TheHungrySquirrel

This birch bowl has some amazing grain.

550 for my saw All ppe is required but my meindl boots are my best bit. Axe wise for carving gransfors carving and wildlife and hans karlsson, forest work hultafors forest axe and a fiskars for splitting.

I would sink these into the ground at least 2/3ft with concrete as 2ft of soil to hold back is a lot

These guys are all done and ready to hit my store tonight.

Do you find an 8t makes it faster with a 13" bar? You still running 325 ?

Look into congestion and also emissions zone, congestion is £11 and emissions zone is about £100

Yep the 550xpg has heated handles, a great saw when it's a little colder to keep the blood in your hands.

The 550 is lighter than the 560 and still a capable saw.

The 550 would be my choice, I run one with a 13,15 and 18" bar and it's a great saw, plenty of power and gets to that speed real quick.

Thanks I'll keep you in mind, I'm thinking I may have to travel and work away to earn some money.

I'm on the isle of Sheppey right now but will be moving back to Ashford in the near future, happy to travel anywhere in Kent.

Once I have everything sorted with the mrs and the father in laws death sorted out I'm going to want work Bill and I appreciate your help.

Hopefully I'm a little more than a starter, I have a good knowledge of wood from green woodwork and furniture/framing work.

Also to drive from my house to the Wirral would cost me £50 in fuel each way and over a 5 hour drive.

I'm nearly at that point. Luckily the missus earns a good wage but I hate taking money from her for everything. I'll have a think about travelling that far for work but it's something to consider.

Thanks Jay. I'd love to travel and cut but not sure the missus would approve. If I really can't find anything I'll give you a shout.

This is a recent favourite.

I have been cutting chestnut as that's what was available to me and it's not that great as there's lots of info in your head to remember. Depends how packed the stools are I think to amount per chain. Were going to be moving further into Kent soon but as you say all the softwoods up north, I'd love to get on that and maybe travelling and staying away for a week could work? I have a normal license passed in 04 so not sure what that means I can tow, have owned plenty of large vans and trailers in the past.

All I'm after is somebody that wants a hand cutter 1/2/3/4/5 days a week, I want to be able to turn up early and work like f#%k all day and get the trees down, then get paid a reasonable wage.

It does seem that way, the arb guys want you have experience but won't take you on without it, so how do you get said experience. I'd live to be able to do more tickets but I'm flat broke right now.

I figured it was a little low and with fuel/oil and wear and tear it knocks it down real quick. I'd like to say nearly a chain when it's straight fell on chestnut but that's on a good day, if the money was better it would give you more incentive to work harder and not mind doing the longer days.

That's a nice first gift for him.

So I'm after some advice folks ad your all a bunch smarter than I when it comes to trees. I recently did my 30/31 tickets a few months back and managed to get a saw and all my ppe and relevant bits on a promise of full time work from a wood supplier (for my greenwoodwork) which I thought would be great. Spent a few months cutting chestnut with them but only earning £70 a day cutting, running my own saw and fuel and £50 working in the yard using my greenwood skills and tools. Now my trouble is after expenses and travel that equals around £45 a day when cutting and maybe £30 a day in the yard which doesn't sound fair to me for working 9/12 hour days??? I have no problems with working hard but feel a better wage should be there for me? I'm really keen to work, and work hard and after reading and watching loads of stuff online want to get into all aspects of treework including climbing, it may help that I already climb rocks so have some rope work knowledge. The trouble is most local forest workers don't advertise and the arb guys are looking for people with 38/39 so they are actually helpful to them, so how are you meant to break into the game to get the experience?

Maybe pushing the gouge a little to hard? I use crown and sorby gouges, I have a 1/4 and a 1/2" for bowls, generally sharpen 3-4 times on a dry bowl and maybe twice on a green bowl. Use a white and pink wheel on a high speed grinder and I grind freehand. If your starting out then a jig is probably best

That's a great offer Rob, now I just need to find some money to buy new bars.