Aunt Maud

Combined 35 years.

Read the Petzl document, it tells you all you need to know about inspecting the Zigzag.

You all might want to read section 3 of the Petzl Zigzag technical notice.

Available here. https://www.petzl.com/US/EN/Professional/Descenders/ZIGZAG#.Vtqkn0u0xlI

'Before each use

Verify that the product has no cracks, deformation, marks, excessive wear, corrosion...'

What other industries have you researched to back up your claim?

I don't believe I wanted it to break spectacularly, I just have a lot on my mind and previously every time I looked at it, it was ok!

I honestly didn't think Petzyl were that fussed about the problem, if they were they would be demanding a recall, not just send it back and get a new 1 in the post.

I still haven't sent it back, it's sitting here on my desk and I wouldn't be surprised if it's still there this time next week.

Ex IRATA with 30 years of climbing experience including a spell in the oil industry in Bergen. 35 years in the construction industry working alongside heavy lifting. Brother runs a specialist piling outfit with plenty of heavy pulling and pushing involved.

Yourself ?

Wow!

If it was me, I'd take the climber at £120, as long as he's not just all bulsht and bravado, and stay on the ground for ever.

My main concern would be that if it deformed or broke any further, any open ends could rag the rope. It seems that Petzl are happy enough that this wont be the case.

They may be happy until one falls apart and someone dies.

In any other industry, a cracked piece of equipment is retired. It's strange that some tree climbers want to wait till it fails in a spectacular fashion before taking it seriously enough to stop using it.

It would be interesting to put a cracked one on a force gauge to see how much pressure/weight would cause it to fail

It has failed already, that's why it has a crack in it.

This is our Birch coppice of 1 hectare which has been planted on an area where peat has been dug over hundreds of years. It makes for exciting felling as further in the area is covered by a raft of floating moss, so conditions have to be right to get in there otherwise swimming is a real possibility.

I get a pocket money grant of £50.00 per year to keep it as a coppice, as it's a very rare form of forest management in Denmark. Most remaining coppices were grubbed up and planted with softwoods after WW2.

I've another couple of acres that I'm just about to plant as mixed coppice with standards with Beech, Birch, Oak and Hazel. The Oak and Beech I've raised from seed and I'll take some Downy Birch from the other coppice once the ground thaws out.

Cut a shaving off the end of one with a Stanley knife, so we can see the end grain properly.

I had a peep at the high mileage CO2 positive firewood at the local builders merchant, they've crates full of the stuff at under £50/ kiln dried neatly stacked cube, seems like a good deal.

You can't judge the fact that the grain has come loose at the end as a way to ID wood. Am I right about it having 12 rings to the inch ?

I don't have that processor, but I'm guessing that the measurements on the yellow scale in pic 2 are 50mm increments, and the diameter of the hole for the stop is 10mm.

So if I'm right it's 10-12 rings to the inch.

I'm going with Hornbeam too.

Swinging, jumping and leaping are best left for the others. Be a Steady Eddy, they generally last longer.

It sounds like you're feeling under pressure to perform to someone else's standard, that's not so good.

You'll be fine as long as you keep feeling that way.

After working as an IRATA climber for years and with well over 20 years of rock and ice climbing, I still feel that way, and that's without having a chainsaw in my hands.

Complacency leads to serious accidents and you only get to die once.

Just get better at swinging your axe.

[ame]

[ame]

[ame]

I agree with Marko. Making a strong point about the increase in the amount of CO2 and other pollutants produced by burning kiln dried firewood or importing it from Eastern Europe is important.

Many people are under the impression that burning wood for fuel is CO2 neutral, which it isn't, when you factor in the production.

I burn 2L of diesel plus chainsaw oil and fuel per cubic meter of wood produced from my coppice and I split it by hand.

Here you go.....it starts at 18:00

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAQLcg8d9Y0[/ame]

I've got a Gilpin 4 1/2lb side axe that's nice to use, but a bit on the heavy side. I've also got a few Gransfors axes, which are nice, but I've got to say that Hultafors are very good value and are made of quality steel that holds an edge well.

Well, we've had a fairly dry and breezy winter with little snow.

The drying has gone quite well despite a wet start and we're now burning Beech that was felled and split at the end of October 2015.

Ok so it's 3/4 finished. Need to put supports in the middle at front and rear.

 

Any suggestions / recommendations for roofing? I've put some OSB on for starters. Can't decide now whether to use the corrugated bitumen sheets or cheap felt covered by feather edge boards. I don't like felt on its own

How about felt with lawn turf laid with the grass side down and Sedum sprinkled on top. You'll need guttering and some random logs or stones to hold it down when it gets windy. It shouldn't weigh too much either.

Oooh! I like a guess the weight/moisture content.

I guess @ 38.375 tonnes if it has still got its bark on it.

I'd plant Beech (unless it's a bog) and Birch together at 1M spacings and selectively thin them out with a view to end up with Beech woodland, which can be spectacular when there's a stream running through it.

You can coppice both, but the Birch shouldn't be too large when you first cut it, something like 4"ø would be a good starting point.

Silver Birch can also get very big, there's one in our local woods that's recently been felled which is about 1M ø

When we lived there, we had 1000mm of rain in April. It rained for 30 days straight.

Last year was a record for Bergen with a whopping 3 meters of rain in a year.

Is a bandana proven as an effective protection against dust?

No, but they look good down at The Y.