Bucheron

Hi Chaps, One of my crop of Husqi 560XP's blew up last week. The lower end bearing explosion thing.... In about a week I retire!! (This will be the THIRD time in my career I have said I will have cut my last tree!) But as I will be cutting firewood for myself in fairly good quantities I might need another saw. 555 vs 5650XP - semi-pro versus pro, right? The 560xp I have always enjoyed for what I do, professionally. It converted me quickly away from Stihl.. All a question of performance. But in all honesty, I have not been that impressed by the longevity for the price. A number of catastrophic failures have come my way. I understand that pretty much everything between 555 and 560xp is swapable. The performance is slightly less for the 555 but my mechanic (whose opinion I have come to respect over the years) says he can't tell the difference. Also heard that because of plastic shims in 560xp or some such around the bottom end somewhere, there is less room for lubricant to circulate than in the 555. This might mean less bearing issues...? Anyone out there care to inform me as to the merits of the two models?

Chaps. Title says it all... Easy Kent - Ashford/Faversham/Canterbury. In-cycle, (@max 15 years) chestnut coppice required for cutting NOW!. (Yes, yes, I know, I know......) Approx 2 acres required. Can be contacted here or PM mobile and I'll call. This is something of a crisis, so I shall let you all work out how much we might pay!!!! Any assistance appreciated. BUCHERON

Webby, I'm in Kent and have recently made a few spars - the first I've done for @ 20 years! - having like you some hazel that would otherwise get burnt. I've done plenty in the past in W.Sussex. The problem you might have is the Polish competition. They provide an excellent service with a quality product at a price that I'd not be working for; £110/thousand or £120/thousand pre-twisted. The thatchers I know just phone up and next day a van turns up with exactly what they want. That said, I have built a good working relationship with a thatcher who will buy my spars. That is just a case of good business networking. But I can do things that are out of the ordinary like making some trial spars in chestnut, which the Poles don't. Intro course? No, not necessary if you have some experience of woodland work and can "talk the right language". The thatchers will just point you in the right direction if you make a few samples. Obviously, you need to be quick and efficient. You need a small, light spar hook, not a meaty billhook if you want to spare your wrists.... Market? See above. Part-time? Definitely. Indeed, I'm not sure there's another way! (To my mind it gets WAY too repetitive.) I used it as bad weather work in the shed where I had previously stacked the gads ready. Seasoning not specifically needed and I've never had issues moving spars from summer cut wood. Also, there are liggers that can be supplied. Hope that is helpful. BUCHERON

Folks, Based in East Kent - Canterbury - and looking for a tractor-powered peeler for sale, preferably a Cundy. Anyone know of one needing a new home within reasonable distance of East Kent? (Posted on behalf of a colleague who knows not how to use the internet!) Cheers, Bucheron

Roger... Is that price to include sorting out the crown (for firewood)? I ask as the big tree felling I did in France there was a separate bloke to break down the crowns and we had a price just for felling and severing at first fork. (About 9€/m3 for that - not as good as here!!)

Not thinning, mature trees. Getting it out - nothing to do with me! So just the felling, snedding etc. You saying £18-22/m3...?

Evening, Anyone out there able to give me the going price per cubic metre for felling of large oak? East kent. Thanks, B

Chaps, Run Husky 560xp's using 0.058 18" bar and full chisel chains (20LPX). I see there are other chains available, so in the interests of increased efficiency wondering about the following for use on in-cycle to large chestnut coppice: 1/. Narrow kerf chain on 0.050 grooved bars - the logic is narrower cut therefore more of the saw's power goes into the wood. However these chains seem only to exist in semi-round version (95VPX) so this might negate the benefits over the full chisel. 2/. There is a normal kerf 20LPX chain available to run on the narrower 0.050 bar. What if anything would this change? 3/. 3/8 conversion. Bigger chain so logic is directly opposite to the above - it should be less efficient right? But a colleague knows someone who he thought did this and found it was excellent. Note: I'm not spending my days hauling through round timber, which might make these more interesting. 4/. Multicut chain, with the heavy duty plating which might be more resistant to the slight burring nicks on the corners that the full chisels are prone too. Anyone able to comment from experience? With the type of work I'm doing I'm looking for short blast, quick acceleration type speed gains - if there are any to be had! Regards, Bucheron

Matty, You had any experience of rebuilding the top end of a 560?

