agg221

They are likely to be a lot more solid and the timber should be pretty sound, so long as there is nothing up the middle which is not visible from the photos. On the milling side, some dimensions would help (length and diameter) as this will determine what kit is needed to do it. The other thing to think about is your 'cutting list'. The thinner the section you are wanting, the more cuts, so the more time milling. Alec

Hi Mark, interesting comment. I wasn't aware of silver leaf in apples - how does it show up and is it as progressive as in plums? What is your visual cue for identifying previous woolly aphid problems? Alec p.s. 'bending' has made a very significant impact on rate of re-frameworking this year.

Japanese anemone. Comes in pink or white. Alec

That's quite a lot of missing bark. I would be looking for the cause, to make sure it doesn't spread, or happen again. It could be rabbits, but I haven't seen them go for a mature tree when there are alternatives. It looks too severe for strimmer damage. It could be canker, although that normally looks 'wet'. Try peeling a piece of bark off from around the edge, and see if it is dead or alive. If it is dead, with a funny sort of sweet smell, it's canker, in which case I would peel off all the dead, looking for the live (green) edge and trim back to the live line all round. You could then apply a suitable fungicide. I would agree with the mulch, although I would probably apply it by cutting the grass as short as possible, then putting down a double layer of cardboard and mulching over that, to avoid disturbing the roots. I would also keep the mulch away from the trunk itself by a couple of inches. If I couldn't establish a cause for the damage, I would probably put a bit of wire mesh round the base of the trunk until I knew what was doing it, to keep animals (e.g. squirrels?) off. I would then look at a reasonable helping of balanced fertiliser (e.g. blood fish and bone or Growmore, depending on your taste) in spring and hope it's OK. The extension growth on the healthy part of the tree is not particularly long if it hasn't been summer pruned, so it could withstand a bit of pruning back this winter if desired, and the fertiliser and mulch would be helpful with this. Finally, if the branch which is suffering does die, don't give up on the tree. Within 3-4yrs it could be re-framed to give a good balance with the remaining main branches - I have done this with some much more bizzarely shaped starting specimens! Alec

Pictures would help. You mention fruit trees and a wooded area. Unless you only want the fruit trees for decorative effect, I would treat these differently. The wooded area will regenerate by competition between the trees. They will be spindly and upright, with the trees around the edges probably leaning. Individually they would blow over, but their collective bulk will keep them upright. Fruit trees are 'designed' (pruned) to get a crop, by getting light and air to the crown. They are spaced further apart so they don't get drawn upwards. Most fruit trees are grafted onto rootstocks. The stock controls the size, the scion controls the variety. Seedlings are likely to grow very vigorously, take a very long time to crop and be really dissapointing when they do. If you want them for reliable fruit, propagation of whatever the locals grow onto stock of the size you want will make for a more productive orchard, unless you want it purely for decoration. There is one exception to the above on fruit trees. In the UK if you go back a very long way in rural areas it used to be common practice to propagate certain fruits, particularly some apples and cherries, from seed. They didn't come true in the sense of being identical, but they had dominant genetic characteristics which tended to come through. This is a bit like growing vegetables of a particular variety from a packet of seed. The plants are not genetically identical but will be similar enough in the ways that matter. It is just possible that this practice has survived where you are but you would need to do some asking around to find out. Alec

Given the overall spec. I would be looking at an 075 or 076. They can be had in working order for around £300 as a powerhead (or significantly less if you are lucky on ebay). If you're lucky they come with a chainbrake. If not, it can be retro-fitted and are available from ebay.de (but check it has the right sort of handle). It will handle the milling without ever struggling or getting tediously slow or bogged down, will do occasional big felling/stumping and although performance is not exciting and power to weight is not good by modern standards it will slog on all day. It will pull a 4ft bar without any effort, and will hold its value. All parts are still available, most of the key ones as OEM or pattern. Alec

Not so much if you buy a secondhand saw. Firstly, an older saw has a poor power to weight ratio, so an 070/075/076 is not really a 'front line' saw any more, particularly not without a chainbrake. As such, milling is pretty much their only use. Secondly, saws of this type hold their value. If you use it relatively infrequently, it will sell for what you paid for it, so although you have your money tied up in the meantime, it is not 'wasted'. Alec

In my experience, rings split. The best I have come up with for someone who wanted to make a chessboard inlaid into a ring was to saw two rings from next to each other into thirds, radially. Once dry, cut these down to quarters and glue them back together, using a bit from the second ring to make the fourth quarter. They won't line up perfectly, but it will be close and will stop it warping/splitting. Alec

