Thinking of building a Zig Zag, worm, civil war fence - need some help

   / Thinking of building a Zig Zag, worm, civil war fence - need some help #1  

markrich

New member
Joined
May 15, 2012
Messages
13
Location
Midlothian, Va
Tractor
MF 1652
Other than a review of my Massey Ferguson Tractor this is my first post so I'll do a little introduction.

Last November I purchased 14 acres of land adjacent to the 440 acre farm where my wife and I board our two horses. The land was partially burnt over about 6 or 7 years ago. It had a lot of dead and storm damaged trees. I could see a lot of potential and I love projects. Over the past 9 months I have dropped over 100 dead oaks, mowed a lot of undergrowth, filled many stump holes, removed an old farm dump, graded and shredded, bush hogged, built a forest road and generally had a great deal of fun.

Shortly after buying the land I convinced the Mrs. that I needed some additional equipment to put some sweat equity into the project. In December I purchased a MF1652 tractor with FEL with a 6 ft. Long 4 in 1 bucket, Woods 6 ft. box blade and Woods BB72X. At just over 95 hours all of the above look like their 9 years old rather than 9 months old. Nevertheless, they have performed beyond expectations. We're about 2 weeks away from planting about 5 acres of pasture. We hope to build a house and barn within the next two years.

Now to my question. I would like to build a split rail zig zag fence at the entrance. I have a lot of seasoned trees available. Anyone know the technique that was used to create the rails?
 
   / Thinking of building a Zig Zag, worm, civil war fence - need some help #2  
Sounds like fun...

I think you will find a myraid of answers HERE and HERE .


Be sure to post up some pictures of everythang!
 
   / Thinking of building a Zig Zag, worm, civil war fence - need some help #3  
Most of the fences (that are still around) were split cedar rails.Our farm goes back to 1860 and we still find parts of these fences.
 
   / Thinking of building a Zig Zag, worm, civil war fence - need some help #4  
Artisan said:
Sounds like fun...

I think you will find a myraid of answers HERE and HERE .

Be sure to post up some pictures of everythang!

Neither of those sources tells how to split the rails.
 
   / Thinking of building a Zig Zag, worm, civil war fence - need some help
  • Thread Starter
#6  
Many thanks Artisan. I'm going to give it a go this weekend. I'll post results.

Mark
 
   / Thinking of building a Zig Zag, worm, civil war fence - need some help #7  
I saw where a man built a post splitter. He used a 4x24 cylinder and a long I beam and I think he used a wide wedge and said it worked like a charm on locust posts.:2cents:
 
   / Thinking of building a Zig Zag, worm, civil war fence - need some help #8  
I am not sure I would want to put that kind of time and effort into an oak fence that wont last long
 
   / Thinking of building a Zig Zag, worm, civil war fence - need some help #9  
way too much work.
 
 
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