I had a Stihl MS361 did 10 years excellent service. Can't speak for the 254 - never had one. Also had 066's. But the fact of the matter is that the 560xp is so hugely better in all departments apart from this lifespan thing. I cut more, earn more, less effort, safer etc BUT looks like I'll be spending a lot more on capital outlay. Is this really acceptable for what is a PROFESSIONAL saw? In comparison with the past machines, absolutely not. Things go wrong, bits fail and break, which is only ever both inevitable and irritating. So we used to fix them. Now we chuck 'em away........

This 560xp is a superb machine when it is doing what it says on the tin. It is vastly superior to the various Stihls I've owned. (Notwithstanding it depends what work you are doing etc.) But this lifespan is not good. Seems that my 700 hours is pretty good in comparison to others. But if I was paying @£700 for a saw doing 300 hours I'd be less than happy; I'm not particularly impressed with 700. It had very few issues until it was shagged in fairness (new return spring, various AV's....) A throw away product for a few months? This is not really acceptable is it...? So what, gentlemen, is the solution? Stihl again? Clearly most of us who work have got little choice but to pay the money every 6 months or so. Spend more time on maintenance? Personally, I'll be taking the extra time. My prices will be going up too. They have to with this longevity. Come on Husqy, do better than this!

I JUST DID NOT KNOW! Nobody told me, (!) not in the book - cheeky bastard in the shop said I should have read the manual - and I did not notice the little lug on the side. First Husqy after 25 years chez Stihl so thought it was normal. Realised how normal it wasn't when they told me and I opened it up!!!

Quite. (Like a lot of things.) Depends on the price. Anyone any idea of barrel/piston + gasget...? I have come on here to purge myself of a sin I find totally abhorrent; I did not realise my own stupidity was capable of going this far. Viz, that the air filter splits in half to enable cleaning inside! Thought it was a bit difficult to get clean and in defence is not mentioned in the manual.... Regularly went in the washing machine in a sock though. But then folk are saying that 700 hours total is not bad for a full time 560 anyway so maybe I did better than I thought.................. Others beware!!

Bit of thread drift - hope you all can cope..! 560xp with 700 hours and big compression drop, so that it would not start or be difficult. Would it in all honesty be worth replacing top end to keep as a second saw? Shop is saying not (they could have taken my money!) as tends to blow out the bottom at that many hours. Any thoughts?

Gentlemen, Bit of a long shot: Does anyone know of any hazel coppice - preferably in cycle of course - in the east Kent area? I'm as far east as it is possible to go and do not wish to travel further than say Ashford or Maidstone. Anything of interest considered..... B

"As ever, don't take my word as gospel please but get serious up to date advice from a 'French' accountant who speaks English and is used to dealing with the MSA." Please don't take the following as IN ANY WAY patronising - it is not meant to be. But, I would really like to stress again the value of crashing through the pain barrier linguistically and not finding accountants who speak English. It is of immeasurable value to integrate to the max and that means lingo, attitudes and culture. If you can't get by in Fr with an accountant (again please accept any apologies if denigrating your French..) then you would sink without trace in the forestry world that I knew. And if getting work is the point of this thread and the life style change of moving out, then you'd be limiting yourself. A lot of the accountant thing is "just "vocab but it is also getting to understand the system from the inside. Same for the woods. Identical. Except that the guys you are dealing with are on the whole not as "educated" in the formal sense as the average accountant and have often ghastly regional accents to deal with, so the problem is worse. I never bothered with an accountant - just more expense - as I found MSA as well as the tax inspectors and other players in the game extremely helpful. But I adopted a rather aggressively pro French attitiude in all areas - linguistically, culturally etc. - right from the start. Painful at times but of immense benefit in terms of business and general life. Nowadays I'd rather speak French than Eng - fabulous language. Respectfully offered for those who might be considering a move. You've GOT to learn the language. Just my opinion but I can justify it with the results. Amicalement, B PS: I would not have looked to sub contract or recommend folk for work if I could not have satisfied myself as to their level of French. The chances of a mal entendu for big contracts with complicated specialised vocab would have been just too high.

