Fencing: Black Locust Posts with Split Rails?

[mstraebel]

We’ve been researching fencing and would like to go with wood. We are considering black locust posts with hardwood split rails as seen on this link:

Locust Split Rail Fence - Post And Rail Fence

Has anyone had any experience with a similar product? We will most likely go 4-board with a top hot wire. Our farm is not “fancy” so straight board looks a bit formal and we like the slightly more rustic look of this type of fencing. We understand locust lasts long and these posts are said to weight 75 lbs each! Not sure about the strength/durability of the hardwood split rails.

Thank for your input.

[GoForAGallop]

No idea about the rails, but I can vouch for locust posts.

Some of my property’s locust was milled for fence posts back in the 40’s when my farm was being set up as a dairy. (Long before I was born!) Then the dairy part of the farm lapsed, and the posts were ripped up and dumped in a pile in the woods, upwards of 150 of them, in the 70’s.

Fast forward to 2005, I start yanking that pile of posts apart, expecting to find just a few good useable posts. Instead, I found FOUR BAD POSTS, and they were mostly the ones that had been pressed into the ground at the bottom of the pile. The rest got the leaves and other debris brushed off them, and are now containing my horses.

60-odd year old posts. Left sitting in the woods for 30-odd years. Still perfectly useable today.

But yes, those bastards are HEAVY! :lol: But hey, that’s the price you pay for a piece of wood that will outlive you.

[SMF11]

Cool! I have locust fenceposts – they’ve lasted 10 years so far, and are pretty much as good as new. I like them b/c they are rot resistant, and yet you are not putting a lot of pressure treated wood into the ground to leach toxic chemicals into the surrounding soil (OK off my soapbox now! :lol: )

I don’t have split rail, I love the way it looks but it is too pricey for me. There’s a lot of labor involved, therefore, price is higher. I have locust posts with no climb fence and an oak board on top. I got my wood from a local sawmill.

(I understand your place is not formal, but four rail split rail would be EXORBITANT here – three board regular fencing is MUCH cheaper, fyi. But perhaps though not formal, price is no issue for you )

Where are these people located? My sawmill closed b/c the owner died, and someday I may need more locust. I’m guessing that with shipping this won’t be a cheap option, though.

As locust posts age, it becomes extremely difficult to hammer nails into them fyi. Not an issue if you go w/the split rail, but one if you use boards.

[altonPM]

We put in locust posts (both split rail and slipboard) about 8 years ago - I love it. I wouldn’t buy anything else. We bought from Springfield Fence in VT, they are very reasonable there.

PROS: they last forever, very durable, and no chemicals for your horses to chew on (or to contaminate your soil - we try to be organic here).
CONS: They are very hard; when we have to nail/screw into them, my husband uses really heavy-duty tools (he hauls around a portable generator, I think, and uses power tools).

In my area, they are far less expensive than treated wood posts, as well.

Locust is very sustainable, as well - it’s a weedy tree/shrub and grows back very quickly, doesn’t require fertilizer, etc. I don’t know why we don’t have a whole industry for growing wood for locust posts. I’ve often thought about starting a locust grove down near our marsh, for the future …

[mstraebel]

Thanks for your replies! The company whose link I posted is in Buffalo, NY. They offer free shipping.

Goforgallop: Glad you could recover so many of your old locust posts. How cool!

SMF11-How do you like your no-climb with locust posts and oak top board? Is your top board 1"x6" material? I think we will be installing this ourselves, and we are on a budget, and this actually seems less expensive than flat board. I don’t want PT due to chemical impact. We will be growing vegetables on our farm, as well, so want to keep as close to organic as possible.

AltonPM: Love the sustainable aspect! So split rail vs. slipboard? The difference is split rail still slides into posts slots without nails, but slipboard is flat board vs. rough/rounded splits rails, correct? Do you see any major advantages/disadvantages to either?

[GoForAGallop]

[QUOTE=mstraebel;5367292]
Thanks for your replies! The company whose link I posted is in Buffalo, NY. They offer free shipping.

Goforgallop: Glad you could recover so many of your old locust posts. How cool!

SMF11-How do you like your no-climb with locust posts and oak top board? Is your top board 1"x6" material? [/QUOTE]

Super cool, and saved me A LOT of money, that’s for sure! The non-horse parts of my property are certified organic farmland, so I too wanted to attempt to be “environmentally concious.” Plus, I have a wood nibbler and it worries me when he gets access to pressure-treated stuff.

I actually have no climb on my posts too, it’s really quite lovely. Just a top strand of electric because of the aforementioned beaver and because of $$ though.

[S1969]

Our farm had split rail when we bought it and I love how it looks. The fencing, however, was fairly old…maybe 15 years old?..and as it aged, the rails got loose. I think the posts were drilled, not pounded, which probably was a mistake for our heavy clay - so there were areas where the posts were leaning and the rails became loose. The posts were quite solid, still, and I do think they were locust, but I believe the rails were cedar?

Anyway, the horses could reach through it and knock out the upper rails very easily, and we were perpetually walking around and replacing rails. But it did worry us about the strength and integrity of the fencing; the last straw was when I went out one morning to find nothing but the bottom rail left in place in one section…amazing that they didn’t just step over it! :eek:

Obviously this is an issue that is worse when the pasture is threadbare (as ours was when we bought it) and horses were seeking better food outside the fence, and also would be very different with 4-rail v. 3-rail which is what we had.

