coppice cutter

I had an Avant a good number of years ago before they really took off in popularity, it was one of the smaller skidders, not the now more common pivot steerers. Also have a bit of experience with Bobcats on various jobs I was on. My advice would be than unless you really need that turn-on-it's-own-axis ability, then you should get something else. Unless you're on a concrete yard it'll rip the crap out of it in no time, and if it is a concrete yard unless it's a very smooth concrete yard (floated ideally), it'll rip the crap out of itself. They are a specialist machine for particular jobs, and in these cases the potentially high running costs can be justified, otherwise pivot or 4ws will beat them everytime and it's not surprising that the mini/midi pivot steer loaders have replaced them in so many cases. Just my 2p.

A bit of a bugger to split if you're doing it by hand, and a bit more bulk to deal with for the same heat, but apart from that it's grand and there's certainly no reason to avoid using it in a stove.

I recently acquired it's smaller brother the 109 and was able to get anti-vib mounts for it no problem as a Makita part. So you could possibly look in that direction as well.

Thanks gents, happy days!

Don't get me wrong, I am firmly of the "any well seasoned wood is good burning wood" camp. But there are differences. Burn well-seasoned Leylandii all night and you'll be nice and toasty warm. But throw on a couple of chunks of hawthorn and you're put out of the room. So that's why the question was purely out of interest as I know it'll do a good job whatever.

Could I just stress again, this is a new planting, and has never been touched since planting. As a result I have bushes with stems up to two inches literally side by side with pencil thickness stems. The regrowth from the cut stumps will probably soon catch up with the thin poles left possibly meaning it could all be cut together next time. As I said before being mindful of Alec's advice, rather than take out the thickest, I will now probably just leave the thinnest, which isn't actually the same thing. Or any of the plots where the hazel is side by side with other hazel I will indeed cut the whole thing to leave a proper clearing. As an aside, and purely out of interest, when properly seasoned where would hazel sit as a firewood and what would it be comparable to?

Good man, be sure and let us know how you get on, type of file used, etc.

Is it possible that the point Alec made is coming in to play and the cut Is it possible that Alec's point is relevant here and they are being shaded by the stems which remain uncut? Just a thought.

Thanks for all replies so far, all useful and relevant. Rather than reply individually I'll just do one post addressing all points raised. Yes I understand why coppicing was traditionally clearing an area. The ones I would be thinking of doing this with are generally singles planted randomly throughout the area or along edges therefore their neighbours will be remaining anyway, however as these are mostly oaks the hazels will probably be able to be thinned and overtake them again anyway! I have a couple of areas of hazel only which I probably will cut in it's entirety when the time comes, although even then there's always one or two lagging behind and they might just get left to get a head start on the new growth. I also have a couple of areas of alder ready to cut but don't have time to do them in their entirety this year so they'll wait until autumn/winter. That having been said I will be mindful of the issue of shade within the one plant itself as Alec has mentioned, and not leave so much that it chokes out the new growth. That's relevant irrespective of what else is around it and something which I may not have considered. Finally, as this is my own wood and I'm cutting it just for my own use, I'd most likely be cutting by hand so no chain scars. :)

Accepted practice with hazel coppicing is to cut the entire bush and use all the various thicknesses of stems harvested as a result for different purposes. Recently I came across a video of a guy who questioned the relevance of this in present times as he was only interested in thicker stems for firewood. Therefore that's all he cut out of the bush, leaving the other thin poles to grow, which should give him more firewood from the same bush much sooner than cutting it all (a lot of which he would have no use for anyway) and waiting for the regrowth to bulk up. It seemed entirely sensible and very relevant to myself as I have a lot of new hazel to coppice and many of them have stems varying from pencil thickness up to 2in+ from the same root and it would be very useful to just take out the thick bits and leave the thinner stuff to grow on. Can anyone see any issues with doing this? Thanks.

Fixed that for you. Fully agree btw, indeed I could probably even convince myself that it was cutting at least as good as new.

Well they only sell one Gomtaro handle as a spare part, and don't specify a model or size for it, so I'm assuming and hoping that it's the same one on all of them.

Agree with this entirely and will certainly give the Gomtaro blade a go when the time comes. However, the Natanoko blade is designed and manufactured in a way that it's meant to be sharpenable so I'm thinking that it may be either easier or more effective, ideally both!

Good afternoon all. I have a Silky Gomtaro 300, which I find myself using more and more, to the degree that I'm considering buying it's big brother the Natanoko on the basis that's it's very similar just a bit stronger and sharpenable. I could also use something a bit shorter sometimes so am I right in assuming that if I just buy a shorter Gomtaro blade my existing handle will fit and I can essentially downsize my existing Gomtaro as required? Thanks.

