Billhook

Our Swallows seem to have done particularly well this year in spite of a very late start. The was a gathering of maybe fifty or more around the yard and many were lining up on the electric wire as they would normally do in September. Have not seen a House Martin. IMG_1617.MOV

Number one photo with the clean looking sprocket is his 391 Number two with the worn sprocket is my old 340 Then his oiler working followed by the obvious difference between the saws on the same bit of wood His still produced quite big chips but is struggling with the same bit of sycamore I think his engine is poorly tuned which adds to the problems IMG_1604.MOV IMG_1605.MOV IMG_1606.MOV

Buggery bollocks, the old cock pheasant has rumbled my anti squirrel electric shock system and has invented a “Nut raining system” ! IMG_1593.MOV

The correct Sherlock Holmes quote! “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” - Sherlock Homes”

Well he came back yesterday but had not had time to go to the local saw doctor, so I fished around in my mass of junk in the stores and found an identical set of spikes. Fitted them and attacked the nearest big log which was a twenty inch diameter bit of lime. It cut through it straight and had nice big chips, but was reluctant to go easily and made relatively hard work compared to the 340 on the same log. His bar was too hot for the back of my hand after one cut from cold whereas mine was only just warm on the 340 Anyway that rules out spikes as the main problem and so we are now looking for something that is not immediately obvious There is nothing visibly wrong with the studs and the cover slides on easily. Nothing seems to be wrong with the sprocket though I need more advice on how to check that So could the whole saw body be distorted somehow with no evidence of plastic cracking or other damage? He seems to think that the 340 has always pulled a lot better even though it is 56cc and his is 64 cc. He uses my saw now and it cuts fine so it is not the operator As he says the 340 just wants to go to work whereas his does not. ( a bit like me some days!) So we have ruled out the bars and chains which are identical, bought at the same time, swapped them over and the 340 drives his bar and chain exactly the same as my bar His oiler visibly is working with the bar off and makes a nice line with the bar on against a board. We both use Stihl oil As Holmes would say “ When you have ruled out all possibilities, then the conclusion, however improbable, has to be the answer”

You may well be right Rob. But we carefully checked the oiler both bar off and with chain running against a board showing a line of oil being thrown out in the conventional test. And yes it did heat up quickly. It did not seem to want to go into the log in the same way as the 340 . When it did cut, there were nice big chips coming off, but then it stopped cutting and heated up I suspect because he was trying to force it a bit into the log to make it cut which twisted the saw enough to cause the friction, the twist being caused by the bent teeth. You would have thought that the log damage when it fell on the saw would be more apparent in either damage to the, sprocket, the cover or making the cover difficult to fit if the studs had been tweaked. It is one thing at a time at the moment and he hopefully is coming back to work on Wednesday with a new spike fitted ready for the test. At the moment the spike is the only visible damage but I agree that I could be distracted by my theory and have missed something more obvious.

Think I am becoming a Canada goose whisperer! They certainly communicate very well. Now I see in the first video where the female gosling takes her first short flight and lands in a heap, her three brothers are definitely scolding her Downwind checks “Brakes, undercarriage, mixture rich, harnesses and hatches, fuel sufficient for overshoot” In the second video there is definite praise for a perfect waterski landing. She has done three more water landings and there is no praise any more, done that , once is enough! The young males have not flown yet so all credit to the little girl leading by example! The other amazing bit of communication was when they were all around me feeding out of my hand. The gander will take it from my hand but is still fairly wild. This time he was keeping watch about five yards away and gave a couple of low grunts and as one all six of them rushed down to the water’s edge, not going in the water and all staring at something away from me and towards the hedge and the field beyond about a hundred yards away I looked hard but could see nothing, but they seemed insistent so whether it was a fox or another predator they had seen or maybe heard I do not know. I think that one of the reasons they tolerate my presence is that they feel safer from their enemies. But it was the way they all rushed together as though it had been rehearsed that impressed , perhaps it was just instinct.

Exactly the same as mine, the two 20 inch bars and chains were bought at the same time. His bar was bent by the log and I needed a longer bar so they are identical bar and chains I will wait till he come back to work on Wednesday hopefully with a new spike and will report back

I am beginning to think that iis the case! I did a visual check and they seemed ok but still a possibility As I said before I ruled out the bar and chain which is identical to the one on my 340. We changed them over and the 340 drove the other bar and chain perfectly well, so it is either the studs or the spikes, Since the spikes are slightly (not that obviously) damaged and the studs seem ok, I was asking the question here, can even a small amount of damage to the spikes cause this problem, I forgot to mention that in spite of his oiler system being checked and working, it takes very little time before his bar becomes very hot, which it does not when fitted to the 340.

