webby1289

Thanks for the advice folks, I'll be keeping my peepers open for some good hazel this winter

That's great thanks. I'll get on the blower to some local thatchers, there's a fair bit of heritage maintenance & listed buildings in my area so there should be a few working I'd expect. Cheers for the info

Hi folks, I'm fortunate enough to work in lots of well managed mixed woodland here in the Cotswolds. I come across a lot of hazel that would be excellent for making thatching spars, but it most often ends up getting burnt along with the brash from harvesting ops. My plan was to start collecting the best stuff and start having a bash at sparmaking. I've got a few questions if anyone can help. Would an introductory course be worthwhile? Does anyone provide them and if so who's the best to go with? Is the market for quality spars reasonable, as in could I expect to sell them quickly or will they be sitting around for ages? Is it something I could do part time? I already work full time in the woods but sometimes have the odd few days in between jobs that I'd like to fill. And finally do spars need to be seasoned after cutting, before or at all? Cheers Lewis

Bloke I know who's 60 and still felling in the woods. Seems it's much more about how you look after yourself than anything else. That said almost every contracts manager/forester I've met was an older chap with lots of hands on experience so anecdotally I guess one thing would lead to another

Bumping this, looking for work again. I've also now got CPCS 10+ ton digger tickets if this is of use.

Morning all I'm a self employed cutter looking for work. I've got CS30, 31, 32, EFAW-F and £5mil liability insurance including cover for tractor based machinery. Experience cutting to spec & felling for harvester, with winching and tractor forwarding experience. Happy to travel anywhere in England and Wales provided I can stay on site in some form. Full PPE and variety of saws/kit. Please call/text 07734014898 if interested. Cheers Lewis

Hi folks Looking at doing some felling to harvesters in big sitka plantations in the nearish future. I've done a couple of weeks in them before and found wedging to be slow and generally a pain in the arse. Felling levers do the trick sometimes but I find it often leads to needing to domino trees over, which I also prefer to avoid. To remedy this I've been looking into mechanical felling wedges, specifically those that can be run with an impact wrench. I've been impressed by videos of them working but haven't heard of anyone using them here in the UK. They cost about £500 as a minimum, so I'd like to avoid buying one if they're rubbish. Anyone used them/heard stories/have advice? Cheers I'm looking at this one, I've already got an impact wrench so that's not a problem. Fällkeil TR24-AQ WWW.FORSTREICH.DE TR24-AQ - mechanischer Fällkeil, für den Einsatz mit kleineren Schlagschraubern. - 2 Kg Eigengewicht - Hubhöhe = 4cm - Druckkraft ca. 12 to

Hi all, Looking for hand cutting work within 30-40 miles of B50 Alcester this week. I have about 8 months experience cutting, currently have CS30/31 and EFAW-F & I'm taking my CS32 next week. Current job came to a close much quicker than I was expecting so I'm looking to fill Thursday & Friday (possibly Saturday too) this week. I'll show up on time & work hard all day. Also looking for longer term contacts (now-Christmas time). Please call/text 07734014898 or send me a message. Cheers Lewis

Hi all, Looking for hand cutting work within 30-40 miles of B50 Alcester this week. I have about 8 months experience cutting, currently have CS30/31 and EFAW-F & I'm taking my CS32 next week. Current job came to a close much quicker than I was expecting so I'm looking to fill Thursday & Friday (possibly Saturday too) this week. I'll show up on time & work hard all day. Also looking for longer term contacts (now-Christmas time). Please call/text 07734014898 or send me a message. Cheers Lewis

Maybe I do just need a change. Endless hedgerow ash get a bit dull after a few minutes ? I don't have any ties, it can't hurt to give it a try I suppose ? cheers

Cheers for responses folks

Had a similar problem with my 241, turned out to be a bust solenoid valve which is part of the m-tronic tuning system

I'm a self employed cutter working in the midlands, been going a year now. I mostly do work felling on country estates. Lots of day rate stuff, fair to say it's pretty cushy as far as forestry goes. I get a pretty good range of stuff, single tree felling, clearfells, thinning, machine work etc & I'm happy with who I'm working for/with at the moment. My question is, would it be daft to move somewhere like Wales/Scotland and work as a cutter there? I've been told by the folks I'm working for at the moment that it's mostly piece rate work with naff pay and very hard graft at that, as the cutters essentially do what the machines can't (gnarly trees, steep banks, oversize and small thinnings etc). I know my current boss is interested in keeping me about so I'm just looking for other people's opinions to help me make a good decision. I'm not worried about hard work or mediocre pay, if these things bothered me massively I wouldn't have got started in forestry at all ? cheers all

https://arbtalk.co.uk/forums/topic/113825-broaching-forestry-work-in-kent/ Here's a link to a thread from a while ago... it's got all the advice I could give at the mo. Applies pretty universally to the tree surgery world as well as forestry as much as I can tell. There's tonnes of work out there, you've just got to know where to look and who to ask, but once you've got a foot in the door it should be a lot easier to find more work as you'll have experience. If you do go self employed then you'll need your own PPE, saws, fuel, transport, insurance etc etc. Best of luck

Hi all, Just wondering what your experience has been with claiming warranty repairs on your m-tronic/autotune saws. Reason being, I have a new-ish Stihl 241 (about 6 months old) which had the bar adjustment pin completely shear off. Since this isn't a consumable part I was a tad miffed since I then had to use a 20" 462 on a first thinning job until I could get it fixed. When I took it in and explained the situation, they plugged the saw into their computer and told me that since I had something like 60ish running hours on the saw, the pin shearing off isn't considered a manufacturing defect and billed me for parts and labour. Pretty frustrating since I'm all for autotune or m-tronic sort of stuff but if they're going to use it against consumers then that might be enough to make me change my mind. Has this issue affected anyone else? What happened?