Alan Smith

Does anyone make a grinding disk that doesn't leave horrendous burrs? Generally in tool and cutter grinding if you want to avoid burrs you reverse the grinding wheel spin direction so that you are grinding into the cutter not away from it. Don't know if a reversible spindle is available in chain grinders, certainly not on the basic Oregon that I have.

Doobin, where do you get the CBN wheels from??

Could just be the picture but there does seem to be a significant kink forward of the handle just above the top screw.

Looks like Correa's has expanded even more!

? Eh, Don't you mean Kingstown?

Interesting re the Wych Elm. I've started planting out some whips to see if they will establish here.

Hi Toberwine, thank-you very much for taking the time to write such a useful and comprehensive reply. I can hardly believe two years have passed since I started this thread! You are correct that the deer numbers are definitely a factor in the increasing dominance of the pendulous sedge. I think in our case by browsing out competitive plant species, I think in our case mainly bramble. We have huge herds of Fallow in the area, it's not uncommon to see groups of does between 80 and 100 on surrounding farmland. Muntjac also are increasingly present and their increasing numbers seem to be resulting in making them less territorial. In an area where 5 years ago there would only be a single pair there now can be 2 or 3 pairs. In the last two years however progress has been made in starting to control deer numbers as my immediate neighbouring farmer has brought in a professional stalker and between us approximately 130 does were culled in the first season and this past season I think nearly 100. I have to admit my contribution was only in single digits. So overall deer numbers are down but still too early to see any environmental impact. My other finding echoes what you say about cutting back being beneficial. We have an area that would once have been part of the outer reaches of the estate gardens which had been heavily planted with daffodils. These were becoming badly suppressed by the sedge and so about five years ago I started mowing this area in the autumn with a large pedestrian mower/brush cutter. I've been convinced this winter/spring that the sedge in this area is starting to reduce. The sedge plants don't seem to become mature enough to produce flowers and I'm sure this will have a long term effect as well as just general debulking and exhausting the sedge resources. Interestingly in this area another plant is becoming more dominant. Tutsan (Hypericum androsaemum), another plant that the deer won't browse. This year for the first time I can recollect the deer have eaten off all the daffodil flowers, not just in that area but over the whole estate. I'm thinking of extending my mowing experiment in other areas, probably by getting in a flail for the tractor or possibly for the excavator although I think it's probably a bit too light and old to cope with the high demands of a hydraulic flail. Regarding glyphosate, we have not had much success with it in our garden, adjacent to the woodland. I think where it might be of value is in controlling seedling sedge plants early in the year possibly after mowing in the previous autumn. To be honest the invasive plant control has been put on a back burner for now as I'm up to my eyes dealing with Ash die back and its consequences. Thanks again for your reply. All the best Alan

Is there a hydraulic oil filter that needs changing? Or is that what you meant?

Cheers, yes I upgraded the Loctite level this morning. Will wait and see what happens next. I don't believe the female threads are stripped and I have not seen any of the screws that have fallen out. Good idea on using a bolt, I'll investigate that further. Equally re-tapping etc. I have a fully equipped engineering workshop on site so I'm happy dealing with this sort of thing it was just that I have never encountered this sort of problem over 40 years of using chainsaws of all sorts of sizes.

Hi guys, don't know if anyone else has experienced this before but it's driving me potty. My Stihl 500i , now coming up 2 years old keeps vibrating out the screw that anchors the flywheel side end of the chain brake handle/guard. As originally fitted this is a Torx head M5 x 20mm screw. I have tried cleaning the threads with acetone followed by Loctite. I even cross drilled the head of one screw and lock wired it admittedly the wire was on the thin side and eventually broke and again the screw was lost. I used to service and repair small engine kit and have plenty of spare screws, used and new to replace lost screws. Best result so far has been changing the M5 screw for the Stihl proprietary coarse thread, brutal I know but this screw has lasted well till this morning when it disappeared during cross cutting some large Ash logs, long bar and of course plenty of vibration. Anyone come across this issue and have a solution?

That Tele-Radio above is what I use on my crane winch but I was told not to get the handset wet! I'll need to check out the model number.

Apparently they used to plant horseradish along railway embankments to help stabilise them.

Ha! Nothing new about fascines, it's a Roman (Latin) word so would imagine the Roman civil engineers would be well familiar with them. Interestingly the word Fascist is derived from the term as the Italian Fascist party used an image of a bundle of sticks as their symbol.

I've made fascines in the past, mostly as a by product from over stood hazel coppice restoration some for use on my own property but the bulk were for Sussex Wildlife Trust for their projects local to me.

Or could be fascines.