What would you do with a wood?!

[Robinthree]

What would you do with green wood if you had access to woodland timber

 

[Racers]

You need to Google green woodworking, chairs, spoons, bowls etc.

Pete

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Coppice the ash and get a wood stove.

 

[Alexam]

You may not be allowed to fell any trees there. It will depend on the conditions of purchase, as some woodlands are rightly protected.

 

[heimlaga]

Af cause it depend on the are of the woodland and the size and quality of the trees but if there is enough this is a way to go:

Off to the local sawmill to get it sawn.......... :wink: ....and then home to dry.

Personally I would never ever clearcut a smallholding. Then you have a lot of wood at once and then nothing in the next 50 years. That is all right for those who just want money but then you will have no use of the woodland yourself. Taking down a few trees at a time as they grow mature produces a more even supply of higher quality wood. Schrub and branches and trees of lesser quality makes good firewood. For a small woodland owner using his own wood it is essential to manage it in a sustainable way and make good use of absolutely everything.

 

[Robinthree]

Thanks for all the advice

 

[Phil Pascoe]

How private is it? Cobs or filberts? Pittosporum and eucalyptus for floristry? Hazel or blackthorn for walking sticks? You'd have to be careful to contain the roots, though. You've got beech - truffles? That's not as daft as it seems...

 

[Indie Shed]

A woodman's shed and log store would be my first things to do, somewhere to pass the time till the wood dries!!

 

[AndyT]

If you are thinking of this as a complete lifestyle + business change/opportunity, here's a very brief overview of a successful example: http://www.greenwoodwork.co.uk/website/clissettwood.html

 

[blackrodd]

You could always look at finding any local kilns near you're new abode, and getting a woodmizer type saw in and plank out a couple of species to start.
Regards Rodders

 

[Walney Col]

Woodland prices are sky high at the mo so I'd hang onto it if I were you and investigate building a kiln and sourcing a bandmill or even a swing blade mill if you fancy producing dimensional timber. I wish I was in a position to do it!

 

[doctor Bob]

Friend of mine set up an arboretum about 25 years ago, planted all sorts of species in his woodland. Takes time but interesting project.

 

[Graham Orm]

This might be worth a watch if you have time to kill. Couple of guys with a wood, (probably a bit bigger than you describe) and their own small mill. I posted this the other day, but seems to fit here too.
rob-cosman-1-hour-cedar-tree-to-boards-process-t87003.html

 

[heimlaga]

To make it worth that kind of investment you will probably need some 40 hectares of woodland(some 80 acres). Sawmills are expensive and you need to saw a lot of wood to pay it off.

For a smallholder it is usually most economical to look for someone else who has a sawmill to pay off. Someone who will saw your logs for you and charge a reasonable hourly rate.

I am not sure about the climate in Yorkshire but I suppose you could just build a simple shed with open sides and a cheap tin roof. Then stack your wood inside the shed and let it air dry. Put stickers between each layer of boards. If you are as frugal as I am you could just stack the wood outdoors and build a temporary roof on top of the stack.
My oppinion is that the bottom of the stack should be at least 30 cm off the ground. 50 cm is even better. There should be no grass nor brushes around the stack.
Around here we use 1 inch thick stickers for board thicknesses up to 2 1/2 inches and 2 inch stickers for thicker materials. They are sawn from parts of the tree that aren't good for anything else. The stickers should be air dried beforehand for furniture grade wood. Otherwise they tend to stain the boards. Spruce makes very good stickers. Pine is not suitable for stickers for furniture grade wood because it tends to stain the boards. Birch makes good stickers so I think beech should be just as good. I sometimes carry home offcuts and discarded boards from construction sites and rip them to 1by1 inch stickers. They are already dry. Pallet wood should also do unless it is pine.
Up here sawing season is in spring then the wood air dries over the summer.
Kilns are used by big industry to speed up the process and by small sawmills and cabinet shops for the last step of the drying process from air dry to furnityre dry. Like everything else it has a cost. One has to weigh the efficiency against the cost. Small sawmills usually air dry their wood around here. It binds up money for a year but it is virtually free.

Just some ideas....... only you have to make your choices.

 

[Claymore]

.

 

[AndyT]

Another thought - back in 2013 BBC4 broadcast quite a reasonable little series on the challenge of taking over a small woodland and getting an income from it - see discussion here: https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/wood-related-tv-worth-watching-t70944.html

It's no longer on iPlayer but at least some of the episodes are on Vimeo - http://vimeo.com/72623416

 

[WoodMangler]

Be careful how much you cut, there are legal restrictions on cropping woodland. I wanted to cut down some overgrown leylandii behind my house, and asked the planning office if it was OK. They said yes, no restrictions, I can do what I like. Fortunately I googled the matter - because the trees were outside the curtilage, other rules apply - without a license from the Forestry Commission you can only cut down a fairly small amount in any calendar quarter, and anything over that will attract swingeing fines and a requirement to replant with the same species of tree. I ended up taking down only a quarter of the trees in each calendar quarter, with witnessed photographic proof of what I'd done (just in case..).

 

[paulm]

First things first, find a nice spot to string up your hammock and tarp, maybe an old parachute canopy as cover, and a camp fire under, relax and enjoy





Cheers, Paul

 

[Robinthree]

Thanks for the links, there's loads of great reading for me there
It's a 1acre wood and away from roadsides etc and chilling in it is definitely my first job

 

[Water-Mark]

Put a chair in the middle of it and relax.