Fixed that for you:001_smile: Alec

Pretty sure the biggest bar you can get for the 660 is the 41" Cannon - the mounts are wrong for the bigger bars. It really wouldn't be happy if you went any bigger. If you went the way you're thinking about, I would be inclined to take the mill off the saw and freehand the butt in half, vertically, like this: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPEQcuFmtAA]Philippine Lumbarjack.mp4 - YouTube[/ame] (watch the saw technique, probably not the approach to PPE or one-handed operation of an 090:001_smile:) If it's any good, stand a 'half' up on edge and mill 'properly' the other way. That way you only have the one wide cut to make and all your decent boards are quarter or rift sawn, so are more stable and have more interesting grain. Alec

Have the butts been kept up off the ground like this throughout? If so, they may just be OK but beech really doesn't keep. The other problem is that beech is out of fashion, so demand is low, but if you get some really good colour up the middle as sometimes happens then there could be a market. There is no way to find this out other than to mill it and see. If you can find a market then about £15/cu.ft green is realistic (it won't be easier to shift if you drop the price - the challenge is demand). If you can stack it and fully air dry it then you are likely to improve on this price considerably. The market such as it is is likely to be for furniture (even if only for carcassing) but anyone wanting it to use is unlikely to be prepared to wait, so it's down to you to do the waiting. One option to de-risk whether it's any good is to pay someone with the right kit for a day's milling (maybe even a half day). If you can get the butts broken down into quarters, maybe taking a wide board or two from the centre if you have a use for them, you can then handle what's left more comfortably with your existing kit. For reference, beech can be very, very hard and slow to mill. Alec

I like MM106. I have found it reliable on heavy clay in Kent and poor soil in Essex. It is supposed to be susceptible to phytophthera, but I haven't had problems. M7 makes a very slightly smaller tree and is supposed to be more disease resistant, but it's harder to find. M111 would be slightly bigger, and is fairly disease resistant. If you have access to the varieties you want and need a few trees you could consider buying rootstocks and propagating your own? That may give you more choice on stocks, not to mention saving a fair bit. Alec

Are you sure it's crown rot? Crown rot is phytophthera in the rootstock, so the tree dies from the roots, i.e. leaves go yellow as they fail and since it's dead at the bottom there is no chance for re-growth. Re-growth suggests to me that you have canker instead. Canker is also worst in wet weather, and once it girdles the stem the tree dies above but can re-grow from below. If you do have phytophthera it would be advisable to remove all dead and preventatively spray any surviving trees (see Horticultural Development Company) however for canker, cutting out the dead and re-training a new main stem will work fine, so long as it has sprouted from above the graft line. Simply pick the best placed sprout, cut out all others (and particularly anything below the graft) and tie in to a cane if you want it particularly straight, then treat it like a new maiden stem. If you are in a canker-prone area, it's worth keeping a careful eye for cankers developing on any main stems/branches in future and cutting them out before they get large. West country cider varieties are generally pretty damp tolerant, as the reasons they were selected and grown on related to the fact that they cropped well in the climate as much as the quality of the fruit. If the tree died it wouldn't prove very popular! Final thing - you suggest 'smallish' but I wouldn't class M25 as small - I'd say it's pretty much as vigorous as it gets! If what you are looking for is trees of a size you get from a weaker growing variety on M25 then you could mix in stronger growing varieties on a semi-vigorous stock to get trees about the same size. M7 might be suitable, as it's pretty resistant to most diseases and only susceptible to winter cold, which I reckon is one thing you are unlikely to get too much of. Alec

Ironbridge Gorge museum - the bridge is very picturesque, Blist's Hill is good too and the tar tunnel is interesting. There are several other museums as well in the area, all in a group, and you can get a ticket which covers the lot and is much cheaper, than about two or three of them individually I think. If the route allows it's worth dropping in on David Austin Roses at Albrighton. It's a couple of miles south of the M54, J3, and has an excellent cafe (or did when I was last there) and the rose garden (free) is a real masterpiece - peaceful and relaxing for a stroll round before continuing your journey, well worthwhile even if roses aren't your 'thing'. Alec

