The avantgardener

Try calling Edd 07825 925383 he is pretty local to Uckfield and reliable/honest.

There is a single book that covers all this, it’s called “Years of experience in Forestry and Arb Industry” it’s not something you can pick up in the Library and read overnight though, listen, watch and ask questions when appropriate for the rest of your life in the Industry, you will be surprised that there are still things to learn 20 years later.

There are LANTRA courses for just about every discipline in Landbased skills, be it in agriculture/forestry or arb. You get the books when you book on a course of training, if you need NPTC accreditation you will need to download the NPTC/City and Guilds assessment schedule for the unit you require also, this is the test that the assessor will ask you about. An assessor can assessor two candidates for CS32 in a day, CS34 the same. If you are confident in your ability and know the schedule just book the assessment, there should be a registration fee of around £150 per unit plus the assessors day rate.

I have used both Husqvarna 572xpg and Stihl 462 but on different jobs, I can’t say that I noticed much difference in speed/power and I was massively impressed with the Stihl, never been inmpressed with a 441, dog of a saw designed by a student if ‘Brutalism’ the 462 walks all over it. I will find out next week as I will have the 30 large Oaks to fell with the Husqvarna, my mate will have his Stihl 462 which he bought because of the Husqvarna wasn’t available, he hasn’t been disappointed. He will also have his Woods ported 372xpw to throw into the mix, should make for an interesting week. I will be felling with the bigger saw and delimbing with a Spud ported 346xp and a 562xpg with 13” and 16” guidebars on. Time and motion studies concluded that the felling was only 10% of the work, 48% is delimbing/shedding/cross cutting, if you speed that side up you are far more productive, I’ve found the best way to do this is to have the smallest saw/bar combo to do the task.

As I stated previously, the CS32 or 301 as it is now called has no upper limit. The training will require you to use a 15” or max18” guidebar, the trees on training will be no more than 760mm. Once these skills have been learned and you have the ticket you use these techniques to fell trees over 760mm with a larger saw/guide bar and maybe assisting the fell with a winch, I personally won’t employ anyone or work with anyone felling very large trees just because they hold C32 though, I would be looking at how much experience of felling very large trees they have.

There is no upper limit on CS32, that’s one of the reasons they removed CS33. The trees can be up to twice the guide bar, usually with a 15-18” bar in training, once you know the techniques, bigger trees just need a bigger saw/guide bar.

Sometimes still get paid by the ‘chain’ in chestnut coppice, 22 yards X 22 yards.

I think they are fine out on site or in the woods for a quick brighten up, but most of the guys I know who use them usually have a pretty crap finish on their chains, most of this is probably down to them being sloppy/ bone idle hence the reason they bought them in the first place. The gullet always seems to end up sloping forward of the cutter and the depth gauges are too low, really sluggish in the cut.

5.2mm is for Stihl 3/8 5.5mm is for Oregon/Husqvarna 3/8 or .404 in all these brands.

I have heard of them fruiting under glass in the West Country

I don’t use Yale, and I have seen broken ones, I have only used Tirfor for the last 20 odd years with no issues.

There are lots of Yale/Ace brand winches that look like a Tirfor but they are not identical, they are cheap versions of a bombproof machine, they will not last anywhere near as long, If you only use them occasionally fine, if not, get a Tirfor.

The 462 is a very good saw, it has put STIHl back in the game, don’t assume the 362 is anywhere near as good to use, it isn’t, the most recent model is the best of the run but a 560/562 walks all over it in every department, get a 562xpg with heated handles.

A few from Bedgebury Pinetum

I think the guys at the iron mongers did the work.

This is my local church yard in Hastings, these trees must have had a TPO, they are certainly in a Conservation area. The Yew was stunning, as wide as tall, stripped to a 40’ pole, the Pine next to it completely bereft of all growth point but left at 40’, the two Sycamores stripped to poles but the Ivy was never severed so now they are Ivy poles, a lovely yellow berries Ilex out of shot, pruned to ground level.

I came across a complete Monkey Winch at a friends yard last week, I reckon he would part with it if he was made a sensible offer.

First of all I would look at the location of the tree in reference to what looks like a boundary hedgerow along side a road, it being an Oak and therefore being there for a considerable time, I would assume there had been stock fence nailed to it at some point, probably would show evidence on the bark, either way, I would cut above standard stock fence height, metal in the tree or not, the person cutting hasn’t a sodding clue.

If there was any argument against why refresher training is necessary, this is it.

Was this guy brown with buck teeth and a wide flat tail?

I thought this was what FISA are supposed to be doing? After all, they are taking large sums of money from the public purse to make forestry safer aren’t they?What have they delivered so far apart from rebranding the already available AFAG guides? We all know that if hand cutters where paid a better rate instead of being screwed by the huge operators that back FISA, injuries and deaths would be reduced, the majority of forestry based injuries are not even chainsaw related.

Yew burns brilliantly but Greenheart is the best I have burned, very long lasting and delivers considerable heat, I reckon I could reduce the size of my logstore by at least a third if I had access to this all the time.

I don’t think Assissted fell was ever in CS32, you just had to winch a hung tree out. if you spent a whole day doing Winch Assisted felling with a Tirfor I think that is pretty poor training, I would want a tractor winch and multiple sheave blocks and different configurations to work out loads and strop/shackle ratings etc, then I might actually cover something that I do infrequently.

When it comes to doing refresher training there are a few things that you need to consider before you book it and then complain that it wasn’t any good. As an experience Forestry hand cutter there is no point me booking some training with an instructor who specialises in Arb who just happens to teach CS31, that isn’t going to work and I would check out the persons credentials and experience before I pay my money. LANTRA vetted their instructors a couple of years back and formed a group of +F trainers who specialise in Forestry, FISA instructors specialise in Forestry, this is who I would be contacting for my relevant refresher training. If I hold all the ground based units already I would be speaking with the training provider and tailoring the refresher to suit my requirements, concentrating on the things I don’t do as regularly, e.g do a morning covering CS32 cuts to show you can cut to a good standard and the afternoon winch assisting and skidding out timber with the tractor using different offset configurations etc If you are cutting on FC land you need a refresher from a LANTRA +F or FISA Instructor anyway. One of the reasons that organisations like FISA have been able to ‘bang the drum’ for so long,as Stubby put it, is down to loads of people bankrolling them with membership fees and signing up to the agreement, all to get another sticker in the truck window, you can’t complain when you then have to comply with their decisions.

Hi Tom, I would get CS30/31 and a reliable saw first, this makes you employable. The theory/botanical stuff can be done by burying your head in books. If you want to work in Arb the next step would be CS38, this would make you a viable grounds man, being able to cut and perform rescue. A couple of one day LANTRA courses such as wood chipper, stump grinder and your looking like someone worth employing. One thing to bear in mind though, all these tickets demonstrate that you are competent to use said equipment, but you are far from the finished article, this is when you start learning the job proper, experience cannot be rushed. Do NOT work for free, you need paying but accept this may initially be less than you want. Good luck