up, in diameters of 8in and up, and it's reasonably straight, consider whether there may be demand for milling. If it's nothing special then it would have to be bigger, but there is demand for things like waney-edge chopping boards etc and it's always worth asking on here if anyone wants it. For example, plum/damson/blackthorn/prunus pissardi, or pear, or cherry, I would probably be interested. Lots of other things get interesting as they get bigger, but that's dependent on you being able to get them out (or the customer being willing to have them milled where they lie). Don't expect enormous sums for green timber. For the same volume you will make more if you split and season it as firewood, but that doesn't factor in the labour of doing it, or delivery costs etc, so if you have no shortage of material it can be worthwhile to do this with the more interesting bits. Alec

I like the Gransfors for absolute quality. It looks and feels hand made (which it is) and the maker stamps their name in the head. There's the choice between maul, large splitting axe and small splitting axe. I would go with one of the splitting axes as the maul is too much of a brute force tool in my opinion to justify the Gransfors quality, but that said it depends a bit on how big your boyfriend is. If he's built for swinging a maul all day then it will do the quickest job, if he's small then the small splitting axe, in-between then the large splitting axe. Alec

Yes, or you can get more June drop than normal, but if the fruit set then you will still get some, although they may be smaller. Alec

I have a suitable planer, and can bring it down to Dartford one weekend if you can't find a better offer. Alec

Only two causes - either they didn't have blossom or it didn't set. If they can remember whether it blossomed it would help identify the problem. If it blossomed but didn't set then it suggests either a late frost or lack of pollination. Several varieties so lack of pollination could be down to poor weather meaning lack of insects at the time. If it didn't blossom, but has been previously, it suggests that the blossom was taken off by previous pruning, so if it hasn't been pruned I would guess it isn't that. The increased growth is probably because it hasn't been putting any energy into fruit this year. I would be careful about pruning - if you go at it too hard you send it into regrowth rather than fruit formation. I would probably look at judicious thinning of the structure, removing high growth which extends up beyond the main 'ball shaped' structure (visible in the first picture) completely, down within the structure, but probably not touching much else. More thinning could be done next year to let light and air in. It should start fruiting again (note whether it blossoms or not, as otherwise you could get a false impression due to a late frost or similar). If it blossoms, all well and good. If not, time to take other action. Alec

Thankyou, much appreciated Not quite sure which age bracket (or should that be parenthesis...?) I am placing myself in here.... Alec

Yes please, and can we have more parentheses while we're at it.

Various bands in the early '90s,some good, some worse than the warm-up act. However all eclipsed by Queen at the O2, sadly post-Freddy Mercury (Paul Rogers - ex Free on vocals) but Brian May was brilliant. My wife was pregnant with our eldest at the time and she kicked along in time through the whole concert. However, even that was beaten by Leonard Cohen a couple of weeks ago. Absolutely outstanding from end to end - over 3hrs on stage and holding the whole 20,000 audience in silence at some points. I can't think of anyone else who can do that at the age of 79! Alec

Thanks all, plum is pretty stunning I think - you get pinks and greens in there. The bedroom floor will be elm, finished with as light a sealing colour as I can manage, so the plum should compliment it. The wheels are really useful for moving medium sized logs around and have done some fairly heavy stuff. This got extracted on them: http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/alaskan-mill/49031-need-some-milling-done-near-ipswich.html It's a short axle on a pair of trailer wheels, with a bit of U-channel welded on as a plate. If I did it again I would make the axle a bit longer and eventually it will get modded to stop the U-channel from rolling upside down (see pic), and to give it a handle for pushing it around unloaded. I'm also thinking about some form of mudguard arrangement to stop logs from twisting and fouling the wheels. Alec

Drink tonic water. They don't like the quinine and go and find someone else! Alec

Just left.

Makes no odds really. I'd leave it outside as I would want to stop it drying through the cut ends any more than necessary and it will stay a bit wetter that way. Alec

Was given another plum tree by Steve (se7enthdevil)'s sister. Standing dead Victoria, felled this morning, milled this afternoon. If anyone is taking down any more plum/damson/blackthorn/pissardi etc please let me know - I have two wardrobes to make Alec

Now that's getting very near to Mum's place (halfway between Sevenoaks and Gravesend) - any use? Alec

If you're ever up near Mum's place then can always take a few loads. Alec