Personally I couldn't recommend the GR1600 highly enough. Mine is approaching 16yr old with 1,000 odd hours on it and is still going like a train. Seems to defy the laws of physics by the amount of work it does on a ridiculously small amount of fuel, leaves a nice finish, and will cut and collect wet grass. Even at that age the deck is still as solid as a rock, I have a Major tractor mounted roller mower as well and I fight a continuous battle with rust on it every year whereas the Kubota just seems to be made a vastly superior stuff. "Japanese steel" as the saying goes I suppose. The top end of your budget should get you a new one with a bit of haggling and frankly I can't see why you'd even consider spending the money on anything else

It would still be much cheaper than switching to Aspen. Unless you were going to anyway. But that's a different debate altogether.

Surely you could still just buy super unleaded and use it with a good quality 2-stroke oil.

G18 became the G21, so to answer your question precisely, yes it would be a "backward step" to go to a 2120. That having been said, the GR range are still streets ahead of most of what's available. I have a GR1600 which is 15yrs old and just turned 1000hrs. Apart from service items it's needed a steering rod and the gas damper which assists with tipping the grass box, that's it. And it still looks better than my previous Castlegarden ride on looked after a year. The main reason why it would be a backward step is that the G21 is just such a mighty machine. My local Kubota dealer told me that dealers and customers alike were well hacked off when they discontinued the G21 a year or two ago, and it really says something that after a couple of years they started to produce it again, that is a remarkably un-Japanese thing to do and they must have been under serious pressure to have to do it. I'll probably upgrade my old mower in the next couple of years and although I'd dearly like one of them, the GR has been so good that I don't think I could justify the expense of the G21, so I think that's the real dilemma. I think you'd need a G21 on demo for a day to evaluate properly to be honest.

Yeah, I read a lot of stuff on them here. Strangely some people had a problem, some had none. I read a post by one guy who said that he took the spark arrestor out and it started to melt the handle, and the problem stopped when he put the spark arrestor back in, so it's hard to know exactly what's going on. What would be interesting, if it were available, would be to get a parts diagram and see if there is a superseded part number for the exhaust. That would possibly tell you if it had been changed or not.

Just a quick update to hopefully add a bit more substance to the thread, I have an Echo 390 esx on order, should have it early next week. A local company who I get all my Kubota stuff off are an Echo dealer but not an official stockist and they are getting me one. So the first time I get a look at one will be when I open the box, against that, they are a good outfit and I know will keep me right if there's any issues. We've just started lambing so not sure how much it'll get to do for a few weeks but I'll keep the thread updated sometime in the future as to how it performs.

There you go, hadn't considered that. So what about the different gauges on the drive sprocket, can a 3/8 sprocket run different gauges of 3/8 chain or have I missed something there too? Thanks, btw! 👍

Not so much a question as seeking confirmation. Am I right to assume that a guide bar can run different different chain pitches as long as the gauge is the same? So for example, if you had a saw running .325/1.5mm chain, you could change the drive sprocket and simply fit it with a 3/8/1.5mm chain on the same bar. Or even fit a different length 3/8/1.5mm chain and bar off something else, providing the bar mounts are similar naturally? And then following on from that, do all drive sprockets accommodate all different gauges of the same pitch? So can you fit both 3/8/1.3mm bar and chain and 3/8/1.5mm bar on chain on the same saw without having to change the drive sprocket? To me all the above seems obvious, but when it comes to such things I never make assumptions. Thanks in advance.

First of all you really need to put a compression tester on it to see if there genuinely is compression. Wouldn't be the first time that someone mistook compression for scraping a badly seized piston up and down a bore. Then you need to dry the plug and put it back and see if it's wetting it. If it is and there's proper compression then you need to look at your spark. If it's not and there's proper compression then you need to look at your fuel supply, including crank seals. If there's proper compression, a fuel supply and a good spark at the right time it will go, I've never seen an engine yet defy the laws of physics. If it doesn't go then there's a problem somewhere.

They are indeed excellent, but don't ever leave them outside or even in a dampish shed or garage. They rust like crazy, high carbon content in the steel apparently.

Fair assessment, for me in this case noise would be the most appealing benefit of battery. I consider my woodland a place of peace and tranquility and introducing the rip of a noisey 2-stroke to it genuinely doesn't lay well with me in this instance. However, as per the post, I've been bought a wee bit of time for now to reassess.