Ken McRae at Bonchester Bridge

Date Added: 24 October 2008 Contributor: Gordon Urquhart Year of Photo: 1950 Picture No: 369

Ken McRae had a lifelong career in forestry, with the FCS in the early days prior to working as an freelance associate. Here he is see on a motorbike, at Bonchester Bridge in the Borders. Was this a Forestry bike? Did anyone else get one? What kind is it? How did it cope "off-road"

His experiences in the industry inform some of his humourous writing. Download "Estate Job" by clicking on the PDF tab above. It tells of Ken's induction into the forestry as part of a scheme for ex-servicemen.

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1 Comment

A very well told tale expertly describing the conditions and characters of the time and brought back many personal memories of my first days in forestry on a private estate in Perthshire 1961 to 1963. Fortunately my accommodation conditions were much better. I particularly enjoyed the descriptions and technical terminology of the felling operations and brought back my own memories of attempts at splitting the match and the self same pride in maintaining a sharp axe that could shave the hair off the arm. One skill that I mastered to only a modest degree was cutting a 'woodman's cross' on a stump. This involved taking an axe in your normal grip and striking a hard blow into a stump with blade entering about 20 degrees off the vertical. The next stroke was undertaken in the opposite hand grip and aiming the axe blade to land parallel to the last one but less than half inch from it and the blade this time leaning 20 degrees the other way. If well executed a strip of wood the length of the axe blade with a triangular cross section would jump out. These two operations were replicated again but cross ways on as near to the mid point of the cut out groove thus forming crossed grooves -'wood man's cross'.
Many thanks Ken for all your stories, they are gems indeed. Comment left on 31 October 2008 at 11:11 by Norman Davidson

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