My Belgian weekend

[heimannm]

On Saturday afternoon we went to the Ardenne area where the Battle of the Bulge was decided with a brief stop in Bastonge to see the statue of McCauliff and the tank pointed towards the German border. Our real reason for going south was to meet with Francis Pierard, a forest ranger in the area and as Roland mentioned a real fan of Americans. It seems a lot of the 50+ crowd in Belgium are still pretty grateful for what our guys did in WWII.

Francis has a very interesting collection of saws, logging and forestry memorabelia, and WWII era models of tanks, cars, jeeps, etc. most of which are on display in his upstairs office in his house.

Roland and Francis chatting it up

Francis' display of US & British two man saws

Sorry but I have to get ready to go to work today, maybe I can post some more photo's tonight.

Mark

 

[belgian]

My experience of bicycling in Belgium is that you are never more than about 5 km from a place that sells beer, so as caotropheus says, where are the beer photos?

that is very true, and that's the official reason probably why cycling is n° 1 sport over here ....LOL.

Apart from home made apple juice and water, Mark is unfortunately not allowed to drink beer for health reasons, so that was kind of a bummer ....otherwise he'd been able to taste some of our great beers for sure

But we had great fun anyway !

 

[belgian]

What's going on with the saucepan on top of the 090G? It is some huge air filter?! Never seen anything like it.

Great collection. I haven't got it that bad....

That saucepan is a huge air filter, the saw being the 090 S1 model. It's a two man gearsaw developed by Stihl for cutting of soft stone. That saw has a carbide tip chain ! There are not many of these saws around.

 

[belgian]

The beer is just hype :hmm3grin2orange::hmm3grin2orange::hmm3grin2orange:- they are in a squeeze between Holland and Germany (+ the frog eating wine people South of them), and just have to brag, to survive!

Hush you heathen !!!!

As long as you think it's all hype, that's fine with me. That means there's more for me and prices will stay fair, I hope. :hmm3grin2orange:


talking about frogs... When I brought Mark to the hotel saturday evening, the entire frog population in Belgium decided to take a walk searching for new breeding area's...the road was literally swarmed with these little buggers. Too bad I don't like frog legs....

 

[rxe]

There are not many of these saws around.

Given the dust coming off an operation like that I'd guess not many of the users are around either! Nice bit of kit, never seen one before....

 

[Kogafortwo]

That settles it: next time I get a business trip to Europe, I'm making a side run to Belgium. Maybe I'll bring a couple of Bosch spark plugs with me as a greeting gift.

 

[belgian]

That settles it: next time I get a business trip to Europe, I'm making a side run to Belgium. Maybe I'll bring a couple of Bosch spark plugs with me as a greeting gift.

Hey Koga, good idea !!

I am searching for the bigger spark plugs used on the older Stihl two man saws. These are Bosch M145T1, with M18 x 1,5 thread. Do you know if they still can be had ? I know other collectors looking for those.

I'll post a pic of one of them later.

 

[tomtrees58]

man some nice saws tom

 

[Kogafortwo]

Hey Koga, good idea !!

I am searching for the bigger spark plugs used on the older Stihl two man saws. These are Bosch M145T1, with M18 x 1,5 thread. Do you know if they still can be had ? I know other collectors looking for those.

I'll post a pic of one of them later.

I will check into it & let you know. Gotta do some "Recherche" with my German colleagues.

 

[Modifiedmark]

Nice pictures! Its great when fellow members can get together. I know I had the pleasure of meeting Mark for a hour or two one afternoon. I would love to meet Roland also.

I just wish I could get paid to travel abroad. The only time I get paid for travel is beating my guts out down the road in a big truck. :bang:

 

[yooper]

cool photos, boy you can always tell a Belgian by there nose........trust me I nose

 

[joatmon]

Mark and Roland,

You guys rock. I don't care what Tommy says.

Thanks,

joat

 

[cpr]

Hey Roland, I notice you have a wire extentsion on your tach. Do you find it helps pick up the signal? Is the end jammed in there stripped or did you leave the insulation on?

 

[Bill G]

Roland (or Bill G) will have to identify this vintage Stihl unit

Mark

It appears to be a KS43 which is a saw I would like to find. I have discussed a trade with Roland in the past but he did not have any to trade at that time

Bill

 

[procarbine2k1]

Wonderful collection Belgian, wonderful! Thanks for posting these up Mark.

 

[Teddy.Scout]

Wonderful collection Belgian, wonderful! Thanks for posting these up Mark.

I agree!:agree2:

But will add a couple words: AWESOME, SPECTACULAR, and just down right AMAZING collection and pics!!

 

[spacemule]

Thanks, Master. Space is becoming indeed a problem already.

Hey!

 

[tdi-rick]

Hey!

I was waiting for the interjection after that line.


and getting back on topic,

Great thread fella's, thanks to both of you for sharing.

 

[belgian]

Hey Roland, I notice you have a wire extentsion on your tach. Do you find it helps pick up the signal? Is the end jammed in there stripped or did you leave the insulation on?

That wire extension came standard with the tach, and I have never removed it. The tach works flawlessly, only needs a few seconds or so to pick up the signal.

It appears that the wire is inserted with the insulation still on it.

 

[belgian]

thanks for all the nice comments, folks ! It is appreciated