The jungle that was the bottom of the garden is slowly being cleared and the hole where I'm now standing will eventually be part of a rather tasty 8x6' greenhouse.After a hard slog in the hot sun, I've finally bagged my prize...this stump which is all that remains of a 25' high juniper tree.
Many weapons were brought into action on the day...spades assorted, an axe and one of two mattocks, but as this a woody blog, it might be of interest to discuss the edge on one of blades.
So just what is the most effective angle to hack through the tree roots? For many years I've favoured a triple bevel on some plane irons...23deg primary grind, 30deg honed bevel and a micro-bevel at 33deg so I thought that this sort of regime would be just the very ticket for my mattock, with the extra heft of the tool enabling me to take really nice, dainty chippings.
The mallet, made from a fencing post and an old cricket stump is a much treasured tool liberated at the end of my teaching career, and is so finely tuned with such a delicate balance that the Blue Spruce offering pales into the merest insignificance.
And what of the saw? A progressive rip tooth cut with just a smidgen of fleam or perhaps not quite so an aggressive cross-cut, with maybe just a tad more set? Or maybe I should have gone for the Japanese option and opted for a pull cut blade?
Who knows...my own opinion is that this entry is one big bit of fleam and if you've taken any of even half-seriously you're in desperate need for a glass or four of the good stuff tonight.
I know I will!
No comments:
Post a Comment