In the end, we replaced it with locust posts and 2x4 non-climb wire, and an oak top board (about 1x6 as you suggested). We really like this fencing and it’s awesome to sleep at night and not worry!

We did keep the split rail on the lawn side of our farm…so we can enjoy the rustic look. We have a log cabin so it complements it nicely…still don’t love the look of the non-climb as much…but feel much safer with it.

[kcmel]

I have locust posts and split rails. It looks great. The rails do have to be replaced from time to time. Some of the hardwood rails will “sag” over time. The horses will occasionally knock down rails when trying to reach through the fence for grass, but we don’t have hot wire (probably should).

[SMF11]

I love my no climb/top board/locust posts. It is as close to maintenance free as a fence can get! I have some big fields and in some spots I don’t have a top board and the horses leave it alone. I had a tree fall on the fence once, breaking the top board and causing the no climb to sag. Removed the tree, pulled up the no climb, replaced the board, (almost) good as new. And that was the worst thing that’s happened to that fence – absolutely no other problems.

When I was pricing out my fencing, (leaving out electric) I found the “cheapest” was three board wood fencing, then no climb w/a board on top and then split rail. I never priced four board anything.

[Chall]

Wait, I thought black locust was toxic and that you couldn’t leave it on the ground and had to destroy it a certain way. Am I remembering wrong?

[GoForAGallop]

[QUOTE=Chall;5367588]
Wait, I thought black locust was toxic and that you couldn’t leave it on the ground and had to destroy it a certain way. Am I remembering wrong?[/QUOTE]

The leaves, flowers, and bark are pretty toxic. The posts shouldn’t cause any harm though.

[grinanride]

I have it on the front of the farm that it visible from the road - 10 years old now, I have had to replace some rails, some will rot within 6 years or so, some did not, was told the rails should last 10+ years, paid about $2 per foot total out of WV, had the load delivered to SC. On the posts we have replaced about 6 that split or broke off at the ground… have 1 horse that puts its head thru to eat grass on the outside sometimes … have another who on rare occasion pushes out a rail… a hot wire would no doubt fix that…
Overall like the appearance… back then $2 per foot was the cheapest next to hot wire.
Risa
Happy Trails Trailers

[WildBlue]

[QUOTE=Chall;5367588]
Wait, I thought black locust was toxic and that you couldn’t leave it on the ground and had to destroy it a certain way. Am I remembering wrong?[/QUOTE]

You might be thinking of black walnut. The wood is toxic enough that just standing on the sawdust is very bad for a horse.

Locust is great for posts. My dad uses whole trees as the uprights in loafing sheds. It’s definitely more expensive since it’s so hard to work with, but lasts extremely well. In addition to the other comments about rails falling out, I’d expect split-rail posts to have shorter lives than posts than posts that haven’t had big chunks cut out of them, allowing weathering of the interior.

[ShotenStar]

I have split rail with locust posts and hardwood (when we can get them) rails.

Love the stuff … we find it much easier to work with than regular post-and-rail or any type of wire fencing. We have Very Hilly land, with lots of twists and turns in the fence lines to get around trees and streams. This fence lets us curve and zig-zag as needed, sometimes with a double post arrangement if the turn is a sharper angle. Sometimes a post will rot out, if it is in a wet area or is attacked by bugs. When that happens, it is easy to pull that one post to replace it … usually a one-person job. Most of our fence is now 22 years old.

I will tell you one thing though … the closest I ever came to getting divorced was the day that fence was delivered. I TOLD Husband Person the fence was coming. We had DISCUSSED extensively how much to order. But the reality of 5,000 feet of posts and rails on a flatbed at 7 AM was more than his little city slicker heart was prepared for :lol:

star

[Benson]

we are putting in locust posts this winter and when i asked the local fencing guy about it, he said “those posts will outlive three holes”.

what I don’t understand is why there aren’t locust rails. Anyone know?

[omare]

You really want to try and get hardwood rails–the pine (spruce) and poplar rails can be light.

I like post and rail because it does not require hammer, saw or nails to put up! But it is hard to find hardwood rails around here–we still have some oak split rails from 30 plus years ago. Please let us know if they have hardwood rails.

[gingerbread]

We have black locust posts and split rails. The posts are wonderfully sturdy but the rails are weathering much faster (we had the fence put in 6 years ago and are starting to need replacement rails this year)and it is too easy for the horses to get their heads between the rails when snacking outside the fence, knocking them down. If you go with this arrangement, it’s a good idea to hotwire the middle rail, not the top rail, to prevent this—we didn’t and wish we had.

Love the look and the ecologically sound aspect of it though.

[altonPM]

Split vs. slip

We have both split rail and slipboard locust posts. Pros and cons on both sides:

Split-rail is more sturdy, but harder to put in because you have to be really exact when placing your posts. The rails are nice and sturdy and it’s the kind of fence you can easily climb and sit on.

Slipboard is more flexible - you can easily remove the board if, say, you need to get a tractor through where there isn’t a gate. And easier to put in because the spacing doesn’t have to be perfect. But less sturdy overall. And, we find that the 1" boards (and we buy true 1" boards) tend to break over time.

[wsmoak]

@mstraebel;5367164

We’ve been researching fencing and would like to go with wood. We are considering black locust posts with hardwood split rails as seen on this link:

http://locustfence.com/

Did you end up going with them?

I also got a quote from them but am a little leery of spending so much with a company I’ve never heard of so far away!

Does anyone have a source for black locust posts and hardwood rails closer to Georgia?

[MeghanDACVA]

Locust lasts FOREVER.