Evenin' Possibly talking at slightly cross purposes here Ty. I meant to imply that the work one may do in France as a self-employed bod UK registered, WAS for specific contracts, or a one-off. Not merely looking for work. My reference for the Inspecteur was about a year old so reasonably up to date. The whole business of residency and domicile is not necessarily as straight forward as you imply either. There are a number of factors like where your center of wealth is, property owned etc. And the 2 tax authorities need to agree as the central tenate of the double tax treaty is that you don't pay twice but you DO need to declare twice if there is any doubt. And of course the UK and French definitions of terms are not the same. Two years on the trot I had self-employed income derived from France and UK, as well as employed income from both countries. One year I paid UK tax the next French. And the tax years are not the same! However, I am in total agreement that ANY French registered business must have a SIRET number but as long as you have done it all by the book there is NO impediment to contracts (which all my jobs were max about 2 months) in France being completed by Uk businesses. But you must get it right, follow the rules and be transparent. If you tell everyone comme il faut then you can do it. (At least I've got that in writing from the Insp de Trav!! Incidentally, although I was resident physically for more than the 180 days taking any tax year (I was permanent..) INITIALLY the Fr authorities confirmed that I remained domiciled in the UK as I had not bought property. It was complicated I can tell you...... B PS: This is not meant to imply that a permanent state of affairs working in Fr as a UK self-employed person should, would or could continue. Mine lasted about 30 months before I registered with MSA and Co and got a SIRET number. The bigger organisations were much more comfortable using workers with the appropriate French registration, as they get into big trouble to if they are found using illegal workers. So it is ultimately good for business if you register!

Salut... Good to know that folk found my post of benefit and/or interesting. I tend to keep myself to myself and hesitiated before posting. Anyhow, to respond..... Cotissant de solidarité: May well have been an additional payment - I forget. However, no limit on earnings for me. This may well be the usual thing in France about it depending on who you are talking and working with. The bureaucracy is a nightmare and the French don't really get it, so it is quite possible that one MSA rep - or region - has a different take on it to another. Another reason why you really need to build these relationships, because you are likely to know personally the bloke who does you tax, your bank manager (mine once phoned me at home at 8pm to sort out an error I'd inadvertantly made) your insurance chap, your dentist is also the local mayor (VERY important chap!) etc. etc. These people can have real power over you if you get on the wrong side. I stress again that once your in, they love you for life. My MSA rep was excellent. My dossier had to go before a tribunal to be approved before I could legally work and initial feedback was that it was likely to take a long time and not be approved because of uncertainty about my experience. (You need to prove a certain amount of this before going self-employed and if you are foreign that can be tricky.) I had a large contract waiting to start and was not impressed! Knowing how to play it, I said I was going to do it anyway, got a Lettre d'Attestation from a state forester confirming my credentials and various other stuff. Got approved immediately...... (Note: I remained initially tax resident in UK and for the first few years worked via my UK status, declaring tax in UK but completing a complimentary Fr declaration too. See below.) There are other ways to work which might suit people looking to put a toe in the water. For example Cheques Emploies. (Don't have experience.) Also, it is perfectly legal if you are not tax resident in France to work under - say - your UK regime. This I checked with the Inspecteur de travail. You need to inform them of your intended contract, plus have documentary proof of your UK tax status and inform the Mairie of the commune where you will be staying. They then pass the details on to relevant authorities. (I'd tell my MSA rep too to avoid any stupidity, if as has been muted I go back for the odd job.) But a word of caution: Do not be tempted to work "on the black" (we've all done it and is a national sport over there....) unless you know exactly what you are doing. You can and most likely will get a control, especially in the Forets Domaniales. The inspectors know the game, drive round until they hear a saw and demand to see all you papers that you must have with you (in the vehicle). You don't mess with these guys who are not rigolo. OK, so if in the middle of nowhere doing a bit of firewood you can get away with it. The deal for personal cutting of firewood is usually 2/3's for the bucheron and 1/3 for the owner of the land. But if you've laid waste 3ha for a merchant it can be hard to use the excuse of cutting for personal consumption if your papers are not in order! One thing not mentioned so far is the "Complimentaire" - a supplementary health insurance that is essential if you are a permanent resident. The state covers the basics but the Complimentaire is a standard part of the landscape, especially if you do risky work, which ours is. Loads of companies do it so shop around. My wife, who was an Estate Agent for a Fr agency, ended up somehow with 2 NI numbers. It got messed up when we registerd for the Comp. They never deducted twice but I was paranoid that they'd see it as attempted fraud so kept a paper trail clearly delineated. We never got it sorted out - took 4 years. At one stage I was informed - without a ghost of a smile - that it was because my wife had died several months previously. She was sitting alongside me at the time..... Another case our rep told us about a man and wife in the office discussing their policy, which also covered the 2 kids. The agent then asked about the 3rd child that was on the account. This was news to them but the missus took it badly and assumed Mr had a love child elsewhere he was looking after! She could not be persuaded it was a fictitious, computer generated error, threw a tantrum and stormed out. Apparently their marriage has never been the same.... More too follow on the actual work next..... Amicalement, B

