You have probably noticed that battery powered chainsaws are becoming very popular, and rightly so as they are quiet and powerful, but which is best?

Phill has a lot of Makita 18v power tools and as a hobby hedge layer figured the Makita DUC353Z (which uses 2 18v batteries giving a 36v power tool) would be perfect as he already has the batteries and really didn't want another type of batteries

David is a already has Stihl power tool user so decided to add to his kit bag with an MSA 200 C a 36v power tool.

Looking at the Stihl it comes with a 14" bar with a nice small nose which is great for hedge laying as it can  get into really small spaces, the chain is also very narrow.  The Makita also comes with a 14" bar which is more parallel so the nose is much bigger, the chain is also wider.  Both come as "body only" giving you have a choice of battery capacities and charger types.

We decided that for hedge laying the Stihl bar was a better shape because it is able to get into confined spaces, but of course you could swap the bar on the Makita if you wanted to.

Both saws weigh about the same in the real world (i.e. when you fill them oil and batteries), we didn't have some scales handy so this was a bit of a subjective test.

Both saws are very quiet in operation and neither provided noticeably more vibration

The Makita has an annoying "on" button, which must be pressed before it will operate, after about 10 seconds of inaction it has to be repressed, which in practical hedge laying use is just a bit to short so you are forever pressing it, the good news is that it is in easy reach of the trigger so just takes a bit of getting used to. Sensibly neither saw will operate if the chain brake is on.

Looking at the costs (inc. vat)
The tools on test (body only) cost £120 for the makita vs. £255 for the Stihl
For both you then need batteries and chargers
We didn't have a choice for this test, based on what we owned, the Makita was powered by 2 5Ah batteries (2x90Wh = 180Wh) costing about £120, and the Stihl with a single more powerful AP 300 battery (227Wh) at about £157

The Makita DC18RD will charge both 5Ah batteries in 45minutes, along with your phone, and costs about £50 (A cheaper single battery option is available for £30)
The Stihl AL500 will charge the AP 300 in 35minutes for £102, or the more economical Al300 will take 74 minutes and cost £60

Replacement chains are about £13 for each saw, and of course you still need chain oil

Thus the Makita comes in at around £280 for saw, battery and dual charger
The Stihl is £471 for high capacity battery and the slow charger or a whopping £514 if you want the faster charger

In (typical hedge laying) wet weather the Stihl battery box seems designed to collect water (does not even have a drain hole!), on one very wet day last season Marcus Broom turned his saw upside down to empty the rain out, but it was still working, with the Makita batteries sit on the outside of the machine the rain should be less of an issue, but realistically chainsaws will be used in the winter so it would be good to know from the manufacturers that we can use expensive kit outside.

So how long do these tools last before you need to change batteries?
For this test we had to work with what we had, and the Stihl had more juice available
David sponsored a couple of lengths of semi seasoned Chestnut which he cut in the winter.  We decided on 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 inch diameter wood and set off cutting disks.

Both saws cut a very impressive pile of coasters and the results were an impressive 123 vs. 186 the Stihl with the larger battery capacity was a clear winner.

Which is best?  Well both performed really well with the Stihl able to cut a lot more discs, however the Makita is significantly cheaper and in our test had a lower capacity battery.

In essence if you already own battery kit from either manufacturer you would be happy by adding either saw to your kit bag, which of course would mean you don't need to buy more batteries or chargers.  If you have battery range anxiety then just buy some spares.

It would be interesting to test saws from other manufacturers or the higher capacity 6Ah batteries from Makita.  we would also like to do a rainy day test, without the risk to our own kit.

Don't forget that you still need a certificate if you plan to operate any chainsaw unless you are on your own land.  You can't yet do the training / test using a battery saw!

