Busy day cutting firewood and felling trees for The Pelham

Today was a busy day! I arrived at the woods at 07:45, and after sorting some odds and ends out (like a culvert blocked with leaves...), I used the Truncator, mounted on the side of the trailer, to cut some logs to take over to The Pelham:

As I videoed it for the time-lapse using my GoPro camera, I know it took 28 minutes to cut about one cubic metre of loose logs, which I think is pretty good!

Once these had been unloaded over at The Pelham, my friend Dan and I got on with felling the trees in the car park - here's a timelapse video of the first two stems coming down:

The trees weren't huge, but we put the Tirfor winch on them anyway as insurance, as having them fall the other way, into the gardens of the adjoining houses, was not an option! We got a decent pile of logs out of it, which will be split up at some point in the next few months, and hopefully will be dry enough to burn next winter:

I also made a stool out of the bottom of one of the trees, which could be used in The Pelham once it's dried out. Here's Ollie, who works at The Pelham, testing it out:

Don't forget, if you're local to Bexhill, that The Pelham coffee bar opens in a couple of weeks:

Post by The Pelham.

Mike

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Moving towards winter in the woods

I was up at the woods this weekend after a few weeks' gap, and was struck by the shift from autumn towards winter... It's looking quite different there now:

I was there to do a job though, and got on with loading my Truncator:

Sawing the logs:

Tipping them into the trailer:

And repeating until there was a trailer full of logs to take over to The Pelham...

It's a great benefit having the Truncator for jobs like this, and as you can see in the above photo, when the job is done you can simply cover the trailer and drive away without detaching it. I made a video last year detailing how it is set up and operated.

Mike

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Winter firewood all prepared

The winter's firewood is now ready! It only took us 5-6 hours to fill the remaining half of our store at the woods, using the new equipment we now have. Step one was to load the seasoned wood into the arbor trolley:

Next, wheel the trolley round to a suitable location and then the wood and be quickly transferred to the Truncator a few pieces at a time:

Position a wheelbarrow and cut off any long bits poking off the end of the Truncator:

Then move along and use the chainsaw to cut through the gaps in the Truncator:

Push the wheelbarrow along and tip the logs in (in practice Tracy was pushing the barrow while I tipped them):

Then take the wheelbarrow to the nearby log store and stack the logs - Tracy was doing this while I was loading the next batch of wood into the Truncator and sawing it - we had two wheelbarrows so we could both keep busy.

We got most of it done in an afternoon, then popped up the next morning for a couple of hours to finish the job:

There was still a bit of space in the log store at home, so after stowing the bench in the trailer, we mounted the Truncator on the side of it and loaded some more logs:

Then followed exactly the same process as before, but with the logs ending up in the trailer:

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As the Truncator was securely strapped down, we were able to just drive off when we were done, and sort everything out when we got home. Nice to have that job finished! :-)

Mike

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Time-lapse video: chainsawing logs with the Truncator

Earlier this week I took the opportunity to make a time-lapse video of chainsawing logs with the Truncator. I collected a load of 18-month old Hornbeam, Holly and Hazel from the woods:

Plus some ready cut pieces of Holly thrown into the back of the car:

Here's the setup back at home for processing the logs using the Truncator logging bench:

And here's the video, taken using my GoPro. Note some delays in the video while I use an axe to split logs that were too big...

I did initially experiment using an electric chainsaw a friend had passed on to me, running from our off-grid solar panels:

But it turned out to be a bit under-powered for the job, so I switched back to my petrol-guzzling Husqvarna 346xp. Still, worth trying the electric one - I might see if I can try out a more powerful one somewhere.

Mike

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Getting started on next winter's firewood and clearing windblow

With the spell of good weather we're having at the moment, I took the opportunity to get into the woods and start preparing logs for next winter, and clear up some more windblown trees. For the first time I took the logs home in 2m lengths, as we now have the Truncator to cut them up at home:

Back in the area I coppiced last autumn, the birch I'd left to grow bigger didn't really work out due to the storms...

There was also a sweet chestnut stool knocked over there too:

They were dealt with pretty quickly, I decided to pollard the birch a few feet up, and coppice the sweet chestnut in the hope it will recover in some form:

There was still some space in one of the racks for the logs produced from the work:

The stools I coppiced back in the autumn are showing some new growth now:

The blubells are picking up too, as the wood anemone start to fade...

... much to the delight of the bees of course!

Once I got back home, we got the Truncator out and Tracy helped me process the logs - I chainsawed the logs in the Truncator, then Tracy took them for stacking while I loaded the next lot from the trailer to the Truncator.

We reckon for the volume of logs produced, it had saved about 60-90 minutes compared to our old method of processing and transporting logs, and was much easier on our backs, as there was not much need to pick stuff up form the floor and all the logs ended up in a wheelbarrow.

So we're now started on the road to next winter's firewood...

Of course, the side effect of using the Truncator at home is that the saw chips are all over the drive... Next time I'm going to try putting a tarp down to collect it, and see if anyone wants it for animal bedding.

Oh, and if you missed it, I also uploaded a video of how to make a simple log bench in five minutes!

Mike

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Truncator chainsaw logging bench (as seen on Dragon's Den)

A couple of weeks ago at the Weald Wood Fair I saw a logging system being demonstrated, and pretty quickly realised I had to have one! It's the 'Truncator', which has apparently been on the BBC programme Dragon's Den.

I've made a video review which you can watch here, followed by some still images below.

I've got the Pro version with five 'cups', as shown below. I chose to mount the cups on a separate piece of wood, which in this photo is sat on top of the trestle that comes as part of the kit:

The piece of wood with the cups on it is held down using a couple of ratchet straps:

Once you've loaded logs into the Truncator, you use the bungee cord attached to one of the cups to hold the logs in place:

It's locked in using this beautifully simple little clip - the grooves in it not only grip the bungee cord but also use its tension to force the cord into the clip:

I spaced the cups to cut a 2 meter log into six pieces, with the final piece dropping off into a wheelbarrow:

The other five logs stay sat in the cups after using the chainsaw to cut them:

Then you push the wheelbarrow along and tip the cups so the logs fall into it:

Conveniently, one load of logs nicely fills a large wheelbarrow:

The other option is to use the ratchet straps to hold the Truncator on the side of the trailer:

I've attached some small blocks of wood on the underside of the Truncator to locate it accurately on the trailer:

I still use the ratchet straps to secure it though:

As on the trestle, you load it up with long logs - and you can see here why I chose to have five cups rather than six - the sixth would miss the trailer anyway, so may as well be absent, allowing the logs fall into a wheelbarrow:

The logs in the cups can be rapidly tipped straight into the trailer:

Overall it's an excellent invention, and I'm looking forward to using it more in the spring to prepare logs for the following winter. In my view, the key advantages of the Truncator are:

• No metal parts, so if you hit one of the cups with the chainsaw the chain will be undamaged.
• Cups mounted on an easily available wooden beam, so if it gets worn down over time by occasional touches from the chainsaw it can be replaced easily and cheaply.
• Cups can be separated by any distance, so you can produce logs at a length ideal for your woodburner or stove.
• Integrated bungee cord to hold the logs in place, which can be secured in seconds.
• Very fast to use.
• Avoids the need to pick up logs from the ground, saving strain on your back.

If you want one, you can buy them from truncator.co.uk.

Mike

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