I attended a local birthday party last night (and I don't do that too often) where I met up with Geoff Herbert. Herb, as we call him, used to be a silvercultural contractor who worked on the forest for some time and I admired the hard work he carried out.Luck did not always follow poor old Herb and he never really recovered from the setback caused when the guy he was in partnership with in a logging operation, drove off with the log-skidder and sold it in off, pocketing the cash!
Herb now is in the firewood business and uses a small crawler tractor, winch and logging arch to extract his produce.
I was interested to know where Herb had found a logging arch, because these days they are not used so much because there are more modern machines available to 'the big boys' today.
He had found the one that I arranged for Bert Bennett!This takes me back to 1965 or 6! Bert, who owned the local sawmill used to log farm blocks in the district to run his sawmill. He used a TD6 crawler tractor with a winch and skidded the logs out of the bush causing the butt of the logs to be filled with soil and stones.
My old mate Keith Gibson, was the sawyer at the mill and as part of his duties he sharpened the saw blades. Keith operated the breaking down bench which cut the logs down to a suitable size for the breast bench which cut the actual timber.
To reduce time and saw maintenance, Bill Matches was employed from time to time to chip away the rough bark, soil and stones from the butt of the larger logs.
I suggested to Bert that a logging arch help produce cleaner logs and make for a more efficient logging operation (and Bill had died). Through my forestry contacts I was able to source an arch from Tapanui for Bert to try. It was an instant success and old Bob Yates (who operated it) wanted Bert to keep it.
Well I did have some influence! Bert was given the arch because, as I put it, he would be logging in the forest soon.
Well the arch was used for some considerable time but became redundant when Bert bought a Timberjack log-skidder.
I am thrilled to know Herb is now getting very good use out it!
My old mate Keith Gibson, was the sawyer at the mill and as part of his duties he sharpened the saw blades. Keith operated the breaking down bench which cut the logs down to a suitable size for the breast bench which cut the actual timber.
To reduce time and saw maintenance, Bill Matches was employed from time to time to chip away the rough bark, soil and stones from the butt of the larger logs.
I suggested to Bert that a logging arch help produce cleaner logs and make for a more efficient logging operation (and Bill had died). Through my forestry contacts I was able to source an arch from Tapanui for Bert to try. It was an instant success and old Bob Yates (who operated it) wanted Bert to keep it.
Well I did have some influence! Bert was given the arch because, as I put it, he would be logging in the forest soon.
Well the arch was used for some considerable time but became redundant when Bert bought a Timberjack log-skidder.
I am thrilled to know Herb is now getting very good use out it!