Nor did I , hence my post here to find out if anyone else has had the same problem

We changed blades, so teeth, blade and sharpness cannot be the difference, nor can the way we hold the saw. Only just discovered the potential problem , so have not visited the saw shop to buy a new spike bar. Will report when fitted. I have a feeling that if the spikes are causing the saw to pull to one side, it will make the saw work harder and make it feel lacking in power. Only one way to find out!

Mind there is no metal in it

A friend and I run two chainsaws, his a Stihl MS391 and mine a Stihl MS340. They are both on the same 20 inch bars with the same chains Mine cuts like a goodun, his is awful. I sharpened both chains and could not figure out what was wrong with his. At 64 cc it the 391 should have out performed the 340 which is only 56cc. It also would not cut straight even when we changed the bars over. Had a better look today and discovered his chainsaw spike bar had been damaged. It was not obvious to casual observation but once pointed out it could easily be seen that a couple of teeth at the bottom were slightly bent and one had a broken tip. The saw had been damaged when a large log fell on it and bent the bar, but a replacement bar seemed to be all that was needed. I never thought these spikes could have so much influence on the performance. Anyone else had the same problem?

Having decided that I needed another set of Greens gang mowers for the yard, I had a look on fleabay and there was a set going for not a lot but it was up in Northumberland. I won the set and when I collected them they had been used to mow a cricket field! So the thought was there, but it soon went away.

Another of father’s favourites was “tis an ill wind that blows nobody any good” When I was young it sounded like nonsense , a double negative but I use it all the time now. Last time in the first Lockdown, when all was quiet and peaceful, no vapour trail overhead, no cars and you could really hear the birds singing. It was quite literally an ill wind that carried the virus, but there was some good ( like not having to gratuitously hug people!)

When I was young, father took me around the farm. " Look at that bird/flower/insect/tree" "I see it Dad, I see it!" " Boy , you see but you do not observe!" I have been known to use that phrase on many occasions!

Got one somewhere? Got one somewhere?!! You mean you have not used it for so long that you have forgotten where you left it! Shame on you, just the thing to be swinging in this lovely heat wave!

Think you are onto something there Stubby. Start a training camp for Olympic athletes. Big pile of logs and 2 week intense course for muscle build up, ideal for javelin, discus, weight lifting. I would choose the X27. You could charge for the training!

Just discovered this morning that it was not so clever to leave the Arbtrolley loaded like this over the weekend as the foam filled tyres went flat and I could not move it by hand to hitch onto the Mule again. Seems to have sorted themselves out after a bumpy trip. Boing! Boing! nearly lost some of the boards in the beginning!

Haha love it. If I remember correctly the backrest on the rear seats was basically just a piece of material attached to a bar that went across the back. That was on the mk1 version, which was truly minimalist, but in 1986 they introduced the FIRE engine version with proper seats and other improvements

Canada gosling sees mum take off and tries to pluck up courage for a first flight. Seems to be encouraged by siblings. Bit if an untidy crash landing and seems to be mocked by siblings Next time does a water landing which went well and seemed to gain applause from family

Climate control, wipers, headlights, stereo Cd and radio, power steering, four wheel drive, diesel, heated and electric adjustable seats and windows but no instruments hence the price of £250 for the MOT failure. Not many mowers have this spec!

We have that in the field next door. Ten acres of birdsfoot trefoil, clover, various grasses, fig buttercup, common sainfoin .Quite a few orchids, pyramid and common spotted and loads of bees and other insects This covers the old Saxon graveyard

I will continue.......... There is a duck pond in the next village which I have been passing for over fifty years with a warning sign for ducks and I have never yet seen a duck there. There is a sign on our main road "Danger Cyclists". Since cyclists are everywhere you may as well have a sign saying, danger lorries or danger cars. Then there is the sign with an elderly couple with walking sticks, "Danger old people" Any driver has to be aware of all potential hazards, there are mothers with prams, children playing, dogs and cats as well as deer and livestock. Why are there not signs for all of these and many more. Hedgehogs? Badgers? Muntjac, Foxes? Their carcasses seem to be the ones littering the verges. Then we have a village near here on the main road which starts with a 40mph limit and a speed camera but it only lasts for a few hundred yards which pass houses with hidden driveways right on the road, a garage and an old peoples home before it changes to 30 mph. What were they thinking? Traffic constantly pulling in and out of the garage. At the other end the same, the 30 limit stops and becomes 40 but as the years went buy there have been a lot of houses built going out of the village but nobody thought to move the signs to match. People do not drive at appropriate speeds I know but these signs are not going to deter that behaviour. Rant nearly over