Autumn 2009

Well the summer turned out...

... pretty good sales wise putting a bit in the kitty for restocking. The Walnut mentioned last time turned out to be an expensive disappointment but more of that later. I had regular help from Greg and Matthew Seeber who live in Quarry House and were home from Uni and School respectively. As Brian now lingers solely at Andover Down sawmill the help was appreciated and they broke a lot less stuff than Brian used to!

I promised last time to...

... reveal a metal riddled tree. Doubtless many of you will have had sleepless nights trying to imagine the most amount of metal ever to be found in a living tree. Well, you see quite a bit of barbed wire, 6 inch nails and memorably in the Tulip blog a bit of brass.

If you have followed the blogs for a few years you will have read about the Oak Mark bought from France that had so much World War I shrapnel in that it's scrap value was greater than the timber value. But the all time winner must be the London Plane and Royal Mail partnership pictured below from sunny Hammersmith where I pass my days with the real job.

You left us last time...

... in the usual position, ticking along but in need of stock, particularly Oak. I had been getting regular mail shots from an English bloke living in France who had set up a business as a go between the French sawmills and UK businesses. I finally got in touch and the speedy reply told me what I half expected. Not helped by the weak Pound against the Euro the price for green Oak bought in bulk was a bit more than my seasoned Oak price.

So it was back to my local sources, slightly hampered by the lack of Gordy's timber trailer. Erwin is on the lookout for one but at the time of writing getting a decent size tree on to a trailer to get it to the saw is a problem. I can get a saw i.e a woodmizer to the tree as demonstrated below but this isn't a cheap fix.

So in the meantime...

... I bought a bit of American Oak off Mark at Andover Down sawmill. You'll see from the picture below it's got an interesting figure in it with some small patches of sworls. It's quarter sawn which adds to the waste and cost timewise but I think's it's worth it.

Mark pictured where he should be: sawing & not smoking fags and chatting!

During the summer...

... I remarked to Colin, the wild man of the woods that as putting the roof on the back of the Pick up was a two man job it was easier leaving it off. He offered to design me a pully system so that I could do it on my own and sure enough in early September on a sunny Sunday, sort it he did.

It took a bit of fiddling about, well dodgy tree climbing from two blokes who are a bit old for it really but the result pictured below is just what the doctor ordered - that is a way of me taking it off and putting on without straining my back and the NHS's already swine flu stressed service.

I just reverse under, lower gently and Bob the transvestite is your Aunt.

Having waited months...

... for one reason or another in mid August I went with Rob to mill and retrieve the Walnut tree. It was a bit of a last minute job in the end so I was unable to choose a time when the owners were home. Apart from missing out on a cup of tea it meant I had to agree a price based on what I had seen back in the spring.

I offered a cash price on the assumption it was as good inside as it looked. To be fair to the owners they weren't greedy and didn't haggle for more money, nor did they know what it was like inside.

The answer tragically was a) lacking in decent black heartwood and b) not lacking in several nails hammered in many years before. This not only blunted Rob's saw but also resulted in Mark at the sawmill refusing to plank any more after his big blade found an old nail.

The trouble with not having...

... the tree owners present was that I couldn't renegotiate the price. I rang the husband and he agreed a tenner off the price but frankly I was looking at halving my offer. They would never have believed me had I left what it was worth so I had to grit my teeth and take a hit.