agg221

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

OK, several things going on here. Firstly, it has fallen over. This is not a problem. The original Bramley (sown 1809) fell over in 1900 and re-grew from a branch, and is still going strong. Looking at the tree, the photos don't make it entirely clear, but it looks like there is not much in the way of annual extension growth and the centre is getting very bare, which means the branches are probably getting over-extended (which is consistent with your comment on broken branches). The first thing I would do is cut everything down around the root zone. This will also make working on it easier. I wouldn't touch it until late autumn/early winter, when the leaves have yellowed and mostly fallen at the earliest. There is a particular range of airborne spores around at this season which you want to avoid landing on freshly cut surfaces. I would then remove any dead wood, and shorten up anything particularly long. I can't identify any particular cut points from the photos, but in your first picture you can see a point about two thirds of the way up where the branches arch right to left and another set carries on up. I would look at taking out the ones which are heading on up. The ones which arch also look quite dense, so I would look to thin them a little - helps air get through reducing wind resistance and lets light get to the branches so they don't die off. This will all help to reduce leverage on it, making it less likely to blow right out of the ground through twisting, or for new bits to snap off. Coincidentally it will make it easier to pick and manage in future. In your last picture, there is a horizontal branch running right to left, which then turns upwards. At the point where it turns upwards there is a young shoot. This is the kind of thing you want to encourage. For now, you are looking to get a few of these going, which will happen if you head the tops back and let light in. In subsequent years you will be able to thin these out to space them to form new side branches. You want to encourage them to grow at about 45degrees to the vertical, so choose the less vertical ones to leave. If you have to leave some vertical ones because they are well placed, bend them down to the right angle and tie them there with a bit of string (in the growing season they will 'set' to their new angle in about 6wks). This will ultimately allow you to cut right back to your new branch structure, forming a more compact tree which is more stable. To get it growing again, in about March I would stick down a double thickness layer of cardboard all around the root zone, which might be the drip line but having fallen over you will have to guess at this a bit. This will stop it competing with the weeds for water and nutrients. Before I did so I would give it a decent dose of Blood Fish and Bone (or Growmore) so it's a good slow-release balanced fertilizer. I would then mulch over the cardboard with either well rotted compost or chip/bark which had been stacked for a year - if you don't then the cardboard dries out so the rain doesn't soak in as well, and it blows around. Cardboard lets the water through but suppresses the weeds. The worms like the glue so they pull it down, aerating the soil. This means you will have to renew the cardboard from time to time, just don't let the mulch get too thick. The above is likely to give you a lot more years out of it. Alec

The only fundamentally proven proposition: je pense, donc je suis (I think, therefore I am) - Descartes, 1637

I can probably help - oak and sycamore at the moment, and can do them planed both sides. I'll drop you a PM. Alec