Steven P

Arn't we all There is a 'Tip Sites' section above where you can put your details. Often local tree surgeons will have arrangements for their wood but anyone outside the area working near you might take a look and give you a shout. Some people get a lot, some not a lot. Then just be nosey, walk about your area, I run for fun and can cover more ground but from being out and about I know where 3 or 4 local tree surgeons have their tips - walking is good since they are often out of sight of the road, and you can often smell the fresh timber as you walk - find one and give them a call, all they can do is say no. Mine says no saws on his site, take what I need, getting a very nice cherry tree just now 1 boot full at a time, which reminds me you are only likely to get timber brought to you if it is better than taking it their home tip (so guys working out if their usual area for example, of if the local ones are passing your front door). A morning walk can also be good, chainsaws going at 8:00 means a big tree coming down somewhere.... all you can do is ask!! (I had one earmarked for me last year till the customers friend rolled up and asked his friend if he could have the wood, customers wood, he kept it for his friend) Finally very unlikely you will get it split and dried for free, you'll have to factor in doing all that yourself. The first load of wood I had tipped came in handy 3m lengths and 2 flat back trucks full, would have been shopping for a saw that weekend if I hadn't got one already.

They colour garden machinery cables red or orange so you can target them so much easier with the mower.

how many brambles by the way? A one off job and you'll keep on top of it afterwards or a lot of jobs all the time with constant use of the brush cutter? The reason I ask is I am cutting a new path through the woods, 20m long or so, all brambles and nettles, a one off job that will get mown a couple of times a year, did it with the hedge trimmer but started with garden sheers (I had the hedge trimmers for other jobs in the woods that day) and will get the mower over it next weekend to finish it off. Anyway the reason I mention this is that the paths I have cut the same way, sheers and a mower, are all tame now with no brush cutter. Might be you don't need to buy new kit if the job is a small one or a one off - suspect it might be when you say that there's a power supply near the brambles. or might be hiring one rather than buying and storing one. Second comment comes down to time, for a small job it might be quicker just to get out and do it with what you have, rather than an hour here or there researching what to get, asking on forums (internets steal time as we all know), an hour to go to the shops and back, an hour fiddling with new toys and showing it off (we all do that too) and then an hour to do the job, half a days work so far and sheers + mower, no extra cost? done in half the time? As it happens, my mower that eats up anything I have thrown at it is nothing special a £99 job from our favourite warehouse DIY store (now they are about £150, that's how old mine is now). A couple of bits of plastic are missing now but it will chimble up most of the sticks on the wood paths, brambles, nettles, weeds, bark, shred the autumn leaves for composting, and when I get time will even cut my lawns too. Tend to leave the grass collector off it in the woods just because of the volume of cutting.. but wear long trousers and tall boots, the mower also does a mean ankle height stone throw!

I wasn't convinced by them, I got a Stihl sharpening set years ago and the instructions were to use the round file and sharpen from the underside of the tooth upwards and inwards, from the chain manufacturer on how to sharpen a chainsaw blade, so that is what I do. The chain sharpeners go from top down, the opposite direction, Not sure these will also lower the rakers to match the teeth so eventually you'd have to go and do them manually. However I can see perhaps that in the middle of a job a quick sharpen with one of these might work and work well, but I think you'd still need to do the chain manually next time. Not to be used though for every sharpen, just for a quick fettle as you are working perhaps?

Plastic grass, all I'll say is take your shoes and socks off and walk on it.. then walk on proper grass, massive difference and much nicer with real grass. There might be a place for it if the outdoor space is the size of a stamp but if it is a family house - like many of the photos - then I have to be convinced it is an improvement

Nearly had me there till you mentioned Bill Gates, but I guess that is so he cam inject microchips into us with every injection?

however compared to some batteries, £25 is cheap enough to buy a few over time, might get to 20 minutes use worth? I reckon the saw itself will be on ebay cheap enough to get extra new batteries and a charger?

