Lots of dead leaves on the gravel.
Seem to recall the groundkeepers at school had a sort of flamethrower
thingy like a teapot with a 3-foot spout. Parafin in the 'pot' part,
pump it up, release valve slightly, light end of spout, point at
leaves open valve some more, burn off leaves, turn off valve. left a
little ash but all the leaves went.

Any idea what it's called & where one could instruct one's man to
obtain such a device ??

salud!

"bluesky" wrote in message
...
Lots of dead leaves on the gravel.
Seem to recall the groundkeepers at school had a sort of flamethrower
thingy like a teapot with a 3-foot spout. Parafin in the 'pot' part,
pump it up, release valve slightly, light end of spout, point at
leaves open valve some more, burn off leaves, turn off valve. left a
little ash but all the leaves went.

Any idea what it's called & where one could instruct one's man to
obtain such a device ??

A weed burner, usually run from a propane gas cylinder these days. They
should be available from garden tool suppliers

Colin Bignell

"bluesky" wrote in message
...
Lots of dead leaves on the gravel.
Seem to recall the groundkeepers at school had a sort of
flamethrower
thingy like a teapot with a 3-foot spout. Parafin in the 'pot' part,
pump it up, release valve slightly, light end of spout, point at
leaves open valve some more, burn off leaves, turn off valve. left a
little ash but all the leaves went.

Any idea what it's called & where one could instruct one's man to
obtain such a device ??

salud!

Yes, weedburner. Very effective but a few words of caution: gravel
pops and shatters if you heat it too quickly, and as you walk over the
bit you've burned the hot gravel melts the souls of your shoes!
(AMHIK)

AWEM

On Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:21:37 GMT, Cicero wrote:

They seem to be a stock item at Lidl, and the replacement cylinders are
also there.

Thats a tiddly thing, will just about do small areas. The OP's
description fits the Sheen X300 paraffin weed burner. I'd have
thought it a bit risky taking a weed burner to dry leaves, get a few
burning, gust of wind and you have burning leaves all over the
place...

--
Cheers
Dave.

"Andrew Mawson" wrote in message
news

"bluesky" wrote in message
...
Lots of dead leaves on the gravel.
Seem to recall the groundkeepers at school had a sort of
flamethrower
thingy like a teapot with a 3-foot spout. Parafin in the 'pot' part,
pump it up, release valve slightly, light end of spout, point at
leaves open valve some more, burn off leaves, turn off valve. left a
little ash but all the leaves went.

Any idea what it's called & where one could instruct one's man to
obtain such a device ??

salud!

Yes, weedburner. Very effective but a few words of caution: gravel
pops and shatters if you heat it too quickly, and as you walk over the
bit you've burned the hot gravel melts the souls of your shoes!
(AMHIK)

AWEM

But why burn dead leaves? They spend all that time absorbing CO2, and then
you want to release it all again? Surely composting has to be a better
(though a little more strenuous) option?

On 18 Oct, 20:51, bluesky wrote:
Lots of dead leaves on the gravel.
Seem to recall the groundkeepers at school had a sort of flamethrower
thingy like a teapot with a 3-foot spout.

Fiver from a good farm auction, fortune on eBay.

Damn useless, but great fun. I have three of the things (and never
get round to eBaying that which I ought)

Best thing is a besom broom (i.e. fan-shaped long bristles, not a
wooden head) and just sweeping them up.

In article ,
"John Whitworth" writes:

But why burn dead leaves? They spend all that time absorbing CO2, and then
you want to release it all again? Surely composting has to be a better
(though a little more strenuous) option?

The same CO2 is released either way.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On Oct 19, 12:00*am, (Andrew Gabriel)
wrote:
In article ,
* * * * "John Whitworth" writes:



But why burn dead leaves? They spend all that time absorbing CO2, and then
you want to release it all again? Surely composting has to be a better
(though a little more strenuous) option?

The same CO2 is released either way.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

I got one this year. I used it to burn off weed seeds in the rows I
had prepared and was about to sow. Made the weeding over the season
much easier.

On Oct 18, 11:47*pm, Andy Dingley wrote:
On 18 Oct, 20:51, bluesky wrote:

Lots of dead leaves on the gravel.
Seem to recall the groundkeepers at school had a sort of flamethrower
thingy like a teapot with a 3-foot spout.

Fiver from a good farm auction, fortune on eBay.

Damn useless, but great fun. * I have three of the things * (and never
get round to eBaying that which I ought)

Best thing is a besom broom (i.e. fan-shaped long bristles, not a
wooden head) and just sweeping them up.


I had one, but not really worth using, more a gimmick. If you read up
on them you'll find that to be worth having one needs to be
surprisingly high power, the domestic models dont really cut it.

Tried a garden vac too, but the size, weight and extension cord meant
it was just as quick to sweep them up. I guess thats why pro
groundspeople still just sweep them.


NT

On 19 Oct, 00:00, (Andrew Gabriel) wrote:

But why burn dead leaves? They spend all that time absorbing CO2, and then
you want to release it all again? Surely composting has to be a better
(though a little more strenuous) option?

The same CO2 is released either way.

'cept the burning paraffin/butane/whatever will add extra CO2.....

In article ,
JimK writes:
On 19 Oct, 00:00, (Andrew Gabriel) wrote:

But why burn dead leaves? They spend all that time absorbing CO2, and then
you want to release it all again? Surely composting has to be a better
(though a little more strenuous) option?

The same CO2 is released either way.

'cept the burning paraffin/butane/whatever will add extra CO2.....

good point.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

Thanks for your replies.

Not sure whether to follow up on it at the price...

Cheers

Andrew Gabriel wrote:

In article ,
"John Whitworth" writes:

But why burn dead leaves? They spend all that time absorbing CO2, and
then you want to release it all again? Surely composting has to be a
better (though a little more strenuous) option?

The same CO2 is released either way.

Pyrolyse them instead, should break even with leaf mould in the soil at 5
years and thereonafter sequester the carbon for the few hundred years it
takes for oxydising radicals the chomp at it.

AJH

"JimK" wrote in message
...
On 19 Oct, 00:00, (Andrew Gabriel) wrote:

But why burn dead leaves? They spend all that time absorbing CO2, and
then
you want to release it all again? Surely composting has to be a better
(though a little more strenuous) option?

The same CO2 is released either way.

'cept the burning paraffin/butane/whatever will add extra CO2.....

Yes, I think that was what I was getting at - I just didn't put it very
well! :-)

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember "Andrew Mawson"
saying something like:

hot gravel melts the souls of your shoes!

Amen.

On Mon, 19 Oct 2009 08:35:51 GMT, Cicero wrote:

The 'Sheen' flame gun maybe the best tool (for its purpose) on the
market but have you seen the current prices - about £140-00? Quite
expensive for an occasional-use toy!

Deepends how much area you have to keep plant free. Wouldn't take
many yards of gravel path to make it worth while. Yeah you could keep
raking it but you aren't killing the weeds by raking they'll come
back PDQ. Zap the tops with a flame and they don't come back.

We have walking stick weed burner does a great job in the french
drains they generally only need zapping twice/year.

--
Cheers
Dave.