Witterings

That would be the simplest but the obstructing tree was the one we wanted to keep it's a lovely big Ash and the other a pine growing up through the Ash stopping it's canopy growing properly on 1 side which was part of the reason we wanted to lose the pine. Be interested to see that I'll have a search and see if I can find it. I was wondering about it over night as well .... what if you did a very heavily angled cut on the opposite side to the way you want it to fall from the lower level upwards(Cut 1) and then a heavily angled cut the opposite side (Cut 2) going down to meet it .... the trunk would then slide down the face of cut 1 and a little backwards reinstating some lean in the direction you want it to go and as it dropped hopefully now below the level of the holding branch it'd fall in the direction you wanted ... or would cut 2 just snag up the saw?

I have actually got it down but I'm sure there must have been a better way to have done it and asking in case I'm ever in this situation again ... especially if it was a larger tree. The tree had a severe L shape growing nearly horizontal to the ground for a couple of feet before a sharp bend that took it nearly vertical although still with quite a strong lean towards the left hand side of the L which was the only direction the tree could fall without doing damage - BUT - towards the top of the tree and just in front of the direction you wanted it to fall was the branch of another tree so in essence it was always going to end up vertical until you could drop it enough that the top went under the branch above. If you could climb (I can't) the obvious would be take the top off to below the level of the tree in front so it just fell in the direction of the lean with the right cuts. I've seen how to fell hung trees but they always seem to have quite an angle so you do a bore cut leaving a strap at the top down towards the bottom and then an undercut up just behind the bore so when it drops it doesn't take the saw with it ... but how would you do it with a vertical tree where the base is on the ground and still have some control over the direction it'd drop / fall? I was thinking maybe a humboldt with a very heavy downward angle on the side you'd like the trunk to slide down and then a heavily downward angled back cut to release it but thought even before it goes it'd pinch the saw on the backcut. Any help appreciated 🙂

Will they be available in plush pink 🤣 😂

I'm guessing you have Makita batteries as well to compare ... how long have they lasted in comparison? 14 months may not be that bad depending on how much you're using them and if you leave them fully charged for periods of time.

Think I've got myself kindling for the next 50 years in that case 😄

I bought the Makita DUC 355Z and batteries / charger and thought it worthwhile as I wanted a circular saw and an impact driver as well (any maybe some more garden tools at some stage) so the initial outlay was being split between all the tools. I think it's brilliant for what I use it for which is mainly going out and scavenging wood particularly in areas where there may be walkers, I cut longer lengths around 4ft to keep the battery usage down and bring them home and then use a petrol saw for cutting into log lengths. I also prefer it for things like this weekend reducing a hedge whilst up a ladder, just seems so much easier to use in that situation especially you're constantly start / stop where you're cutting a bit the stopping to move it out the way before doing the next bit. Re the copy batteries ... years ago I had an addiction to flying RC things and each of the batteries was £45/50, China started sending them directly to buyers in the UK and you could get the same for £8 .... the big players initially started trying to scare you with how dangerous Lipo's are (inferring their QC was way better / safer) and they won't last nearly as long as their premium ones. Think everybody tried the and found otherwise and the all came out of the same factory so never went back the the "premium" .... can't see any reason why these'd be different so I#ll certainly use copies when I need to get some more.

We are on mains but one of the big areas of the house is single storey, flat roof that's years old (although have just had it re-felted) and all outside wall and none of it well insulated so our gas bill for the worst 1/4 is around £850 which hurts. We now switch the heating off altogether when the burner's going and when the main room gets hot enough open the doors to let the heat circulate around the rest of the bungalow. This is also why I was interested in the larger stoves like the Blaze Kings and their efficiency, I also looked at the ones that run a heating system / hot water off them but you really need a much bigger 16kw stove and they eat wood in comparison so it'd take an awful long time to recoup the extra initial cost ... if you ever did.