That's what I have tended to do really, used boxes from the groceries - but this plan was to do something different than that

Many ways to sharpen a chain, and everyone has a preference based on their set up. Some will have the workshop set up, electric grinders, some a vice in the workshop or one to hammer into a stump. Not seen the spare bar one yet though, that is new to me. My preference - for occasional domestic use - will be in the living room watching QI on Dave when the family are in bed, with the saw on my knee - never going to be the sharpest but it does what I need. My work bench is full of other little projects at the moment, trickier to do it in there, but one day, first I just need to finish this and that to make space. As far as I can tell though clamping the bar in a vice, if you want you can use the saws chain lock, but hold the chain with your other hand and all is good like that

I'd go with Openspaceman, if you are cooling the flue with a forced air system rather than natural ventilation you will have to consider whether this will cool the flue too much, the gasses condense and you'll get creosote in the chimney above what is normal. You might not know if you do until you put in a fan and the sweep tells you it is, get the chimney swept more often (once more each year?). As for blowing air around the flue... we all have stove top fans which is pretty much the same thing, though these start when the stove top is up to temperature. Might be you reconfigure one of these to provide the air supply, it starts when it is warm, might not cool it too much.

I can never manage to get it in the fire without some spillage!! (which is what I was wanting to do). (as an update, my experiments have paused at the moment for sawdust burning, last one was a stack of 3 bean tins for The Boys to play with, lower one has air vents at the base, drop twigs in the top, it burns OK for them but has no use otherwise - too top heavy to put a mug on, too small to heat any real area, but for the boys playing it does OK.))

Its iron or steel, they rust. This rust will be just a light surface rust and nothing to worry about. If you get some stove or grate polish that should cure it - it stinks as it dries with the stove on, and you might want to wear disposable gloves too and a disposable cloth else you polish your fingers of course. Polish it every now and then to keep it looking shiny and nice The polish is available in some local stores (mine was in local "Home store" or something like that), and available online, possibly also at Screwfix but not the nations favourite DIY warehouse apparently according to their website

swap houses? could do with a living room like that when it's finished

Just a point to note that the electric cable behind the fan? is probably rated for 70 deg C, might be getting too hot.

smoothie pen?

Think the conclusion is heading towards "no one knows... yet"

So casually following this thread, 2 mature trees the other evening 15m apart, one covered in ivy with no leaves and the other with no ivy and quite a few leaves. The one with ivy had access to more light in the wood. But which came first? The dying tree or the ivy? Made me think you see, since both trees are a similar age, both with the same growing conditions, you'd expect them both to be as healthy as each other. Since it is a long term issue, you don't get a poorly tree covered in ivy overnight, you'd need some research to work out the cause and effect, which way around is it, and that would take years to do I reckon. One thing this forum might have experience and knowledge of is what happens if you strip the ivy from a tree, does the tree recover or do you just get a more attractive dead tree (in my view). That might give a clue of cause and effect. If a cleared tree recovers then the ivy was the problem

If you like the tree then do as above however I might be tempted to take it out and plant a new one that is growing straight as opposed to replanting it.

Looking forward to this weekends progress report

Going back a step what is your budget? If you flog the 2 petrol saws that should pay for a nice shiny corded electric saw + beer money, and perhaps go some way towards a battery saw. I didn't fancy a corded saw, I'd have to leave the front door open when I get logs on the drive, or trail extension leads through the back garden from the garage - which isn't ideal when The Boys are playing, so went for battery Qualcast which I am surprisingly impressed by (it was half price, inc battery for about £80). If you have the budget and other battery power tools I would go that way with computable batteries. Keep its chain sharp. As for the Titan, that was in the running for an electric saw, decent reports 3 or 4 years ago.

Did you read what I said above, those young Americans mostly died because it was profitable for the American Bankers that they did so. Quite happy to sell fuel to the Germans, and the Allies at the same time and jumped in when they realised that if the Allies lost then the billions in loans taken by them would be forfeit. Americans lack of safety.. different attitudes. In my line of work the British attitude is to remove the people from danger before doing anything, do it remotely the US attitude is to give them a suit of protective equipment... and leave them in the dangerous area to do their tasks

A bit late with this comment, back to the old "American blood spilt for you" argument, however this American Blood was hugely profitable to the US, I forget the sources but I remember reading (last time this came up in a forum) that the US banking system profited billions from the 2 world wars (and this was in about 1950.. billions then). I can't think of a war that the US entered purely for altruistic reasons, because it was the right thing to do, every drop of US blood had a price tag and a bottom line with the proceeds going back to Uncle Sam.

