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We have some of our own woodland which we thin but as that's run out we buy most in, some delivered and some we arrange collection roadside. We have space for about 1500tons and try to buy a year ahead to season and to cover ourselves if we struggle to find timber. We're increasingly finding we need to accept lower quality stuff (to a point) to make sure we get regular deliveries. At worst 2 years ago we were down to 300 tons which was stressful even if it was nice to have some money in the account for once... We only buy standing on a small scale which we've just started as an experiment, in general we have no chance, and don't want to, of competing with full time harvesters.

It's certainly going to get tougher to source wood, softwood is the immediate problem but hopefully it leads to better management of smaller woodlands, especially with hardwood. On the price front it does surprise me how many people don't advertise prices, I guess it's to avoid competition and allows them to vary prices a bit but I would think it puts a lot of customers off. Maybe it's a 'if you have to ask the price, you can't afford my wood' thing.

We get that here as well, sales pretty much double after Christmas as other suppliers run out then we have to try and keep our regulars happy while not turning down new customers. I don't mind the farmers, tree surgeons etc selling cheap wood though - we all started out somewhere and if I was buying I wouldn't complain so I try and see it from that point of view. In general competition is healthy even if it's irritating

Yes, it's definitely going up. Hardwood has been a pretty consistent increase of £3-5 a year and is now £60-65 delivered plus vat but softwood is rocketing. We just had to pay 45 a ton. We're lucky that we can get reasonable deals because we buy a few hundred tons at a time but it's a struggle recently to find tidy stuff, especially ash. We're doing some harvesting ourselves now on a small scale but it's not that economical compared to buying in when you consider all the costs and it's just to make sure we get enough wood by targeting the smaller sites that don't usually get touched.

It's bought in, there's some smaller stuff in it but it's all been through a harvester so it's nice stuff to process.

Been getting beech in here as well, I'm sure it dulls chains faster than oak...

It's possible to make money on a small scale, especially if you get the wood for free, but I would only do it if you enjoy the work as it's not going to make a lot of profit and as mentioned on that scale you'll be competing with anyone with a bit of woodland and tree surgeons. In terms of cost it would probably be better value to get a contractor in with a processor then sell the wood but if you want to do it yourself it's surprising what you can do with a chainsaw, sawhorse and small hydraulic splitter (all of which are tax deductible if that matters to you). Drying is the biggest issue assuming you don't have a lot of space and will be a lot of extra handling if you don't have a telehandler or similar.

Ah OK, I was taking some earlier and it's surprisingly complicated behind the panels. Also worth mentioning that both the infeed and log stop move clear as the cut finishes.

Tough question because we were the first so we didn't pay much for it. Now we've got it I wouldn't want to lose it and would have it again but that's easier to say when we're going to trade in. I've never set the counter properly (you have to enter the length) but the auto height is very good, especially on a log that gets smaller or bigger. Compared to the 400 you very rarely press the height buttons although they do override it if needed so you can concentrate on watching the infeed or something else. Having said that, it sounds like most people have better things to spend 4k on and I can't argue with that. If you're looking at buying and are in our area you're welcome to take a look /have a go. Yes, it's much better on both the tajfuns. It doesn't stop it completely but on our standard 9inch logs we don't have to do many as long as they're a reasonable diameter. On a side note unlike the 5 plates we bent on the 400 we haven't done one yet on the 480 which more open.

Yes, we bought from Kilworth. It's going well for us, I think it's done 2500 tons now and the only non cutting parts we've changed are a few bar tensioning screws and we just did the belt and the oiler pipe. We've looked at a lot of different manufacturers but we'll be going with tajfun again, it's a very fast machine and will split anything including oak through the 12 way. The auto height on the splitter with the pluw is very good and saves a lot of adjustment to the point where you forget it's there. It's not needed with the 12 way splitter because that fills the chamber. Personally I would have it again but it's a big cost you can save if you're lucky enough to be dealing with consistent sized timber. The 35x it's on matches the power requirement of 45hp but realistically ours has lost some power over the last 50 years so it can struggle to cut and split with the 12 way at the same time.

The share to a page option is only available in the browser version of Facebook not the app that's standard on mobiles I think. If you go to the Facebook website on your phone you can still do it.

Getting in with the stove suppliers is a really good call, I might look into it.;) We get a lot of sales from someone who cleans chimneys and refers his customers to us because he knows it makes his job easier so we both benefit.

Yes, we do a few deliveries around the 40mile mark, obviously we charge a bit more but it's annoying when you're busy and could do 3 local ones. We tend to put prices up in line with purchasing timber, any more and we get undercut during most of the year. We could put them up this time of year but I would rather keep giving people a fair price than make a quick profit at their expense. At the moment anyway We've got a business page but don't spend any money on it (despite Facebooks best efforts to offer me deals) and after about a year it's starting to gain us a few customers. It's a bit of effort to find stuff to post but I enjoy taking photos so it's worth it for us.

I think the obvious options are lower prices or deliver further - neither sound very appealing though. Other than advertising, where Facebook has helped us recently, I think the best way to increase sales is by having stock this time of year so you can pick up customers whose usual suppliers run out. Usually if you can give them good quality and price now they'll still with you and you can build from there.

Came in to 22 messages plus emails and Facebook orders yesterday. It's getting ridiculous now as other suppliers run out so this will be the first week we've turned down orders.

Izuzu tipper with a fitted cover, holds 2.4 cube heaped. Also have a trailer for doing double loads.

Oh sorry, that's to dry it. Not sure for firewood but I would think a lot less than that. We tried selling some at 8p a kW and it wasn't quite making £60 a cube. It's too late to backwork that now

I think around 100 depending how wet when it goes in but it's hard to work out because we also dry chip which is less efficient. I'll try to have a work out some time, I usually only work it annually so that could be way off.

We're just under £10 a cube before rhi if you do realistic costs including buildings and repairs. That's with an evoworld woodchip boiler drying to below 17% moisture. Probably £3-4 is chip and 2 electric.

I think nearly all firewood businesses are started by tree surgeons or farmers because they both have access to free/cheap wood to start out. I don't know any local firewood sellers who purely rely on firewood as income, there's a few farmers who wanted to make use of their woodland machinery in the winter (including us although we've now split the business) and a lot of tree surgeons and gardeners who sell cheap but tend to run out. Back on the original topic, we kiln dry our wood because of lack of space and the weather here but we also season first to try and cut down on drying time and improve the logs.

Is it definitely the right width chain for the bar? It's easy to pick up one that's slightly too narrow so moves about.

From what we've used Stihl chains are just about the best performing but at a price, Oregon and Husqvarna are decent and reliable and rotatech are the best for day to day because they're cheap for similar performance.

About 5 years ago I was felling what looked like a straight ash in a dingle (didn't realise the bigger branches were one side) and it barber chaired 10-15ft up then sat there with the top end balanced on some thorn bushes. It was one of those horrible moments where you don't know which way to move. Only way I could safely get it down in the end was with a winch, I wish I had taken a photo because I doubt (and hope) I'll ever repeat it.

We've completely run out and ironically the cold weather also slows down our drying. I've got a couple of hundred tons cut ready but it's just sitting there damp waiting to dry. I've also noticed prices going up for buying in, especially softwood and it's getting harder and harder to find ash.

About 25-30% if I can get it covered but it's the wet layer trapped by the bark that puts it up.