More fence posts

[DeltaRed]

Here in dry western Colorado we have cedar posts. they are crooked as can be and last forever,especially in wet seepy alkali 'dirt'.Like hedge,cedar is hard,nearly impossible to drive a staple,you tie the wire to the post.There is often gravel/dirt stuck/grown into the bark.Very hard on a chain.they are also getting harder to get as supplies dwindle and no one wants to work that hard.They command similar high prices.

 

[tim s]

I know back in the day,,and even now we have to work with what we have, and there are so many different kinds of wood to work with in each locality.. The Locust that we have around here dry out hard, but at the early point of use a long steeple will drive in easy and hold tight,,after a few years you need to use shorter steeples,,and you know how that goes with the fingers you hold the steeple with... I will get a picture of some of that fence we built back in the 80's,,it still looks good and is turning cattle .

 

[Philip d]

You can buy 8' 6-8" cedar posts here for $3.50 each

 

[Russ from MN]

The cedar that we have in N MN is very soft, but fairly rot resistant, but depending on the soil they will rot off just below ground level. When I was growing up (1964) we got 8 cents to peel a 7 foot post. One of the neighbor boys would get off the school bus and peel 100 posts and then walk home 2 miles before dark, he was good!

 

[Part Time Pete]

Around here we use either locust or larch. When I was a kid, early spring was when you would split and sharpen locust posts - we would split them with a sledge and wedges, and sharpen them on the buzz saw. A lot of work, but for some crazy reason I enjoyed it..
Pete

 

[Russ from MN]

Another tidbit about cedar posts! We used to sharpen the big end with a chainsaw and then push them in the ground with the dozer blade, or the blade on the skidder. In the spring after the frost went out the ground was soft and it worked fairly well, we put in a few miles that way. Most of our posts were less that 8 inch dia.

 

[tim s]

Here are some pics that I just took of some 38 year old locust post with Red Brand woven wire,,I see that the tops of some of them are starting to suffer from the weather, we get a lot of rain here in central Ohio,,that's hard on them too.

 

[Bruce from Can.]

You can hardly by a post for ten bucks here in Ontario

 

[Ken Macfarlane]

Same here, eastern white cedar.

 

[Dan in North Houston]

At our place in Grimes County, Tx, I found an old fence line in a patch of yaupon trees. The cedar fence posts had weathered away to where they were about 1 1/2" to 2" in diameter. In many places, they still held the staples and the fence. No telling how old they are, could be a hundred years old.

 

[accumulator]

What's a steeple? We use staples in my part of the country.

 

[fixerupper]

Here in northwest Iowa split cedar posts were fairly popular years ago. I was told they were shipped up from Missouri. After these posts were in the ground 30 or 40 years the part of the post underground would be rotted down to 2 or 3 inches thick but the post would still be standing OK. I took out a couple of cedar post fences and gave the posts to an old neighbor who burned wood for heat. It sure did smell good around his house when he was burning those posts. He was in his upper 80’s and sawed all those posts into firewood length pieces by hand.

 

[tim s]

Around here you Staple papers,, and steeple wire...like fence post,,different in other parts of the country.. ;^)

 

[Nancy Howell]

Years ago, people in E. Tx used cedar or bois d'arc (bo dark). Bois d'ark is very, very hard and lasts a long time, has thorns and a large grapefruit sized fruit called a hedge apple. You rarely see wooden posts anymore. Everyone uses t-posts now.

 

[2x4]

In the east we call it Osage Orange.

 

[TomA in CA]

As I mentioned on the tool thread out west we are using pipe more and more for corner posts and braces, then t posts in between there is oilfield pipe available used.It costs about $50 for a 30' legnth. I think it is the same as 2-1/2" pipe. It costs about the same as a long lasting wood post, stronger and should last a long time. Set in concrete, I like to pour a beam with rebar on the strain side.

 

[Leroy]

Here in Ohio have never hears of Bois D " Arc but hedge apple yes and never that orange name. I personally don't think I ever saw a hedge apple but heard of them. And unless it is a board fence then the t-posts.

 

[Pappy]

Out in central Kansas, I noticed a lot of stone fence posts. Cut from the abundance of limestone in the area, obviously from the lack of trees.