Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Rural Living Fence posts, John Irwin

A neighbor offered us some fence posts. We always can use good posts.

Not a good picture of John, too bright out.

The posts, and some panels.

John would not take any money, I need to get a package of prime steaks to him.

4" treated ?

here in Podunk

we can buy a fresh cut cedar post 11-12" at the base for $8

this cedar post.........

probably planted in 1953.......

still holdin up a fence...........

and a Marlin

big azz cedar post

Cedar is where its at

Tik, those are old time creosote I'm sure. The size? The price was right.

Not a thing wrong with a cedar post, I'll think in that dry climate any post lasts a long time.

Years ago we had some red oak posts, hard to drive a staple into.

You better have a talk with that fence post....

It's fallin' down on the job!

no the fence fell down

sold many a Marlin rifles from that post !

the saying

pic is worth a 1000 words !

I use a lot of cedar posts, and there are some here on the farm still standing, that I know were here when I was a small child, and I just turned 70.

What is easy to come by that works.

Evnin, our old cedar barn is still standing & doesn't look any different than it did in 1951 when I was born. When we put in a cement floor we had to take out cedar floor. It was cedar poles standing on end (about fire wood length) when they came out they were only soft & degraded for about 2 inches, the rest of it was like the day my grand father put them in. We hosed them down, & my job was to split them into kindling. If the owners of it now decide to tear the barn down I want a nice log to make a table, they came off the farm when they cleared the land & ya can't get your arms around them. Bill out. 👣🐾🇨🇦

Good neighbor, good score. This spring I cut a bunch of Black locust for posts.

Wayne, you have of course, squared those posts, can you set them bark, and all?

How long do you typically expect black locust to last in a fence?

Yes sir.

I've got a lot of posts in the ground that came from used fence that an old friend of my father's wanted taken down. He died this past year.....lot of good memories tied to him and the posts give me lots of opportunities to remember him.

I squared several posts to be used in a couple of pasture corrals where used road guard rails will be attached with lag screws. It helps in the application and looks better. You can set them without debarking, preferably after drying for at least a year. If you set them wet in some soils they have a tendency to sprout.

I don't have an average lifespan, but there are posts in a fence my Grandad and Dad put in during the early 1960s that are good and solid. The terrain was hilly well drained soil. Some posts have been replaced and the common theme there was the posts had less than 5"-6" of heartwood. My Dad and I put in a section of fence with 11 T posts spaced then a locust post, then 11 T posts, etc., and locust was used for corner and brace posts. That was 37 years ago and not one locust post has been replaced.

Thanks for the reply-good looking posts!

We can usually find hedge (aka Osage Orange) here in southern Iowa/northern Missouri which typically last a lifetime.

LOL, makes me think of what my Dad said to me as I was coming of age-"Son, fencing is an every other generation proposition. I'm sorry."

OK, now, can those black locust posts be bought, and shipped at practical price?

The best posts I have ever seen were black creosote posts from Arkansas by Dierks. I hope most posts in that load are such.

The tags on the Dierks posts.