pioneering poles

[Tony]

Hi Guys, any good sources for pioneering poles of varied sizes? There is a guy over in Merseyside right by one of the scout camps who does some good stuff but he does not usually have very big poles.

[jamesdevine]

Across the small pond here we recently bought a load from the state forestry company.

I't might be worth a while ring around some of the timber farm companies there and some of them may sell poles at a reasonable price.

James

[Keith_Beef]

Hi Guys, any good sources for pioneering poles of varied sizes? There is a guy over in Merseyside right by one of the scout camps who does some good stuff but he does not usually have very big poles.

What sort of wood and what length/diameter makes a good pole?

I've cut some chestnut poles and one or two hazel poles over the last few years, but the chestnut especially seems to taper too quickly to be useful once the length gets over about 5' or 6'. Hazel seems to stay parallel for up to 7', but is much thinner.

I managed to find myself a piece of chestnut last weekend that I'm going to make into a walking stick or a whiskey stick; nice root knob and 4' straightish shaft.


Keith.

[Scott]

Hazel is great for camp craft type stuff such as tables, kitchen drainers and the like but if you want to build something substantial in the classic sense then pine is by far and away the best.

We use pine poles for our pioneering poles.

[Anonymous]

For our poles we use Douglas fir or larch, we find spruce doesn’t last too long. You can use chestnut or ash. As for dimensions we have 8,12 and 16 foot poles. The butts tend to be 3 ½ , 4, 4 – 4 1/2 inchs diameter respectively. They all taper down to around 3 inchs. We also use 6 ft poles but these are often cut down form damaged or old longer poles.

Interesting site, might join, do you know of anywhere else us Leaders can chat about these sorts of things.

Big Jon

[clownman]

we have poplar poles, they were cut from the branches of some felled 80ft trees, and they were free!

[mr dazzler]

the ones we used back in the 70's for scout projects were most likely larch or spruce but not sure.
Ash coppice would be strong, but possibly not very straight, and wont last very well. Ash isnt a good wood for outdoor durability. Chestbnut is more durable. Do you want them for a one off prioject or to keep in store for repeated future use? Is it erssential they are absolutely ruler-straight? An oak log split 4, maybe 8 ways, with the sap wood and pith centre removed, then rounded off with axe/drawkife etc would last very well and be strong. It might be worth considering fixing iron ferrule rings on the ends to strengthen the ends. Tanalised poles from garden centers wouldnt be strong enough I suspect. A cleft (split) pole is near max possible strength the split follows the grain.

[WolfCub]

Big John, try " escouts " Just google it, should come up. Good site, lots of different Leaders and ideas, discussions.

Probably scrap that, just noticed date of orriginal post , oops.

[crazydave]

bit late but get some bamboo, cheap waterproof and light. I got 60 12 foot poles for a 100 quid a few years back.

[Buckshot]

We got some fencing posts
10 ft long by about 4 inches diameter

Work well

Mark