Yes primary / secondary as you describe. It'd be a really interesting project to have 2 absolutely identical approx 5kw stoves built in terms of sizing / materials used etc. except for one built using secondary air and the other fitted with a cat and compare efficiency / burn time etc. and if the catalytic version produced any flame or not. If it's just a big thing that sits there with no flame / ambiance that only serves to produce heat you may as well have a pellet fueled boiler (or any other more efficient system) placed somewhere it can't be seen and a smaller stove where you want the esthetic appearance. We only had our burner fitted in October 2019 mainly for the esthetics / ambiance although we paid about £250 for wood the 1st year and knocked £400 off our normal heating bill. I scrounged / cut and seasoned my own wood for this year so have saved £400 on the most recent bill and enjoyed something that has made lockdown over a winter period a lot easier to deal with ... take the dogs out for a walk on a cold winters afternoon, come home and light the fire and read a book / catch up on forums for a bit in front of ithe fire with an early beer and then cook / eat some dinner and watch a film in front of it ... life doesn't get much better than that 🙂 ... although it will be nice to see more of friends again. Feel like I've hijacked the OP's thread a little bit and hat was never my intention but hopefully some of the questions I've asked and answers I've had may be useful to them as well and a big that you @neiln ... you been really helpful!!

Thank you for that ... it's a really helpful explanation and yes I was totally underestimating how large they actually are and not just how much fuel they can take but also the size of it. I think the Mecca in my opinion would be a stove that you could fill it so it burns for about 4 / 5 hours without a refill and still gives a flame for ambiance without being huge yet doesn't soot up the glass .... ours seems to teeter on the edge of lower flame means sooty glass. As I've typed that it makes you analyse what you do, I was told leave the door open a bit and both the primary and secondary air supplies fully and as it gets going close the door 1st. When it's going a bit more / starting an bed of ash close down the primary fully and control the burn with the secondary but have always found I can't turn the secondary down that much without creating build up on the glass. Maybe if I left the primary open a bit rather than fully closing it I could turn the secondary down further for an overall slower burn and the load may last a bit longer ... definitely worth experimenting with.

This 100% isn't doubting you in case you think it is but I honestly don't get how they get such long burn times. Granted my stove is probably that much smaller and you can't get nearly as much wood in but if I got a half decent fire going and a decent bed of ash and then rammed it the gills and turned it down to as low as I could .... I'd still be having to add more wood after about 2 hours but you hear reports that these run for between 12 and some quoting 30 hours before needing to be refilled so unless they are MASSIVELY more efficient I don't get it. Surely as well if you doubled the size of my stove it'd then just be burning a larger surface area of the amount of wood that's in there so again the size alone wouldn't contribute but they get as a minimum 6 x's the burn time as a minimum estimated up to 15 x's as long with the best .... I'm struggling to get my head round it I have to admit.

Reminds me of a story, my boy's at Uni so no money, took his old Seat Ibiza in for an MOT a couple of years ago (couldn't get booked into the place I normally go to and trust) and the garage said it had failed on emissions and would be £750 to repair. I rang the place I normally go to for a comparative quote and they said drop the car into us ..... they took it for "An Italian Tune Up" just before another MOT and it passed and has done for the subsequent 2 years without having anything being done to it 🙂 .... the garage I trusted did make the comment "Kevin up to his old tricks again is he". Back on topic .... if it produces heat from a smouldering log I'm guessing there's no real flame but is also what contributes teh long burn times ?? Personally whilst it's obviously used for heat I love the esthetics of a decent flame, wouldn't quite be the same without if the logs were just smoldering away n teh box but maybe I've misinterpreted it?

I stumbled across the Blaze Kings a while ago and just after we'd had ours installed, I must admit I do like the idea of putting a load on at the start and leaving it for hours as opposed me having to put another log on every 30 / 40 minutes ... even if you only got 4 / 5 hours of burn time instead of the 12+ hours some of the big ones get. I couldn't work out though if they're actually more efficient in other words if there was a smaller one that would last for a few hours would it burn less wood than the amount you'd have to feed a normal stove over an evening or is it just that you'd be putting it all on at once and it just gets through it slowly. If it does burn considerably less, if you're buying in wood at retail prices it wouldn't take long to save the cost of replacing the cat from time to time.

