Peat

These photos can't do sumac wood justice. Such amazing iridescent greenish colour. Hope I come across some again soon These are some of my spoons in sumac, still doesn't do the wood justice [edited because the photo was massive] Link to pictures Ditchfield Crafts: Sumac spoons

Lovely wood that. I've found that even in field maple that looks really burr-y on the outside, the burrs don't penetrate very deep into the timber.

Great thread. Might be worth double checking the ID on the Leylandii. Depending on your grandfather's motivation for planting, they may be a more useful species. Lawson Cypress looks similar but is a great, durable timber. If they of a reasonable size, could be worth getting in someone with a mill to turn it into building wood. Good for wainy edged boards etc. Saying that, milled Leylandii could also be useful.

Depends a lot on the growth rate I reckon. Had one milled up, and picked up some of the 2x1 battens once they were dry and they snapped under their own weight! Really brittle. But the growth rings were mostly 7mm-10mm wide.

Wow! Thats a pain, and totally bonkers. I'm lucky enough not to have had to engage with building regs yet on anything i've built. Not looking forward to it when the day comes.

I've just bought a used Jotul 507 and its amazing! Designed as a multifuel stove with coal in mind, it still burns wood wonderfully. Very soon after lighting it produces no smoke at all, even when shut down pretty far. Think its mainly due to the secondary are inlet at the top to help reignite the gases. I've now realised what a big difference a quality stove makes.

Field maple?

I've just been told by the local FC officer that it is fine for me to fell the 5cube before the licence comes through. Thats good enough for me!

Oh lordy! Thats a beaut codlasher.

I am in the process of applying for a felling licence for this winter (bit late I know). I was wondering if the 5 cubic metre per quarter rule still applies on top of what the licence allows you to fell. What I mean is can I start felling now, up to 5 cube while i'm waiting for the licence to come through? Cheers

Without volunteer opportunities like this its very difficult for young people to get a start in any sort of rural industry. I was able to get an apprenticeship in woodland management because I had gained experience through volunteering and doing unpaid work off my own back. Having done volunteer work also shows that you are dedicated. Now maybe its not the ideal situation and it would have been great if I could have just walked into a paid job but it just doesn't work like that anymore. Almost all employers want experienced staff. So if you can't get a job to gain that experience, where do you start. Most of my friends have gone down this route to get them the job they are in now. And this isn't just outdoor work but stuff in cities too where they have to pay rent and do an unpaid internship. Now thats really not a great situation, but its the nature of trying to find meaningful work these days. So to accuse these people of being tax dodgers seems a little unfair. You need to be able to get a job before you can pay tax.

Interesting. I was led to believe that importing timber into a woodland would classify it as light industrial and would need change of use. Most kinds of on site conversion would need this designation. So you could buy 6 acres of woodland, put up a huge barn and use it for a yard for bringing in timber from all over without needing any change of use? Seems unlikely, but would be happy to be proved wrong.

Thanks guys. Is there a certain kind of loctite thats good for it or can it just be any old superglue?

What do you mean by using the top of the bar? I've never really got on with this technique for small stuff. Lots of getting wacked in the shins by flying pieces of branch wood. And I find that the stuff you've cut gets in the way of accessing the stack. I do still do it like this though... Any tips?

The clutch nut on my stihl 051 keeps coming loose when I'm milling. I tighten it regularly but it has actually worn a hole right through the aluminium clutch cover! Although there was already wear here when I got the saw. There is often steel dust on the thread so its clearly doing damage here too. Should I replace the clutch, the nut or use loctite or something? Cheers Peat

How do the ash pollards protect the coppice?

I've heard of people ratchet strapping their stacks to minimise cupping. has anyone tried this? Worth doing?

Did a quick search and couldn't find anything like this online. Found the Mercian website but the don't have any info about specific winches. How much did yours set you back? 500kg doesn't seem a lot. Whats the max size of log it can handle? Cheers pete

Has anyone here got experience using both the Gransfors maul and the x27? I own a cheapo machine mart 3kg maul, which does the job when splitting small amounts. I have been using a gransfors maul for the last year and loved it and thought i'd buy one for processing larger amounts of wood. But if the x27 is better, and cheaper, that seems the obvious choice. Anyone used both?

Looks good. Wher'd you get one of them?

Yeah, ive done work on a saw and cant hook alongside horseloggers and operated a tractor winch on a messy sites before. Not fun.

This seems sensible. If I got someone to winch everything up hill, then most of the compartments would be accessible with the 4x4. Anyone ever used a 12v vehicle winch for extracting? Theres some pretty powerful ones out there, but most only have a max reach of <30m. Much cheaper than a portable capstan. Doobin, i'm not paying anything for it and will be living there as a seasonal forestry worker, but will still be doing outside work off-site to boost my income from the woodland management. Don't see it as a particularly profitable venture, but a good opportunity for some hard won experience!

I am about to start managing a number of small woodlands on a farm. The site consists of a steep valley with a railway line cutting across the bottom of it. There is only one decent track which runs across the bottom of one compartment. Access to the rest of it is mostly on what are basically animal tracks. There are a couple of overgrown rides that I will be improving, but most of timber (including the best stuff) is not accessible from these. It is a very mixed broadleaf woodland and initially most of the timber i will be cutting will be poles of under 12". Unfortunatley everything will need to be extracted up hill out of the valley. I have done lots of research into the different options available, and am willing to invest in equipment as long as I am going to make my money back, but as I will be starting with small scale firewood sales, cleft gates, fencing and other craft items, the initial return is going to be small. It may make the most sense to contract in some horse loggers or someone with a compact tractor extract but at the moment there isn't a decent sized area to store a large amount of logs, it would be better if I could extract and process as I go. I have used a tracked barrow in very difficult terrain, which has proved to be a fantastic tool for moving small amounts of wood around, but would probably be too slow to make it commercially viable. Have seen pictures of an iron horse dragging pretty big butts. Could a convensional tracked barrow handle this? Or has the iron horse got more power? I've also used simpson 1ton capstan winch which is great for dragging logs short distances to be forwarded out but wouldn't be any good over longer runs. Logging arches look great, but i doubt I could drag out much weight up those slopes by hand. When i start adding the price of a towing vehicle to devices like this, it starts to look quite expensive. Really i'd like a compact tractor with a skidding winch but i'm worried that it wouldn't be able to cope driving sideways on a slope (but what would?) or moving about within the woodland where there are no tracks Sorry for the rambling post. I'd really appreciate any advice on any of these extraction methods or any other ideas. Peat