Hi Horatio, In answer to your questions: You mention the main limbs, rather than the main stem - is it multi-stemmed or are you looking at using the limbs off the top of the stem? The limbs can be milled, but will have some reaction wood in them so will tend to move a bit. As good, thick posts they should be OK. If they are limbs, you will need to be careful getting them down as if you simply fell they are liable to shatter, even fairly big bits. This could mean rigging off the lumps you want, which is OK if you have the kit and the site allows but challenging at that size otherwise. Yes you can mill dead oak. It dries very very slowly in the round - I once milled a 3' dia butt which had been felled about 10yrs earlier and left. The sapwood was rotten but the heartwood was sound and still completely green. The Alaskan will mill up to 13" thick 'slabs' with the standard uprights, so plenty big enough for most posts and beams. You could look at a 36" mill with a 40"+ bar. This will go through everything you are looking at here with the right cutting pattern. Alternatively, you could go up to a 48" mill but you will then probably be looking at a 60" bar to get the most out of it, although you could use a slightly shorter bar and still get straight through the middle of 40". You will also need a ripping chain to suit, and it would be highly advisable to get a precision grinder as keeping every tooth equal in length and fully sharp will be critical. Alec

No, although I've done displays where they have been doing the event. I subbie for Phoenix. Alec

If it has to be locally grown, I would agree with oak heartwood, unless you have robinia in the area which will last even better. A floating pontoon would be a lot easier to do, either using polystyrene or recycled 25l plastic drums. The pontoons at Danson park in Welling are made this way and the drums have now outlasted their second set of plywood boarding! These pontoons are purely functional, so the drums aren't hidden. Each section is 8' long, made up of three rectangular frames - the central one 4' wide (the deck, with an 8'x4' plywood sheet on) and another along each side, made just too narrow for the drums to slip through. Three drums go on each side and the deck is dropped on, the drums then get wedged in the gap by the weight of the deck and it's impossible to push them out downwards as you can't push hard enough, so the whole thing is secure. They are very stable - I've rigged the firework display on them each November 5th for the past few years and they barely move, but can be dragged around in trains of 10 or so by a man with a canoe. Use black drums and rather than putting the deck just in the middle, run it right over the top made from locally sourced larch and they would look fine. Alec

Hi Andy, I've been in a similar position to you, but with oak rather than ash, processing trees on a canal bank about a mile from a road. I milled oak up to about 28", into 20' long x 2" thick boards and hand dragged them the first few hundred yards, to where I could get a dumper. It's slow going, but do-able, so the size you're talking about would be fine. A big old Stihl works well - 100cc+ is ideal so the 075/076/070/090 are good, although the more modern ones are of course fine. There's a slight anomaly in that you can still get all the parts for the above, both OEM and pattern, but the 084 has a few parts which are nla. The 088/MS880 is of course still current. Have you come across the Granberg Alaskan Mark III mills? A 36" Alaskan is light for carrying into the woods and sounds like it might do what you need (when you have a suitable saw). If you haven't seen it, Chainsawbars ? chainsaw chains, chainsaw bars and chainsaw accessories shows a good range of mills and accessories - run by Rob D on here. Alec

I second Anglesey Abbey - well worth a research trip. The ideal is to go in late winter though to get a sense of just how much all year round use the site has been designed for. Alec

I find oak reasonably easy as it chips out along the grain but ash is surprisingly tough. Cherry is straightforward but I have done some very hard spruce, and the sycamore I did for Steve was much harder work than I had anticipated. I think some of it is species, some growing location and some how the grain is - eg knots, straightness, twist etc Alec

Balance - the rails stck forward so if anything they slightly counterbalance the power head. Bar length - Stihl say 36", actually for milling a 41" is OK if you can find one. Alec

It might be easier to cut it right down this time, then get the necessary permissions in place and spray off the re-growth next year. It won't take much effort knocking them off afterwards and there would be nothing big enough to need any kit other than a small hatchet. Alec

Yes, kind of. It's over the capacity of any mill I'm aware of, but I have had some success slabbing boards off vertically, freehand with a chainsaw using an 090 with an 88inch bar. You need a bar at the minimum halfway across but better if you can go straight through. You need to assume some inaccuracy and cut thick, then set yourself up for a lot of truing up with a power plane, but it can be done. If you halve it, a standard large Alaskan mill will do it. Alec

No problem, I thought you might have picked up that large birch burr from Scotland. Alec

I think this is unfortunately one of those stories like 'every walnut butt is worth £1000 for gunstocks'. There aren't that many bowyers and those that there are seem to prefer yew grown in Spain/Portugal where it grows more slowly, although I am aware of one who is using English yew. The ideal size is around 4" to 6", with equal widths of heartwood and sapwood and no side branches, so realistically anything big enough to mill is already too big for bows. For an idea of what it might look like: Yew Floorboards | Drummonds Architectural and Flooring ltd. Alec