Woodworks

Up until this year all ours and customers logs were dried for 2 years like this but it's very labour intensive so this year the sheds are full but we are also drying in IBC containers with lids and it has worked very well.

Here is a pic of our "LOAD" sold as 1.5M3 when stacked but do you think it would be best to sell as 2M3 loose logs.

Yes the sides are only 40 cm (I am very sad and just poped out with a tape measure) high but as you say if heaped probably 2M3

Sorry to question this but is that really 2m3 ? Our 3M X 1.5M Ifor Williams trailer only holds 1.8 M3 and that load looks much smaller but maybe looks are deceiving.

Nice straight ash,sycamore and poplar have split well for me. It's the only use I have found for poplar and it lights very well..

I don,t understand why some merchants do this sort of thing. If you look after your customers well, supply what you say you are supplying they keep coming back and are prepared to pay a bit more because they trust you. Also having to keep finding new customers and there houses must be a pain. On the other hand long my the dodgy dealer continue they keep the rest of us looking good

What Goaty said

Down here (west Devon) we are finding the customers are getting quite wary of the mystical "LOAD" and are appreciating our straight forward description.

We advertise on our website how much wood they are getting when stacked and show a picture of the trailer loaded with dimensions. Most of our customers do stack them after delivery and have appreciated the explanation of how much they are getting. Mind you they don't all understand. We had a lady ask for a 1m3 load (when stacked) when we arrived she said "look at my log store I have bought to take the load" I managed to keep a straight face but this thing was tinny and most of the wood ended up being stored under a large tarpaulin

When we make up some it's the way show in normandylumberjack's vid clip or put a bunji cord around a suitable log and axe.

I don't know what you mean, all my hinges are perfect it's the trees that are at fault In all honesty most of the trees lean so much on this hedge the hinge plays very little part in how they fall.

I can second what Rich said about climbing. I used to clime indoors and out and was not to shabby. I then did a tree climbing course with the aim to become a tree surgeon, the low stuff was OK but when I had to clime a large parkland type tree with very few branches it was a very different ball game the exposure you experience is far worse up a tall tree than hanging by your finger tips half way up a shear face on Tryfan (large mountain in Wales). Sadly I had to quit the course Having said this you may be very be good up a tree the others on my course were fine and had never climbed before and you clearly have drive but as others have said don't jump to soon,try and test the waters first. Good luck in your quest.

Sorry Andy I missed this post. Yes I have all safety kit. A refresher course would be good but can I do one applicable to the work I am doing or would I have to start at the beginning? I would happily go and work for someone for a day or two to learn new skills or pay for someone to come out and give some tips.

3 Left handed use.

2 Right handed use. R hand position and L hand position taken separately because no one to take pic. As you can probably see my hands would be almost crossed when cutting.

Here are some pictures to help explain. 1 Typical large stump This is nearly a meter wide by 1 1/2 m and the hedge is only 1.8m wide so positioning can be difficult. Fortunately on this hedge I do not have cut to low as there is going to be a lot of earthing up.

Often there is no were to stand.

I am cutting on the pull but occasionally the top of the bar catches on the back of the cut and pushes me back. I have tried using wedges to make sure the saw does not get pinched but this only helped a bit. I am going up there today so I will try and gets some pictures as I am finding it hard to explain. I my well be doing something wrong and I would greatly appreciate sorting out my technique. I should add I have only done a basic Lantra training course 18 years back and felling nice straight pines while standing on the ground does not prepare you for working in a Devon hedge.

Hi all I am looking for some guidance. I will try and explain the circumstances for wanting to use the saw left handed. I am in the process of sorting out our Devon hedgerows, most of which have been left far to long. The trees are not that big but the stumps are are a fair old size. What I have been stumping with until recently was a 346XP with a 20" bar yes I know this is bad for the saw so I have recently bought an MS460 with 25" bar. Now the problem I am having is sometimes in gnarly stumps the top of the bar will grip the stump forcing me backwards, this was not a problem before as the 346 did not have much power but the 460 has changed this. Now to cut low to the hedge I would have just held the side handle but now I feel very uncomfortable balanced on a hedge with the saw pushing me back and no easy way of covering the brake. I have tried holding the saw left handed holding the top handle with my right hand. Now this feels safer as I can now hit the brake if the saw pushes back at me. Are there hidden dangers that I have not thought of or is this an OK thing to do? I am sorry for the long winded explanation but I thought you might need some context.

My first saw was Makita 340. Great little saw for what it cost. I sold it on when we got bigger kit but it's still running well in the hands of it's new owner.

Thanks for the concern, that accident sounds nasty but the crate is heavily strapped to the forks carrier and securing pins fitted to fork carrier to secure tines on. Nice pictures WoodEd You have kit I can only dream about. Mind you we would have to open up every gateway on the farm to get that kit in and out.

Sorry never quite organised enough to stack by species but if you can have the sycamore and ash in the middle as they dry easily and oak and beech on the outer faces as they are slower drying. To help get good circulation put a the pallet on the floor. The other thing you should know is that the inner partitions have slats both sides of the uprights to aid air getting into middle of the bays. Your logs may take a bit more time to dry as it sounds like your shed is sheltered from the wind, our place is wet but also windy, don't under estimate how much a good breeze help logs to dry.

The shed is 2.4 meters deep with 7 rows of logs with 75-100mm gaps between the rows to allow air circulation. We live in very wet and humid area and the logs are down to 25%-28% first year but ours dry for 2 years and they are normally down to 20%-25%. The front row is good to go in less than 1 as the sheds face south. We could leave our logs for 10 years and they will not get any drier than this because it is so wet here. This year has been so bad I don't think anything has got much below 25%

Most of the adverts I have seen for kiln dried logs say moisture content of 20%. I think most on here can supply air dried logs down to those levels without the environmental impacts of using fossil fuels to artificially dry them and import them. The only exception I might make is for local wood dried in a solar kiln but I don't think you would have to pay as much for them as you were quoted. So no I do not think it worth spending extra money on kilned dry logs.

Thanks for the advise. I think I will try a mulching blade for the rough stuff.