Treating pole posts?

[Dozernut]

Got any Hedge Apple (Ossage Orange), Cowboydoc and all them Texans calls it bois de ark, SP? ( is that spelling right Cowboydoc). Very dense wood, rot and insect resistant and requires no treatment. But have a sharp saw! Oh yeah, that stuff is heavy.

 

[EdKing]

<font color=blue>Got any Hedge Apple (Ossage Orange)</font color=blue>

We call it Monkey Ball around here. Only problem is you have to let it cure after cutting, or the posts will start growing again. Really gums up a chainsaw as well.

 

[shade2u2]

Around here, Locust trees are preferred for use as posts. It is a hard wood & resistent to rot from what I've heard... I don't think that many even treat them. Probably would not last a lifetime, but many years...

 

[jwhite]

No Locust or Apple. I have 12 acres of 97% Oak, 2% Pine and Hemlock, 1% Hickory and Maple. I have LOTS of big oak trunks down from clearing for the house I built and from having electric brought in. Since I have a sawmill, looking for a way to use it to save on materials.

Just seems wrong to me to buy Pine PT posts, when I have all the strong oak available. It was an interesting idea to splice PT onto the bottoms. On a porch addition, I poured concrete piers to about 6 inches above grade so I could use my oak without worry. I really want to built an equipment shed for the tractor and implements and was thinking of a pole shed using on-site wood.

BTW, Culpepper, VA is a couple hours from here so I will check with them. I am about 30 minutes west of Winchester, VA.

Thanks!

 

[EdKing]

We use locust around here as well. I have seen posts in the ground for better than 15 years that are still solid.

 

[Dozernut]

We use the black locust, not the honey locust (big thorns, flat tires). The black is more resistant to decay. Monkey Ball, thats a new one on me. It would be interesting to hear what it is called around the USA.

 

[MJB]

My uncle swears by Black Locust for his fence posts. He claims it will last longer in ground contact than a stone will./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif It is real twisty and crooked stuff, but works fine for fence posts.

 

[EdKing]

I had never heard of honey locust until I purchased my farm. I found these trees that looked like they came out of a medeval tourture chamber. I still haven't figured out why they call them honey locust. I can't see anything sweet about them.

 

[bmabe]

I just removed (by hand, mattock, axe and 12" Sawzall blade) a 20 year old black locust stump from my house prooperty in NJ. Zero rot. No deterioration of the wood whatsoever! I was impressed with the resistance of the stuff. Had the tree (actually 2 together) taken down because of capenter ants getting into the heart wood. 20 years later the remaining wood of the stump and the roots was solid.

Now I know why it's used for fence posts and such - except, as I recall, the logs were next to impossible to split.

Barry Mabery

 

[Slamfire]

I helped my Dad take out a fence that had locust posts. They looked pretty bad where they were in the ground. He said he remembered building the fence, 70 years ago....