3 board fence help - post setting, preserving, and finish (stain etc)

[Slacker]

Howdy all...

I grew up in rural horse country Virginia; built mile after mile of fence using locust post and oak rail. This was during the 70's and its all still there.

Been in OK for quite a while so I have to ask...in the area from PA down to VA, is nobody using locust/oak anymore.

I know one thing has changed. Even the rich can no longer afford to paint white; most is creosote.

I've got a ton of Honey Locust (big thorn/spikes!) on my land. I was told that it is popular as fence post, but it must be cut at the correct time of year. Anyone know what time of year that is or if its even true? The locust I have is rock hard. Dulls chainsaw chains quickly. Once its dry a big chunk will burn for 24 hrs in my woodstove.
I use cedar for almost all fence posts. Corner posts I've used PT 6x6's set in concrete. The eastern red cedar set in dirt lasts longer than the PT'd. I'm not sure about the eastern white cedar like they have in the NE.

 

[KentT]

I've got a ton of Honey Locust (big thorn/spikes!) on my land. I was told that it is popular as fence post, but it must be cut at the correct time of year. Anyone know what time of year that is or if its even true? The locust I have is rock hard. Dulls chainsaw chains quickly. Once its dry a big chunk will burn for 24 hrs in my woodstove.
I use cedar for almost all fence posts. Corner posts I've used PT 6x6's set in concrete. The eastern red cedar set in dirt lasts longer than the PT'd. I'm not sure about the eastern white cedar like they have in the NE.

We used to cut Black Locust posts in the summer, and sell them to the local Farmers Co-Op, where they resold them for primarily cornerposts... never was enough Honey Locust around to do much with -- they were a novelty that we mostly avoided because of their thorns.

You want to saw and split locust when they're full of sap -- i.e. not in the winter. Once they dry out they're as hard as nails... we'd often bend staples, unless you nailed them in perfectly straight.

But, I don't think that has anything to do with how long they last, only how difficult they are to work with...

As far as cedar -- red cedar (though not a dense, tough wood by ANY means) is still MUCH denser and tougher than white cedar. The red heartwood of a red cedar will last for a long, long time. The white cedar is about the equivalent of the whitish outside sap layers of red cedar...

 

[mjarrels]

Dad used locust post all the time... fence lines now are about 45 years old and most of the post are shot. I still have his old draw knifes in the garage and the blades are well worn from debarking hundreds of locust post.

mark

 

[KaiB]

Oh yeah,

Fond memories of the smell of the mills, the red oak rails, laying out fence...the heat, the ice, the pain.

You'll find my name on miles of fence and many barns in Fauquier County.

RE: Drilling holes...back then, we used 8d hardened screw shank nails on fence, just drove 'em in.

 

[hazmat]

In case anyone is interested, it takes about 10 hours to knock down & stack 450 feet of fence. I'll take a pic tonight. A grapple or front forks would have cut the cleanup time in half. I ended up hauling the sections in my dump trailer.

I was going to strip the chainlink off & reuse it for the new fence (and avoid disposal costs as well), but it took me 20 minutes to do one 8 foot section. Once I started doing the math, new wire didn't seem so expensive. I've ordered a 30 yard roll off - should be here tomorrow.

Fence companies quote to remove at $650 is seeming cheap now - When you factor in the $400 for the container, plus another couple hours to load it...

After I removed the fence I was starting to regrade a bit to smooth out the area where I had removed the pool. Unfortunatley I busted the sidelink on my three point hitch. So now I'm out of comission while I wait for the new part. Wish I had a welder...

 

[EddieWalker]

PICTURES!!!!

Eddie

 

[Soundguy]

Wow.. 20 mins to strip 8' of chainlink off posts? I gotta see pics. Was ever single link tied down or something?

Soundguy

 

[hazmat]

I stapled the chainlink to the boards. In an effort to keep it "stretched", I went a bit overboard on the staples. I used up a box of 5,000 and then got into the second box a bit.

In retrospect I should have used welded or woven wire - it wouldn't have required so many staples to keep it up. Turns out it is cheaper than the "pool code" chainlink (1 1/4" diamonds) too

 

[Soundguy]

I guess so... On my woven wire fence.. 5 staples per post.. 1 post every 8' has ket it nicely stretched..

Soundguy

 

[hazmat]

OK - there was a request for pix. So here ya go.

Roll Off - sorry for the darkness - photographer got interupted by a phone call while I was loading it.

New Lumber

Rest are yard w/o fence including some closeups of the apple blossums. Wouldn't you know the first hole I tried to dig with the PHD - I hit a rock. The dirt areas are where the pool used to be. I started to try to smooth it out, but my landscape rake wasn't digging in well. I've since tilled it & was better able to smooth it out. I'll take more pix as I progress (dependent on the weather right now).