Couple of pics below, I think they're Ash but if anyone could confirm would be appreciated.

Not on ours .... although that may have been a nieve mistake when ours was put up.

Certainly worth comparing and I don't have a trailer .... not convinved one will go in the back of a Zafira but not sure how big a smaller one would be. Cheers for the ballpark as well at least it gives me a guide to compare against.

Hmmmm ... one of those things you just wish you'd had a friend that has both. Sounds like it doesn't matter what it is they all seem to have a period that until they're hot you'll get followed by smoke as the Solo's aren't any different for that. Be nice to win the lottery and buy one of each and try them all 😄

Hadn't thought about hiring one but will definitely get a quote and see how it compares to getting someone else doing it so great suggestion thank you!

I'm thinking about cutting down a pine that's trunk is about 17" in the garden ... roughly what will I have to pay if I want to get the stump removed so the ground's at least level or ideally be able to grass over it? There's easy access by sliding out a fence panel.

Trying to find out how "smoke covered" you get with a chiminea or if you don't get much compared to a fire pit, I ..... but even more so the Mrs don't mind the smell of being covered in smoke at the time but then you go to bed, get up and shower the next day / clean clothes, when you go to bed again that night it stinks from where you've laid in it the night before and it takes days for the smell to go. Also if anyone happens to have a Solo Stove are they reasonable warm for sitting outside or does most of the heat just go straight up, they look great and "relatively" smokeless in comparison (although expensive) but if they don't give much heat to the surrounding area are pretty pointless .... apart from ambiance.

If that is the case he has a name to protect, go back to him and tell him it's not good enough and offer him the option of picking it up and taking it away with a refund or replacing it with dry seasoned wood as it sound like it's no use to you ... although this does depend if he's selling it as seasoned and ready to burn? Last year I needed a top up "In Case" I ran out and the seller who has a good reputation locally was upfront when I went to order and said it was seasoned but because they'd had such high demand it'd been left outside and would probably take 2 / 3 weeks to dry out enough ... was that OK or did I want to get some elsewhere. Sounds like your seller may not have been quite as "upfront" as he could of been or there's a genuine mistake but either way you shouldn't be paying for that and if he keeps selling wood that wet the reputation you say he currently has ... will very quickly change.

Was looking at the Collins Tree Guide and there seem to be 2 different versions of it (links pasted below), does anyone what the difference is and if one's any better than the other or is one just an updated / newer version of the old one?? British Trees: A photographic guide to every common species (Collins Complete Guide): Amazon.co.uk: Sterry, Paul: 9780007236855: Books WWW.AMAZON.CO.UK Buy British Trees: A photographic guide to every common species (Collins Complete Guide) by Sterry, Paul (ISBN: 9780007236855) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low... Collins Tree Guide (Collins S.): Amazon.co.uk: Owen Johnson: 9780007207718: Books WWW.AMAZON.CO.UK Buy Collins Tree Guide (Collins S.) UK ed. by Owen Johnson (ISBN: 9780007207718) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

Needed to hear that like a hole in the head as I picked up a load of it the other week and have cut it up and split it ... I'll be bringing it back to myself next season asking for a refund if it's still wet

Must admit that was exactly what I thought 😂 😂

Really ?? ...... So did he buy it from the person who only sells properly seasoned hardwood that's kept under cover and can charge a premium because of the quality. Re read what I wrote ..... "sounds like" .... it's just flagging a possibility.

Don't mean to be harsh but those readings sound like you've bought from the cheapest guy around .... who's probably not the person to buy from and it's probably not seasoned properly. You've not had your new burner installed that long, find a decent seller, buy some more from them (properly seasoned) and enjoy it with the rest of the cold season which will only be a few more weeks, you've not lost money as the others will be seasoned for next year.