JonnoR

That's great. I guarantee I won't be sorted by then, so I'll be in touch!

Your collection is scarily similar to mine! Yes, those narrow tall bodies seem to match my own. When I have them in front of me I can check, but I put money on those dimensions matching my own. Thanks for taking the trouble to post the pics mate.

They don't have enough meat on them to fully fill the head vertically, sadly!

I've got Sager Chemical, Tru Temper, Collins and a load of others - either proper felling axes, or the cruiser style. They have a very high, deep but narrow holes (I'm sure I've misdescribed that and murdered the terminology - apologies). Once I've got myself sorted I'll send some pics. I've got a whole pile of NOS SA Wetterlings in various patterns too. Basically a forest worth of handle needs!!!!

Thanks! I'll check them out and post pics once I get these axes ready for hanging!

They're great yeah, but sadly they didn't have anything to suit my deep axe heads. The search continues, and thanks for the replies gents!

I folks, I have some lovely double bit US axe heads, but struggle to find hickory handles for them. Any UK/EU source you know of? Thanks in advance! Jonno

I did that with an overstood hazel, essentially creating a brush fence with some uprights to stabilise it and it worked perfect - pushing up some great straight rods from the stool

I think I'd have to invest in some fencing, or improvise with branches to give the stools chance to re-establish growth, given the deer population I have at the moment.

To my inexperienced eyes, the crowns are terrible, given the height of the trees. I'm not too sure that I'm being a bit overly killy in my selection for planned thinning. Would you take a couple winters to get rid of those marked trees to be sure not to shock the ecosystem?

I think Hornbeam is slightly more tolerant of being pollarded or coppiced at an older age, but they really are pushing the limits I'd say. The explosive growth in the stumps of trees selectively thinned over the last three years is pretty nuts

Thanks Stere, for both your response and the link! The hornbeam nurse trees, and the self-seeded understory trees seems to have done a pretty good job of keeping the oak straight and minimised the epicormic growth. The crowns are pretty poor though, and I'd assess it's a good decade overdue for some thinning. Once thinned, I did wonder if hornbeam pollards (or coppices) would be in sufficient dappled light to make a go of it, if only for shrub like ground cover for deer and weed suppression. From what I've read, the hornbeams that remain don't occlude the light in the lower story to the same degree as other species. My main concern now is not rushing the thinning and either stressing them with a sudden environmental change, or expose them to excessive risk of windblow. The canopy is super anorexic but if I rush I imagine I'll overly stress the trees that have had a pretty hard time of it with 2 years of hotter weather.

Hi folks, Forgive the attempted resurrection of this fossilised thread, but I thought it might be better to keep the topic in one place. I have several stands (ash and hornbeam as nurse trees with oak standards) needing thinning. Whenever I've felled the hornbeam, during the proceeding year they've erupted with growth from the stump, which has got me thinking that pollarding might be the way to ensure regrowth and a more diverse stock for wildlife. There are deer and wild boar around, so I'm not convinced the coppiced stumps will ultimately lead to much - hence the pollarding idea. The stands are about 40 years old, rod straight and very little branches until you hit the canopy. So, question is, have I left it too long for this to be viable? Is the single trunk non-viable for this technique? Given the amount of growth, and their apparent tolerance for slightly shaded understory, I'd really like to give it a bash. As ever, grateful for your insights and suggestions! Jonno

Mostly hornbeam and oak here - only very very few ash in the forest as a whole. This lot is a hornbeam with some self-seeded oak.

I finally got round to getting some of those cramped hornbeams thinned out today. Just opened the canopy up a little and got rid of the thinnest crowned trees where they were clearly starting to be dominated by their neighbours. I finished off the fuel in the Stihl ms261, then got out my new HUSQVARNA 540i XP, which is a little ripper in this sort of timber. For this sort of work it's perfect and as much as I love my ms261 I'll be reaching for the Husky more often I think. Anyway, thanks once again for the tips and comments 🙂 Jonno