grandgourmand There is no splitting of the fence posts. Line posts are 8’ long with a minimum butt end of 5” - 6” depending on the fence builder or buyer, brace posts are 9’ long with a minimum of 8” - 10” butt, corners are 10’ long with a minimum but of 10”, most prefer 12”. All corners need to be pretty straight, braces & lines can have bends/curves as long as there is a flat side to staple the wire to. Some folks won’t put a post in the ground unless they are pencil straight others don’t care as long as there is the flat side to staple to. A post may be cut from anywhere in the tree, maybe starting 3’-4’ up from the butt if it’s split or too crooked. Sometimes it looks like a tree has a nice post or 2 in it then when you get it down there is too much 3d curvature & it won’t work.
I sell all the posts. Some of the smaller straight 3”-4” diameter stuff that is 6’ or longer I will try to sell for ornamental fence posts & rail type fencing.
I usually use my HT100 polesaw to trim the low hangers & stickers on my way in, it seems to help save on clothing, bloodshed & the obligatory slaps to the face.
Usually no, it’s one pricing for lines Another for corners & braces. With inflation the prices may go up depending on the local market. Private sales are best because you don’t have to pay any fees to an auction company. Some guys sell corners, 1st, 2nds & 3rds based on straightness & dia. I like to let the customer pick out their posts so they know what they are getting, some people don’t want corners over 12” dia, some want as large as they can get.
Reminds me of black locust the way itll regrow. Ive seen shoots coming off stumps and blowover trunks shooting straight for the sky. Great deal on the fence posts. Tried selling a nice Y BL log to no avail. Out in the yard yet.
Today was mostly limbing, brush clean up & repairs. I pinched a hydraulic line on the grapple, a local guy has a portable repair rig just for hydraulic hoses, so I met up with him & had 2 new hoses made. Otherwise it would of been a 50 mile drive to Napa to get the hose repaired or replaced. It sure would be nice to have an assistant to chain up so I don’t have to crawl in/out to do it. Hopefully tomorrow I can get the last 3 in this stretch felled, limbed & everything cleaned up. I have worked up a stretch about 100 yards long, total there is about 3/4 mile of ditches. Here’s some old posts I found, most are to crooked to make the grade but it looks like 4-5 of the bigger ones will makes corners/braces : More stump pictures: This one has no post in it but I can’t bring my self to shove it in the burn pile. It’s 10” base up to about 4” where it will be pruned off. I have a few of these. This one is a stump but has 2 long dead Osage trees below it, they are just as solid as they were the day they died. I just have to ignore stuff like that or I will never get done.
I was wondering how this project was going. This is a lot of work by yourself, but just think of all the satisfaction once it's done, or at least to a good breaking point.
After seeing more and more pics of how this grows i can understand why its called hedge. Those twisted tangled messes really try your patience to work in. Has it ever been figured how low it lasts before fully decaying? I enjoy finding new scores of black locust which has similar rot resistance and observing the remnant down wood. Found one the other day and many other limbs/tops around from prior storms/clean up.
All done cutting & limbing for awhile. I will have a lot of windshield time hauling grain this week. I have about 20 chains that need sharpened, one bar that needs the rails opened up & all my saws will need cleaned up so my evenings will be booked up. I have roughly 35 hours into this project so far. Here are some more stump photos : Here are some butt ends that show the how the trunks grow together : Then when you think you have some nice posts it splits when you fell them : Here are the photos from everything laid out all limbed & ready to start cutting posts. Same bunch just different views: The small bunch :
Crazy how they grow together, but makes for some very interesting looking end cuts. Nicely done on the post cut layout. Very cool thread JB. Not enough scores on here about osage
Feeling the pain yet? LOL Just wondering if you've ever done anything else with the wood, besides fence posts and firewood? Turn on a lathe, milling, tabletops, or maybe sell the stumps or roots? I bet the roots would be a bear to get out (sorry, no pun intended).
Actually the stumps doze out rather easily & are orange. I don’t have a lathe but I am going to try & chainsaw mill a couple of the larger butt ends. A friend is making some butcher blocks so I will give him a few chunks to dry down & turn into strips for those.
