flatyre
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Everything posted by flatyre
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I follow up on quotes for the above reasons but have stopped knocking down my price as I was going in at rock bottom and they were still looking for a reduction, I did it initially to try and bring in the work, then I ended up doing a job for £1,250, took me a full week and when I added up the materials they came to £1,248. So now they get the quote and if they don't go for it so be it, if I end up working for free it might as well be at home in my own garden rather than some tight arsed customers. my opinion is following up doesn't look desperate, but reducing the quote does.
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when I was a first year apprentice bricklayer I was given the job of stripping the plaster off an old hospital using a big old kango hammer that ran off a tow behind generator/compressor. One day it stopped working and the foreman told me to go find a new fallopian tube....
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no worries, I think the thread has moved away from the context of the original post. Only my opinion but if the original poster needed a specialised knife made from the correct grade of steel and manufactured in a way that optimised the material, then he would buy one, the fact that he is toying with making a knife himself out of whatever steel he has easy access to, implies he just wants to have a go at making a knife that can hold a decent edge. A homemade knife may not have the correct grade of steel but chances of it being pushed to the limits of the material are pretty slim. If you're looking to forge a traditional Samurai sword that can cut someone in half then probably best to use the correct steel, you want to have a go at making a simple bushcraft knife out of what's available then an old file or leaf spring is a good place to start.
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the facts are you can make a perfectly usable knife out of a file, sure there may be better grade steel out there but in the context of the thread a file is perfectly adequate, and I didn't claim to post an exact "how to" on the matter, it was simply a very brief description of the process for the purpose of showing the thread starter that it can be done without spending a fortune. What useful advice did you give the original poster?
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according to World Steel Association - Home there are over 3,500 different grades of steel on the market but you'd need to ask Treequip which one is best for knives.
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much appreciated Greengui, some members on here are more interested in nit picking other peoples posts and showing off their superior knowledge in all things than actually helping out their fellow members. Sad they have nothing better to do, but that's internet trolls for you!
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sorry whats your problem? I wasn't preaching anything like gospel, and I have found my file knife to be a great tool that has performed perfectly for what it is. I think you'll find most knives out there are not made out of the exact right grade of steel, as most things made today aren't made out of the exact right materials, it does what I want it to do and I have the enjoyment of knowing I made it myself. Save the carbon lecture for someone who makes knives for a living!
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cheers guys, if I clean up the top of the piston with some emery could I re-use it? the owner needs it back in action asap.
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apologies for the terminology, not a blacksmith so it may be the other way round but basically the file was heated to make it softer and easier to work, then re hardened, point is files made a great blade as it's the correct type of steel. penty of info on the web for making bushcraft knives.
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A mate asked me to look at a seized echo strimmer for him, its only a year old and wouldn't get a lot of use but still seized. Now I've seen how my mate mixes his 2 stroke and its not exactly accurate, however the plug looks ok, so the mix can't have been that off, but when I pulled the engine apart which wasn't too difficult compared to some seized units I've worked on, the piston and pot were badly torched. Any ideas what went wrong and is there any way of cleaning up the piston? I will give the bore a light rub with some fine emery as there are no scrapes in it or the piston.
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My home made knife was made out of an old file, fired it to anneal the temper to make it easier to work with, then cut and ground it into shape with a good long teng, then had a blacksmith re-temper it in his forge but you can do this in a decent oven, made a handle out of antler which stinks when your cutting it, and fitted the blade using pine sap glue which is basically sap mixed with carbon. Great knife that really holds its edge.
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might give it a miss then. cheers.
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not sure if its a pine or cypress? The customer wants me to cut some rings about 18" high to use as garden chairs, so I was thinking about carving some crude ones, i'll need to use the wood from the monoliths as they have been dead for about five years though still feel very solid like they were only cut yesterday.
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Was at a customers house today and he has three good sized Monterey pine monoliths which need removed and an 80ft tree he wants reduced, would it be worth milling or just ring and process it?
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so that's a no to putting a shed through a chipper. much obliged.
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wouldn't happen round here, the farmer would just rip the trees out for the sake of a few more square feet of ground!
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hope i'm not hijacking the thread but I'm about to take down a tree for a customer and she asked if I could put the remnants of an old shed through the chipper, would the old nails and screws wreck the machine?
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thanks, thought it was a website not a facebook page.
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a mate told me you can buy used gear off treebay but I can't find anything to do with classifieds, I did however find a few google links to arbtalk threads regarding the attitude of some treebay members on its forum, but I can't seem to find that either. Does anyone have a direct link to the treebay classified page?
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My work is mostly small stuff, conifer topping, overgrown shrub removal etc, the kind of work that puts me in direct competition with the handyman, its also the kind of work where the customer gets quotes from every number in the book, so I don't win that many, if I don't hear back its almost always because someone put in a cheaper quote, but I do drive past the job on the off chance of getting the job of fixing the handymans cockup, which has worked and given me a second bite at the apple, its quite degrading, but pride don't put food on the table!
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i'd love to live in a big city, much better parks and shops, more for the kids to do, better restaurants, blah blah, problem is I can't afford it so I don't live in a big city, moral of the story if you can't afford to live in London don't live in London. no sympathy here.
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A mate has asked me to keep an eye out for a piece of yew as he wants to make a longbow, problem is I know nothing about longbows other than they are roughly the height of the user, in this case about six feet. How thick a piece of yew does he need? is the bow made from the heartwood? Green? any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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I have a tanaka tbc multi tool and a tbc one piece strimmer, great for lawn work but never tried a bush cutter head on them, for heavy work I have a couple of older Kawasaki Th43's, great machines and you can still buy a complete powerhead plastics and all for £100 brand new!
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wouldn't even know where to get aspen in northern Ireland, I run everything on BP ultimate and good quality oil, but still like to give the 560 a quick blip every week. that aside I think for the occasional user Echo would be the best option.
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i'm also primarily a landscaper who does tree work now and again, and most of that is conifer topping. I had a little stihl 017, great little saw for small work, currently have a few old husky 36's, cheap as chips and go for ever, but if I do decide to upgrade then i'll be going for an echo cs3900, problem with modern saws is they don't like sitting on the shelf too long, I have a husky 560xp, great saw for bigger work but that can be quite some time between jobs so I have to fire it up every week even when i'm not using it, In general I think echo would be more suitable, less powerful, slightly heavier, but handles prolonged storage much better.
