spandit

Only foreign wood...

I've just been using a 25 tonne machine that I hired for the week - it struggled on some really knotty pine but got through it in the end. For £84 I can just hand it back and let some other b*gger worry about looking after it for the other 51 weeks of the year. Once I've hopefully built up a good stock of wood again, I can just hire it in and process it all (especially now I've worked out how to modify the controls to make it far easier to use - still 2 handed but basically slipping long bars over both handles). It can split vertically too but a bit over your budget - I think they're about £1800 to buy http://www.mowdirect.co.uk/mtd-lawnflite-ls550-25-ton-log-splitter.html

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Doesn't help that I've given myself tendinitis and can barely move my left hand. I'm about 1/3 through my log pile but hopefully getting some help tomorrow as have some lime & horse chestnut that seem completely resistant to the maul.

Warms you once when you cut it, Again when you load it onto the trailer Once more when you split it Another time when you stack it Fifth time when you bring it indoors Sixth time when you burn it... Quite addictive this log splitting lark, however, seeing an otherwise unsplittable knotty horror succumb to the 25 tonne force from the blade, with water & sap spewing out, is very satisfying. However, I've now run out of space to put the split logs - all my 3 trailers are full, as are all of my wheelbarrows!

Some very kind members on here have, in the last few months, given me some logs in exchange for letting them dispose of chip and brash here. The logs weren't cut to length or split, obviously, but they've been mounting up in addition to some other chunks of lime and horse chestnut we were given. Anyway, hired a log splitter today to start dealing with them. It's an LS550 25 tonne petrol job and although it's really slow, it hasn't faltered on even the gnarliest stuff. The lovely straight grained sycamore barely needs to touch the blade before it splits but the apple has put up more resistance. Beginning to think, however, that although I now have a reasonable pile of split logs, the hire (and petrol) cost, combined with the considerable effort of manhandling everything, means that I probably would have been better off buying seasoned logs in the first place! You must be strong chaps, I could barely lift some of the pieces and they've been drying for quite a while

I used the pump up spray but put it on a camping stove to get it really hot & thin (highly flammable too!). It doesn't dry completely hard but will creep into places a brush won't reach. As said, disposable overall & eye protection

Anyone got any going spare in Sussex?

Thought that was the case. Will be splitting them to provide a flat surface for the children to paint on, then we'll lacquer/varnish them and stick in the ground to mark which trees they planted. Not expecting them to last for years and years but a few months should be OK

I'm looking to make some tree/plant markers from willow sticks. I don't want them to sprout but will peeling the bark off be sufficient? I'll try to dry them out a bit first too but in case we need more quickly (it's for a forest school) I might have to use green

Don't often see hawthorn that big, though. I've hauled some Scots pine up there - might have to replace it every year

My wife is starting a forest school and she'd like some stumps for children to sit on - what wood would be best (i.e. rot resistant etc.)? If you have any gnarly bits that are no good for firewood, we'd gladly take them off your hands

I'd love those but too far away for me. Sycamore splits really easily - have you tried just whacking them with a maul?

You can get free willow & poplar from me...

Got me down to a tee

Ah, wasn't actually asking you, I was enquiring about the OP (tonyOK)

Whereabouts in the country are you? I'd take the logs & brash

If you want a woodland then plant a damn woodland! It's what I've done and if I need to sell the land as a paddock again then I'm sure I could find someone on here with a chsinsaw. I did mine through the Woodland Trust MOREwoods scheme. I'd suggest that planting a proportion to begin with would be best otherwise you might end up with no space to plant in the future when you learn about new species

PM sent but no reply. Is this still available?

It's certainly quicker than using a bill hook!

No problem with keeping things wet at the moment! Let's hope it does make it. Can always buy another one, I suppose, but not really the point

Was hurrying in with my new DR Brush mower because it started raining. Saw a small patch of grass that I'd missed before and since it was on the way back to shelter, thought I'd just chop it down. Unfortunately, being in top gear, the mower didn't stop in time and I "power coppiced" my only cobnut tree: Do you think it might survive as a coppice stool? Wrong time of year to do it, I know, and it wasn't big to begin with (but had produced a small crop of nuts this year)

I passed my test in 1997, just after they changed the rules. My wife, who passed a few months before, can drive lorries, tractors, the space shuttle etc. but I'm limited to one of those tiny Erde trailers (assuming my Hilux could cope with the massive weight ) Anyway, I know I need to do the trailer test, and now have the vehicle in which to practice in (I presume I can just add some L plates and have my wife with me). Are reversing cameras allowed and what about low ratio? The trailer we have is a flat bed so I'll either have to fit a superstructure on it or borrow a larger one. Would a horsebox qualify? I did have some info somewhere about what the manoeuvring section entailed but appear to have lost it

Like any wood it will burn when dry. Grows very quickly too & as mentioned, you don't have to be careful when coppicing it. Personally I like burning it, makes good charcoal too

Spent a couple of hours playing this afternoon (and it's effing hard work!) Before: After: At least you can see the trees in spirals (they haven't done very well this year, probably because of the bracken). Hauling the mower in between them is back breaking but on the way back to the house I cut a path through some rushes and willow saplings. It didn't falter once but does have a tendency to push stuff over rather than just cut it. When it does cut, it takes out whole clumps of rushes and when I checked the blade afterwards, there wasn't a ding in it, unlike my ride on mower which looks like it's been hand beaten out of bronze...