Badgerland

Thanks Openspaceman. I've got a brother not a million miles from there, so it might be a way of combining a brotherly visit with doing some business as well. I'll give them a ring tomorrow. Cheers Dave

Thanks Felix, I'll give them a try.

Hello Bird The quote I got from Wrights was for 100 no. approx 8mm slats x 36 inch x 4 inch. So that would be okay. Or, depending on what machinery you have to hand then could be as 4 x 4 inch 36 inch and I can run it through my bandsaw myself. Could you do either of these? and if so how much would you charge? I see you're in Norfolk, so delivery might be an issue. Any ideas how much it would be? Thanks Dave

Evening All Hoping somebody might be able to help me source some cricket bat willow. Not after a huge amount, and it doesn't have to be particularly large. Ideally I want some slats about 8mm thick or billets which I can saw down myself. I make a type of basket based on a traditional west country design and I've found cricket bat willow is ideal. (Hopefully there should be a photo here of what they're like!) I've just tried J S Wrights in Essex but they want to charge me a ridiculous amount for delivery which makes the deal uneconomic. Oh yeah, and it doesn't need to be green as I season it before working it down anyway. I'm based in mid-Wilts so local would be great, but if not then happy to arrange collection. Thanks Dave

Well I stand corrected. I did have a little practice with a 51mm forstner into some end grain chestnut this afternoon and after putting in a pilot hole just to keep it steady when I started it seemed to go ok. (Don't have a great deal of confidence in them if I'm honest. Not had that much success with them in the past but that might have been a sharpeness issue combined with green timber.) Still not too sure how it will go when it's a foot in though. The gizmo on my makita that prevents you burning out the motor kept kicking in, whenever the drill bit caught or dug in too deep. Tad annoying! Cheers for the offer of making a split collar Steve. I reckon I can probably get away with it free hand, as it doesn't have to be too exact (I hope!) but if not I can always dust off the lathes and knock one up myself. Incidentally, what do you use to sharpen your forstner bits? I tend to use a diamond board, but is there a better way that you'd recommend?

Thanks for the ideas guys. Greengui – I agree. Forstner bits are a pain in the butt with green wood, and in the end grain would not even go in at all. They'd just spin on the surface. I did think about cutting the posts down the middle, but they're for cleft post and rail, so it would compromise the strength and look pretty obvious. Also, one of the client's is an artist and aesthetics are a major concern. If I was doing it in partially seasoned oak I could possibly get away with that, but not in green chestnut. Unfortunately it will have to be an auger bit as i need to make the hole at least 1 foot deep. That's why I was looking at a hand cranked one. My drill would disintegrate before it got an inch in, and if it didn't it would probably try to break my wrist.

I have a job lined up where I need to fit some (approx) 5 inch x 4 inch sweet chestnut posts over some 2 inch galvanised iron posts. The best solution I could come up with (in theory at least!) would be to get a 2 inch hand auger (ring auger? or whatever they're called) and drill into the posts from the bottom end. The wood is green so cutting shouldn't be a problem. I found some a while back on the old interweb – japanese and very expensive I seem to recall, but I'm damned if I can find them again. Anybody out there know where i can get one or even what the correct term for them is? Any help gratefully received.

Hello All. I've got a couple of lumps of Acacia in the yard that're very heavily burred and I'm looking to get them milled up. Anybody know of somebody who could come to my yard and cut it? I'm about 7 miles from Devizes. Ideas of cost would be helpful. Due to the size it would either have to be a large alaskan mill or a Lucas/Peterson with a slabbing attachment as I want it all cut through n through. I know I'll loose more in waste than I'd like, but I'm struggling to find anybody local to me with a mobile bandsaw big enough to handle it. I also don't have the facility to transport it to a static mill. The crotch-wood piece measures approx 48 inch long by 40 inch at it's widest. Apologies for the quality of the pics. Had to use my phone camera cos my main camera decided it was too cold for the batteries to work! Thanks Dave

Ok, thanks for that guys! I'll try the agricultural strength roundup first before I return to the land of my father and start digging in every hill side.