Evenin' Thought I'd contribute. Lived and worked in SW France for 10 years plus, down in the Tarn (81 - north of Toulouse.) Did some big felling contracts of oaks and worked for the biggest sawmill in France on a number of occasions. Also, the related firewood and forest management type contracts. No softwood and no climbing. Pretty much all forest based, apart from some poplar. Agree with most of what has been said so far. I was micro with MSA as it was before AE came out. Before I forget, with MSA you can opt to be a "cotissant de solidarité" which means you can opt out of paying "retraite" (pension) contributions. There is absolutely no point paying these if you will only be in the system for a few years - or less than 40 - as you will get centimes only back! Basically, I just carried on making the same private pension arrangements as I'd been used to doing self-employed in UK. One thing I want to say and stress (from my experience) is you MUST MUST MUST make every effort to get as fluent as possible in French. You will miss shed loads of the richness of French life if you don't. All my friends were French and boy, do they make loyal, committed and solid friends once they class you as such. I did a lot of interfacing with the Office National des Forets (Fr Forestry Commission) and there is shed loads of vocab you need to know. The Foresters are all Civil Servants and you need to know how to relate to them and the other players in the game according to the strict (un-British) hieracy. So, my tips as I lived it: Refuse to speak English to the French and no, they don't all speak any language other than their own. Get Fr telly! Helps a lot Use the phone at every occasion - it can be difficult and must be beaten. Learn plenty of swear words! Integrate - and DO NOT live in the isolated world of an ex-pat community. Start from a point that the French are light years different in their atttiudes from the Brits, therefore study habits, cultures, traditions and above all respect them. They are a proud lot..... Strive to be more French than the French - they'll love that - and eccentricity is appreciated rather than frowned upon like PC UK. The work. Mostly as I said, mine was big forest stuff. The management is fantastic which comes from an over-blown civil service of course. It was VERY well paid by the cube metre for felling if you are good and quick. It was however shockingly hard work. The blocks can be @ 30ha of ups, downs, young trees, undergrowth to wade through... Should have bought a quad to aid access. The heat was what really did me - easily 35+C in the shade in high summer. Just too much..... Lots of Moroccans around doing the work as they tollerate better the conditions. Fewer and fewer French and increasingly noticed a drop in standards and skills as the Economic Crisis bit. You can get taken on by mills and/or firewwood merchants but substantially lesser paid, although with the benefits of being employed. Work got tight when economics did; firms were buying the big blocks at the auctions but felling bits and pieces at a time or leaving them standing. The Fr attitude in difficult times is to keep hands firmly in the pockets or - bizarrely and like much there, contradictory - spend their way out of trouble! More to follow if anyone interested. My heart still there - vive la retraite for that Gloriuos Return! Bucheron

Negative. Not given the price paid for said goods from a Stihl dealer. (These are brand new...) If folk know how to get Stihl parts cheaper than dealer prices it'd help to know. I may of course have been ripped off but had little choice at the time. If it isn't clear from my messages then I'll re-state: I'm looking to get some money back for parts for which I no longer have a use and for which I know the price paid. I'm therefore open to offers of course. If you're not interested - fine. If you are make an offer. I'm a sensible realistic guy and will do business with like minded folk. Bucheron

£200 + p&p??

OK makes some sense now but I'm a private individual looking to sell on stuff I legally bought and own (!!) second-hand, although they have never done more than a few revs - literally. Not too clued up on UK suppliers or law having just returned to UK after working in SW France for 10 years. Not illegal what I'm asking I suppose?? Still just asking - "anyone interested??"

Johny, See your in Yorkshire. P&P - don't know, can't be much for piston/barrel/clutch depends how much you might want of carcase I suppose. Ring for a chat... Bucheron

Guys, Haven't a clue what you are talking about, with references to 3rd June!! Just wondering - respectfully - if anybody interested and looking to claw back a bit of dosh as had a change of plan. Enlighten me someone?? !