Head Ranger Pete

And how do you remove said nasties and where to they go ? ( I suspect the answer is into the air - which shoots a large hole in the green argument , though i'd be happy to be proved wrong) and lastly my principal negative comment is fact based - aspen is significantly (x2-3)more expensive than standard fuel , and in these straightened times I cannot justify multiplying the fuel budget by that much without very good reason Your not giving straight answers to questions like... What is the chemical make up of aspen ? Has there been independent and peer reviewed research into the health issues of these chemicals, and if so where ? How is it manufactured ? What's its total carbon/polutant footprint ? and what is the justification for it being nearly 3x as expensive ? (by which i mean actually why does it cost that much, not what's the justification for buying it) ...doesnt help make a case for spending the money to give it a trial. I'm not being bloody minded either these are all questions that I will have to answer to justify trippling my fuel budget , as simply repeating unproven/unevidenced assertions from your marketing litterature isnt going to cut it

Yeah but i dont want 60+ litres of fuel kicking about, where we currently have less than 20 stored as it will create problems with insurance and the 'elf and safety people on the latter point he said he's pretty certain it doesnt contain any solvents -that may well be true, but as petrol itself is a solvent it doesnt really answer the question I dont have any beef with the idea of aspen and if other people want to use it then thats their perogative, my issue is with the 'wonder fuel of the future' type marketting when there are still significant questions unanswered. Also we have kit that needs to run on 100:1 , 40:1 and 25:1 as well as the saws that run on 50:1 so it doesnt make any sense to pay a premium for premixed fuel which won't be at the right ratio for much of our kit

I have used aspen once in the past - the other team we used to share a workshop with in my last job was on it so we used it intermittently when we borrowed fuel from them. and to be frank I didnt really notice any difference - fuels fuel , and while the exhaust may smell a bit nicer so long as you arent working in an enclosed space you shouldnt be breathing your exhaust gasses to a serious extent anyway. I also have a hard time buying the ' theres no solvents in aspen' line as petrol is itself a solvent - so you are essentially saying aspen isnt petrol , in which case what is it ? - which goes back to my question about what the actual chemical make up of aspen is, and whether anyone independent has looked at the health/environmental ramifications of those chemicals. Also whats the whole carbon/polutant footprint look like when you consider the manufacture and distribution side in toto - I am always wary of these greenwash claims that stuff is greener at end use without mentioning the whole picture. However the bottom line for me is the price and inconvenience of sourcing the fuel - I'm not trippling the fuel budget for no real benefit except for the 'joy' of driving into exeter to get another can, or waiting days for a delivery , rather than just popping to the garage at the top of the hill.

it depends what you want - for a main stream work knife for a bit of whitling you could do worse than a mora from workshop heaven - if you arent surte which one give proprietor matthew a bell http://workshopheaven.com/cgi-bin/cp-app.cgi?usr=51F4078180&rnd=9797866&rrc=N&affl=&cip=&act=&aff=&pg=cat&ref=MORAB&catstr=HOME:Knivesgeneral for an actual carving knife axminster power have a nice range Woodcarving products from Axminster both deliver nationally

I'm afraid i'm another one that doesnt believe the hype for one thing is aspen comes premixed why doesnt the oil break down like it does in normal fuel and secondly what are the chemical components of aspen and has any independent party done any reasearch into their health effects ? I find it hard to believe that its emmissions are fresh air and butterflies. and thirdly what is it in the aspen that warrants such a high price ? Strikes me like a case of the emporers new clothes , and he's naked from where i'm standing (if i was really worried about localised emmisions - which largely i'm not- i'd use a rechargeable or electric saw)

as the OP didnt know what to put in his tank its hard to see how aspen would have helped - he could have just as easily used standard mix at 50-1 and also been fine the issue came from using bar oil instead of petrol - talking of which I once had a minion fill up a strimmer with parafin (well hey its red so it must be mix, right ) rather more suprisingly it started and ran , though the huge clouds of white smoke were a bit of a clue that something wasnt right. Personally I dont buy the ' fall down and worship aspen - fuel of the future' hype , IMO if its going to replace mainstream mix as a most people fuel of choice they need to get the price down , because paying nearly twice as much per litre to avoid the everso difficult task of mixing 100ml of 2 stroke with 5L of petrol doesnt look like a good use of resourses from where i'm standing.

I can highly reccomend Huw and Carolyn Ross , of Rawhaw wood near Corby - its not that close to you, but not a million miles away either - they have top quality goods, and are reasonably priced. I havent got a phone number to hand but i think they are on the Small woods assoc website

I bought one of these for a craic - but its actually really good, just like a romper suit but for adults - result the only downside is you do look a bit of a tit if you decide to pop down to shops without taking it off - DAMHIKT

Our west dorset team (I'm east devon) have a propper cider made by a volunteer team from local apples - its appropriately called 'old volunteer'

big plus one to that - their scythe bar mowers are very good and they are on honda engines which are fine - but the flail deck is a bag of testicles. SCAG mower is where its at imo -(though we've also got a rabid euro - that'll be being sold as soon as i work out why it wont start)

this here is mine - kim the collie as you can see theres no question as to who's boss in our house - she goes everywhere with me including to work (naturally she's head dog in our office) but she's not really an arb dog becauise she's frightened on the noise of the chainsaw - but she's quite happy to sit in the van and watch

I was told this by a stove dealer earlier this year - alledgedly its to do with the tannin content rusting the steel - I tried to point out that its a bit hot and dry in a stove for rust to be an issue , not to mention the stove's being powder coated not bare metal , but he was adamant that burning oak would void the warranty I told him to go forth and multiply - if his stoves not up to burning decent firewood , i'll buy one that is

Just by way of illustration of the problem we had two poplars done earlier in the year - they were easily accesssible, with perfect vehicle access and in excess of 5ft girth, and we still had to pay £700 (2 climbers for 2 days - our staff doing the ground work). I asked the contractor if he wanted some of the wood - free , gratis, for nada , on top of the payment - and he said basically "WTF for ?" ( We've got it drying under tarps round the back of the office - i'm hoping it will season enough to burn in a log burner before it rots) So ergo if you cant even give it away when its felled and logged , no one in their right mind is going to buy it standing

Been racking my brains over what to review , as 99% of our kit is out of production - theres not much point in reviewing an 023 for example, the only arb thing we've got recently was a B&Q felling/splitting axe - but " an utter pile of cack, good for neither of its described purposes" isnt much of a review and i'm not sure i can stretch it to a page of A4.

arent they basically just a landcruiser with bigger than average wheels - I dont see any reason why you couldnt get a landcruiser in the Uk and mod it, but why would you bother when you could just get an similar year model hilux for less wedge?