Am currently clearing a long neglected garden that some bright spark released some russian vine in. Needless to say it's spread itself over quite an area in the past 15 years. I put the brushcutter over it to get it down to ground level, but obviously it's coming back with a vengance. Short of getting hold of some agent orange, can anybody suggest an effective way to eradicate the ..... stuff? (We're planning to live there afterwards, so preferably nothing radioactive!!!) Cheers

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Oops forgot to say it's mid wilts, about 7 miles from Devizes.

Muttley My cousin has a wellingtonia down on his farm he had cut down at least 5 years ago. I milled a bit of the smaller stuff with the Peterson I had at the time. I know there's about the bottom 20 feet approx 4-5 feet top diameter (about 6 at the butt end) still sitting where it fell if it's of interest. Had a chainsaw sculptor potentially interested but don't think he got the commission so it fell through. Think my cousin would accept any sensible offers, but you'd have to arrange collection.

Thanks for all the pointers guys. I've heard of the others you mentioned but to be honest don't really know much about them. Seem to remember the izettle one you can't access the funds for several days, (might be misremembering though – my age I'm told!) which I guess isn't the end of the world, but always make me a bit twitchy. After all it's my money and I'd like to be able to transfer it when I like. Bit like the old cheques clearing period which in this day and age seems a right royal con.

Do you have hands on experience of the paypal reader? Would be interested to hear from someone who has. Looks fairly straight forward to use but wondered what their down sides are?

Devon TWIG To answer your question I mostly make traditional fencing – gate hurdles, deer fencing, gates and garden structures and a range of baskets, some based on the old devon splint potato baskets. At the wood shows I tend to sell burrs as well. Check out my website if you've got 5 mins. Green Man Woodcrafts

I'm booked in to a few larger shows this year and the perennial issue of whether to sort out a way of taking card payments has cropped up yet again. In the past it's not turned out to be worth the expense compared to the lost revenue, but as I'll be doing a few events in London I think the time may have come to bite the bullet. It won't be used day in day out over the whole year so I don't want to be paying a rental charge for all the down time. I've looked in to card-save (wanted about £450 for reader and to set up the account!) and have just been browsing the old interweb looking at the PaypalHere (£99 for reader) option. Anyone had any experience of either of these? Does anybody out there take card payments when they sell their crafts and if so what devices/services do they use?

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Hi Mark. To be honest not really sure. But I fancy making something up using a hollow log but it very much depends on the size and character of the individual log. (Incidentally what sort of diameter is it?) I like to have a few interesting bits of wood laying around the yard for when I get inspired. Then I tend to make up one-off pieces of furniture. I'm based near Devizes mid-wilts so not a million miles away. Cheers Dave

Mark, what've you done with the bottom 15ft hollow bit? would be interested to see some pictures if it's still in a sizeable length/lengths. Where abouts are you?

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With these longhorn darlings they only tend to attack stuff with bark left on and then they only seem to go into the sap wood. Ordinarily that's not too much of an issue as the sap wood normally gets removed when I'm making finished products. Problem is I sell a fair bit of burr and I often leave bark on them cos it's a pain in the proverbial to remove it all. Hours with a screw driver levering it off is not my idea of heaven or time well spent! (Anybody got a better way of stripping the bark off I'd be interested to hear more.)

Thanks for the links Broonie. Not a great fan of chemicals personally, so made interesting reading. tbh my gut feeling is to stay clear and just let nature do what it does and work around it.

No Big Beech, not under tight control. As far as I understand its only Asian and Citrus longhorn beetles that are on the DEFRA lists. From a quick google search there are approx 67 species of longhorns in the UK. These little blighters are only about 12mm long (not including antennae) not the big foreign imports. They don't seem to go for standing timber but usually bore in to cut logs and branches with the bark still on.