Pictures
https://flic.kr/s/aHskuzx2y5

David Dunk, and Phill Piddell

http://www.highweald.org/look-after/land-management/200-general-content/2323-hedge-management-signs.html

Hedge management is a vital part of maintaining the High Weald's unique character. An integral part of the landscape, High Weald hedges are often historic and provide habitats for a wide range of wildlife.
While hedge management is an important land management activity, some of the methods - such as coppicing or hedge laying - can appear damaging or destructive to the untrained eye. Many hedges run along public rights of way, providing an excellent opportunity to educate the general public on these traditional countryside skills.
With this in mind, we have produced a hedge management information board for landowners across the High Weald to display near any works taking place on their land (see below). The board is designed to inform passers-by of the nature of the work being carried and why it is important for the conservation of the landscape, along with illustrations of different types of hedges.
The boards are currently being displayed at a number of hedge restoration projects across the High Weald, with lots of positive feed back from both landowners and hedge layers. If you are interested in receiving a board for use on your land, please contact our Land Managent Advisers: Ross Wingfield, ross.wingfield@highweald.org  / 01424 725604 or Christine Meadows, christine.meadows@highweald.org  / 01424 723009.

“The Pleach Boys” European Hedgelaying Tour March 2018.
From the rolling South Downs of Sussex, through the White Cliffs of Dover, under the English Channel, to catch up with old friends & make new friends, we found the next site for the next “International hedgelaying Championship” in France.
Excellent hospitality, challenging hedges, flat open landscape, fencing with railway sleepers for intermediate fence posts, we started in the Polders, with open flat fields & plenty of drainage ditches, old windmills that were drainage pumps. Excellent cuisine, glorious sunrises 🌅 & stunning sunsets. The bikes had mud guards on.
Hay barns with raisable roofs, Lex Rouleveld’s birthday to celebrate, I found an old hay fork resting horizontally in my hedge, it must have been there for years, fantastic B & B at Jan & Corrie van Leeuwen, Langbroek plus 2 nights accomadation at Klooster Monastery in Boxmeer.
3 days training & demonstrating hedgelaying.
Great weekend at the Annual Boxmeer hedge laying championship with 47 teams & 5,000 plus visitors. Dave Truran was a clear leader in the “spitting the pea” competition at the “Hedgeland Games”.
Thank you to Dave Truran & Peter Tunks for contributing to a great trip. Phil Hart.

After the improvers day there was some hedge left at the end of the footpath which needed finishing.  Because the hedge was on the side of a footpath a lot of the experts were saying that a "midland style" hedge would make more sense than a South of England Style (as all the bushy stuff would be on the side with the cows.  We have some pretty amazing cutters in the club, including some real Midland experts (National Champions no less), so a plan was hatched to finish off the hedge with a training session in a different style.  Because the style is different we limited the day to cutters who had a reasonable idea what they were up to.

With stakes and binders organised we met at Nodes farm on a crisp but thankfully dry day.  We walked to the farm and crossed a soupy boot grabbing mud section churned up by the cows and divided up in to teams of two with Alan and Peter acting as floating experts.

The first task was to cut off all the front facing branches, which seems pretty brutal, but we were just following instructions!  We then started to pleach which itself was the same, but the aim here is to have a flat front side, with plenty of small fluffy bits out the back (this is the side the livestock is on, and the spikes keep them away from the new growth (in theory).  After a few cuts we started to insert stakes, about 9" from the front.  the tough thing was to get the stems to lay on top of each other, and keep the shape of the hedge, so lots of extra cuts were required to get everything to align.  We also had to strip off any tiny bits on the front side.
The section Chris and I had was a bit thin, gappy and had plenty of wonky stems so we had to bulk up with some borrowed stems. 

As we had staked (and bashed them in) as we went we were able to get a good line by looking down the line as we went.
Finally we started on the Binders.
Both Alan and Peter started with 3 tied together, 2 in the front and 1 at the back.  These are weaved in bunches with the smalled one cut off after each new binder was added.  Totally different to SoE, but the end result is a super strong bind which looks really good.

By the end of the day we had all completed a reasonable section, which we were all pleased with, plenty of practice still required to really get the hang of it, and we agreed that it would be much better with 1:1 training.  Midland is much  more technical than SoE in that you have to build as you go (the expert SoE guys do that as well of course).

A very enjoyable day, and something we will do again

Pictures as always
https://flic.kr/s/aHskv7qk6a

Some of you will know that Gary Moore it keen to try his hand at every regional style, so a few months ago Gary roped in David Dunk and they decided to venture over to Devon to learn their style of hedge laying.

Their training was under the expert eye of Roger Parris (Chief Steward for the Nationals), so they were in good hands, and soon picked up the style.  The main difference is that most of the time is spent clearing out the unwanted material, and the stems are horizontal rather than at an angle, and secured with crooks cut from the hedge.  

