Ashkirk Timber Company Branches
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MACHINERY ASHKIRK TIMBER COMPANY Skeldon - Owner of 3 Different Models of BRANCHES OUT Bryce Post Drivers WHEN YOU MEET THE SKELDONS BASED AT ASHKIRK NEAR HAWICK IN THE SCOTTISH BORDERS, YOU UNDERSTAND FULLY WITHIN THE FIRST MINUTE OF SPEAKING TO THEM THERE IS NO MESSING. They are very well organized and focus through 5000 1m x 100mm x 19mm on high daily tallies with the minimum of boards/hr. Indeed – they could produce effort. Quality well-maintained equipment an artic load in 4/5 hours. 2000 x and a reliable workforce are top priorities 3.6m rails/day was another impressive for these guys. statistic for a small family mill with the 3 Working in remote and rugged country boys working at night and weekends up where at times you never see even a until they left school – and they couldn’t glimpse of a human being, requires hardy leave quick enough! With Adam’s wife John & Neil Skeldon with 2 of their 3 Bryce post drivers souls and reliable, high output equipment. Margaret also working in the sawmill it John, Neil and Michael Skeldon’s late made for a formidable team. father Adam was a woodcutter with Michael went out on his own and a speciality of felling big hardwoods. into timber harvesting with 3 harvesters in the 70’s and well before that too New Fencing Business & Mechanisation Opportunities arose and Adam took and 3 forwarders but with the disease in ! Unfortunately this simple treatment So in the mid-90s times were them, so in 1972 he bought an ex- larch and a big problem finding careful plant had to be mothballed because of changing, coal mines were closing down gravel quarry and with a new house reliable operators, that business was regulation requirements and also because and the demand for pit props dried up. For under construction, and with foresight wound up so he is now back home the Skeldons couldn’t deal with the volume father Adam and 3 strong boys, Michael, and the ability to clinch a deal, Adam working with his 2 brothers. Days required to keep a very busy fencing John and Neil, fencing was the obvious started building what was to be known as start by rising at 5.30am and often contract business running at the speed next step. Adam supplied fencers with Sandyhaugh Sawmill. Home-sawn timber not home till 7-8pm in the evening. required to cope with the output of a materials and as some were starting to was cut and these large timber-framed very mechanised system used to keep retire he took the opportunity to start sheds sprand up like mushrooms. The Timber Treatment up with the workload. up a fencing contract business. They original Yankee rack bench is still there All the fencing materials that they sold Now they take all their timber to bought a new Kinghitter post driver from but with demand for fencing material required treatment so a creosote plant Robertson Timber of St. Boswells to get Jock Bryce and they started picking up and with big contacts with the Coal was installed. All timber was air-dried what is regarded as the best modern a bit of work here and there which tied Board rolling in for pit props (for the coal in drying sheds then loaded into the day treatment available in Scotland. in well with their existing sawmill work. mines) 4 Stenner saws were installed tank which was then filled with creosote Robertsons offer a 20 year guarantee from In 2001 they bought their first Bryce to cope with demand. – one of which heated with the sawmill offcuts. Yes – Arch Timber Protection on all redwood Suma as they needed something that was a 4-headed multi. This could rattle green energy was on the go way back timber supplied and treated by them. was quicker and made the job easier. 70 Fencing & Landscaping News December 2015 / January 2016 MACHINERY On lower ground but still hard and all rockspiked. Dave runs out the wire a masterpiece. We now have our sights An end strainer on a stock net and John does the posting for 12 exercising paddocks for bulls set on a 2nd HD180. fence with a hot wire still to run. John continues “ I don’t think Jock Traditional expertise is still Bryce gets enough recognition for what practiced in its simplicity. he has achieved. For a working man to do what he’s done deserves the highest recognition. I remember when he holed up in an old caravan in 1976 up the top end of Ettrick Valley. He erected 20,000 mts in 4 months all on his own and he’s now on the World stage – takes some beating does that. He was a grafter. He has revolutionised the way fencing is done with his machines all over the World. Jock has set the bar and he keeps raising it. The rest now try to copy what he does and I don’t have any respect for these kinds that do that. They haven’t got what it takes and look on others Business really started to take off and in past the Bryce. We have looked at other for ideas, but they will never beat the job done quickly”. It is easy to load up order to achieve high outputs of erected makes that on paper appear to tick a lot man that kicked it all off. I know he the machine with 500metre rolls and fence, ramping up mechanisation was of boxes, but when you get down to the has spent a fortune on protecting his no forklift or loader required. the only way to do it, or start losing nitty gritty, their overall rating falls way ideas and I really hope it stands him business. “My late father offered sound short of the Bryce machines in terms of in good stead.” Summary advice – think hard before you spend very fast cycle times, performance and The more you speak to these guys .nhoJ syas ”netsil dna kool dna og – ti – og dna kool dna ”netsil syas .nhoJ reliability. Bryce machines aren’t worn Wire Dispenser the more you are convinced of their High investment in equipment now gives out after 2 years use – think 10 years Like post drivers the Skeldons have arguments. They are always thinking them the weekend off – fencing at least, plus, and you still get strong money for looked at net unrollers/tensioners. Two and trying to find a better way to make but you might just find them in the them. If you look at the build quality, problems here says Neil –“they tie up a it quicker and easier. When you consider sawmill on a Saturday pointing stakes the attention to details, the rockspike tractor and with a lot of our fences having another recent tally on a hill farm of or peeling posts,. These guys are born systems and quadshift, what can you many turning posts, you would be in and 4400 metres double scare wire on dyke and bred to graft. David Gillon worked say – there’s nowt else to touch them. out the tractor lifting net round the back backs (double guard wire on drystone for Colin Robertson for 29 years – firstly We have considered a lighter tracked of posts all the time, plus on these twisty walls), 385 metres of high tensile stock fencing and manufacturing gates, sheep machine that we can tow with the pickups. fence lines you can’t pull the net to one net and 10 swinging gates in 5 working troughs, potato boxes etc and for the It would be handy but it simply wouldn’t end – you have to pull it to the middle days, you can’t take it away from them. last 20 years was yard foreman in full work as the ground we work on can with the clamps to get even tension at The Skeldons appear to have the charge of the treatment plant. With vary so much, even on the same job – both ends. We can often be unrolling perfect team – all have been involved his prior experience and knowledge of soft and easy then very hard or stony. net down steep banks, through a burn ( in timber all their lives and when on fencing and treatment Dave was the We need the output and can’t accept a a stream in Scotland) and up the other the job each one knows the next move perfect fit and 4 years ago became the compromise – if you can’t get the strainers side.” Apart from tricky high hill country, instinctively. They all work in harmony, 4th member of the Skeldon team. Two in the ground the full depth then you are a lot of their work is round forestry and they cover big distances fast , forward teams of two when required – and no not a professional contractor. woodland with many twists and turns. planning and logistics is key and they time for hangers-on! You can’t single out one machine The last 2 stretches of the current job have the willingness to invest to cater The Skeldons now run three Bryce as the best – they are all topnotch and they are completing had 17 strainers for their large customer base. post drivers – a Forest Supreme, a all have a big part to play. Having said in 250 metres and 7 strainers in 100 Profi with all the extras and an HD180, that, the HD180 is the one that gets metres. “There is no way you could use and this combination gives them the the most use day in and day out.