OK so to make this a better job for the OP, I reckon he is getting the idea... if not there is no helping some people.... I guess if you assume what you have cut off won't go through the chipper, strip off all the really small stuff and cut the larger parts to 250, 500, 750mm length sticks - multiples of the width of my stove fire box, you should be able to punt them on the internet to someone if the price is right and there is enough to make the trip worthwhile - a 'warehouse DIY' store will sell a cheap axe and a sharpening stone that will do that job OK if needed (a car boot full could fetch about £15 to £20 if you're lucky and sell it - the cost of the axe). What is left, clear out the way for tree surgeon to have clear access. You can put it in the green waste wheelie bin over a few weeks or a couple of trips to the tip with the waste. (Note that you can't ever make a profit or a dent in the felling costs by homeowner selling firewood from their ex-trees) When you get quotes talk to the guys, and see if there is anything you can do to help and make the job quicker and then cheaper rather than just going ahead and hoping you are doing the right thing. Might be they say "Sure, if you can carry stuff to the chipper, I can do the job with 1 less employee that day", might be they say "To be honest whatever you can do will save about 10 minutes off the whole job, you're better off bringing a steady supply of tea and biscuits". They can see the whole job, from where to park, where to put a chipper and where the trees will be happiest falling and so on and can give better advice than anyone here with photos. So how to make the job better for the OP. what to do to make it more affordable?

Yup, if the OP had said "going to climb a ladder and take the lower branches off, what do you reckon, bow saw or chainsaw" this thread would be going a different direction, probably "Yup, go for it, be safe", but OP went to ask about a chainsaw to climb the tree with and chop off the top bits... which in terms of their safety is a different matter - as we can see OP has managed to do the lower branches safely and all is OK.

So my thoughts and based on my stove. We went multi-fuel, coal is a bit more cost effective for heat output I feel compared to kiln dried hard wood logs (of course, 'free' logs - off cuts beat anything pricewise), and working in the winter we were both out the house all day the coal will burn for longer... house warmer in the evening when we come home. For size, we went 5kw, but this also heats our whole house - if we shut the living room door it gets very warm. Our living room is similar size to yours. Above 5kw you'd need to check air supply into the house... and if the house can support more than that with just air leaking in you need to seal some cracks I reckon, and get an external air supply for the stove. I am not bothered by loosing heat with air losses since the air I lose up the chimney with some heat draws fresh air into the whole house After that our consideration was style and price. I guess you can narrow the search with efficiency but if you are just heating the living room.. not a massive issue I think, your stove will be on low most of the time its running. For dust, as above, not a lot you can do about that, operating to be dust 'free' rather than the stove itself. I reckon getting a separate ash pan door might help and the largest ash pan you can get so you don't need to clean it so often. If you are cleaning the grate of ashes do that when the chimney is hot and drawing air - the dust will go up and not out so much. You can get ash vacuums however I have no experience of them, cannot comment but could be less dust. I did try hoovering a lot of soot (industrial scale coal boiler) and the hoover didn't last very long.. not sure if the ash hoovers are better but probably designed better than a Henry for ash. Fuel... yeah, if you have the cash you will find someone to sell you anything, same with wood. So above might be unable to take new customers but there is no shortage of wood out there. Online you might get a wrapped pallet delivered anywhere in the country. What there might be is a shortage of locally grown, felled, processed and dried oak, but if you are OK to take a softwood then (in my experience) I can take a car boot full every night to cut and dry myself... and still have a stash I can help myself to, or get a supplier who isn't so local, similarly able to get loads and if you aren't too fussy will be OK. Always be friendly to your fuel supplier... those once or twice a year when you forget to order on a Thursday, run out on Sunday and need a delivery on Monday when they are working again..... A bit of an essay but I'd go for the style you live at the price you like, sounds like it is more for aesthetics than heating the whole house so wood burner only is OK, 4 or 5kw will be good for the single room (and allowing heat to spill into the rest of the house too), and don't worry too much about a wood supplier yet.