Having got the hang of the style they were keen to enter some competitions, so back they went for the Cotley hunt and hedge laying competition 
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/cotley-hunt-holding-hedge-laying-competition-at-meet-306302
They put in a respectable performance with Gary getting 2nd place in the intermediate competition.

Our Society are doing a "Midland" day next weekend so it will be interesting to see

Pictures https://flic.kr/s/aHsmg9R4e4
 

With a forecast for snow thanks to the "mini beast from the east" the number of attendees for the fun day was lower than usual.  When we arrived at Ed's farm the weather did not disappoint, it was bitterly cold.
We have been to Hope farm a few times, and it was good to see the hedges re-growing well, such a transformation from the horrible old gappy thing we started with.  Ed and the team have been busy and the farm itself is looking good, they even have a small camp site.

We decided to swap the direction of laying in about the middle of the length and Mike Bentley's section had the cross over, and he did a super job of blending the stems and  it was not obvious until you looked for it.

Further down the hedge Phil Hart had a very gappy section of trees to contend with, and it looked like he was creating some chainsaw carving art at one point.

Each section went down pretty well, although Mike and Phil were struggling a bit for time.

Amazingly we had a visitor!  Guy MacNaughton who lives in Goudhurst and had shown an interest in hedge laying came along, and saw the process involved and to keep warm we put him to work with a little tidying up and popping on some binders.  He was keen to get some training, hopefully he was not put off :-)

Ed and Gemma put on a BBQ in the warm of their hay barn and everyone tucked in. 

Because of the low turnout we need to revisit to finish the hedge, we'll figure out a date in the next few weeks, and let everyone know. 

Sussex Lund, the grant programme established by Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin, has opened for new applications today (19 February 2018).
Successful projects in 2017 included:

• Removal of invasive species, such as rhododendron, from small community woodlands
• Creation of a new hedge and wildflower meadow garden in Ashburnham
• Several hedge-laying and restoration projects (to create wildlife corridors)
  
• Restoration of a natural floodplain at Sheffield Park Estate
• Equipment purchase and training for volunteer groups managing woods and heaths.
  

http://www.highweald.org/news/2319-sussex-lund-grant-programme-opens-for-2018-applications.html

Here are the results
The 3 ploughing matches have scores for the day, with the highest winning the most points
The annual comp was split over 3 classes so a separate judge ranked each highest to lowest (an only the top placed entries were marked). Hence this is not an exact match to individual scores (if anyone can think of a better way to do this let me know!)

Congratulations to all the winners.
Tony Gallow piped Gary Moore by one point to win the Champions class
We limit the Champion class to seven, and the lowest score each year sees someone relegated to Senior class and they have to battle their way back by winning.  This year our senior winner Phil Hart who moves Champion class, well done Phil.  David Dunk was a close second, and managed the whole thing with just hand tools.
Gary did however easily win the “Points Trophy” (points awarded for three ploughing matches and our annual competition)
In Veteran’s Clive Gilligan lost by one point to Mark Moore
In the Novice section Matthew Beard managed to hoover up all the prizes and next year moves up to Senior class (and from 8 yards to 10 yards on average)
The regrowth from last year was disappointing so we only awarded 1st place which went to Roger Taylor, who’s section was slightly better than anyone else managed.
 
Our new novices did well, they all finished their sections, with a little help from our chainsaw steward.   Well done as a competition as an individual is a big jump from a training day. The trick is sharp tools and more practice, and most important to ask someone to critique their work after every section.
 
Thanks to all those who helped out, our wonderful judges and stewards who were all offering advice to the novices (and probably others as well) to help and encourage.  This was very much appreciated by all, and really helped us deliver a really good hedge for the landowner.  The setup crew did a superb job, and our team of photographers who provided pictures of everything and seemed to appear (often on mass) every-time we made a mistake! 

Thanks to those who travelled a long distance - we had spectators from Yorkshire, and competitors from Holland.... and Dorset.
 
Thanks to the landowner for providing a great hedge, with great access

Just two more events left this season, the Fun day at Wittersham (superb lunch here!), and a bonus "midland day" back at Magham Down.  The Midland day is for the more experienced cutters who would like to try a different style.  Everyone is welcome, but I suggest only spectating if you are quite new to hedge laying.