If this presentation gets 100 likes by the end of 2024, I will donate 100 feet of post-and-rail fence to any non-profit or government-owned historic site in the Mid-Atlantic region. And the neighbor kid? He’s actually pretty cool. The fence was built for the dogs, not the neighborhood kids. I’m not that mean and ornery…. yet. But when I do intend to keep people out, I’ll put up barbed wire, moats, and electric fences.
I speak here from Brazil. I will adapt this technique using bamboo for horizontal closure. I had already decided to use this fencing method, but I confess that your video really motivated me. As for the likes, you can be sure that you will have to donate these fences. Hugs and thanks.
That’s a good way to put fallen trees to use. When I’m dealing with wood that may not last as long as locust, Osage orange, or white oak, I look at it as long term firewood storage. In five or ten years, they may not be worth much as rails but they’ll make great firewood. If they were free, that makes it even more practical. Good luck!
I was pretty surprised myself. I’ve only seen these fences in old black and white photos. The ugly sad effect is that, whenever I visit a historic site, modern fences are going to annoy me for the rest of my life😂
This is the kind of greenwood working I love. I want to do it someday. Only done parts of this on a smaller scale. Very well done. I didn't even think of assembly. Good to know.
@HiraethRestorations The scale at which you're doing this is really big! I haven't split timber longer than 6 ft. Extra length can make it feel exponentially more difficult with big heavy timber. Largest diameter I've rived was about 25 inch white oak. Was 5ft long. My thoughts on riving is if the timber is cooperative it can be really fun and easy. If the timber fights back, it can beat you worse than the wedges. Made the mistake of attempting to rive green black tupelo early on... American beech has also been painful in my experience.
@@ethicalaxe It’s definitely a challenge. The thing I lightly alluded to in this video was that fences were largely made out of smaller stock. In the old photos, almost all of the rails have bark on them, telling me that the logs were generally small, no more than maybe twelve or fourteen inches, getting four rails at most from the largest. Bigger timber gives nicer rails(if it has a straight grain) but uses more valuable timber on what is, at the end of the day, a throw away item. And it takes much longer to get twenty four rails out of on big log than it does to get twenty four rails out of twelve sticks. Then, the wood species. White oak is good for rails. Decent for posts even though locust would be better. Chestnut was the ideal for rails: easy and fast to split but also durable and strong. I’ve got a few American chestnuts growing at my place now. They’re not hybrids, so I don’t expect them to live forever. If I can get them to the point where they’ll make two rails each, say six or eight inches around, I’ll be thrilled. I split some European chestnut a few years back for rails and it was the finest splitting timber I’ve ever worked. A clean, straight split every time. Historically, the fence builder would use whatever timber he could get at no expense on his own property. In all the documents I’ve read, they were always ready to use whatever they had with the understanding that paying nothing for a five year rail would be better than paying a dollar for a twenty year rail. After researching this subject, I could go on for hours about 19th Century fences, including all the testimony of farmers that totally contradicted the testimony of other farmers. I’m working on my next “historically accurate” fence build over the next couple of months and I think I’ll go into much greater detail when I put that video together.
Awesome fence dude, but very labor intensive. Do you think the average person would have this or would this be for the more affluent? I see many stacked zigzag split rail where I'm at in southwestern PA. P.S. almost no videos on TH-cam show the actual use of a mortise axe like this one. I used mine for the same purpose and it excelled. Good practical investigation of a mysterious tool.
@@jace2344 It is labor intensive but compared to a lot of things I’ve done in a historic fashion, it’s not too bad. I think the use of post and rail really took off as timber became more scarce. It uses a lot less material than the snake rail fences. Around 1810, the self-feeding auger bit became available, making post and rail much easier, too. In the video, my mortise holes were way too far apart. When they’re spaced properly, there is just some light trimming for the mortise axe to do. My goal is to do another video covering this subject using all authentic tools and going into some of the documentation I used in my research. Pretty fascinating stuff for some of us… but it puts my girlfriend and most normal people to sleep.
@HiraethRestorations lol my girlfriend too 😆 but I can't think of anything more riveting. Looking forward to the next video. BTW have you seen a socketed splitting wedge? I just picked one up as a curiosity, but it's cool because I don't have to worry about mushrooming anymore... food for thought in splitting rails
If this presentation gets 100 likes by the end of 2024, I will donate 100 feet of post-and-rail fence to any non-profit or government-owned historic site in the Mid-Atlantic region.
And the neighbor kid? He’s actually pretty cool. The fence was built for the dogs, not the neighborhood kids. I’m not that mean and ornery…. yet. But when I do intend to keep people out, I’ll put up barbed wire, moats, and electric fences.
I watched with great interest from my home in Norfolk UK. Thank you.
I speak here from Brazil. I will adapt this technique using bamboo for horizontal closure. I had already decided to use this fencing method, but I confess that your video really motivated me. As for the likes, you can be sure that you will have to donate these fences. Hugs and thanks.
That would be interesting to see: a post and rail fence made out of bamboo. Sounds like a fun project!
Thats a nice fence man. I hope to build something like this with several black cherry trees that fell during the hurricane in western NC.
That’s a good way to put fallen trees to use. When I’m dealing with wood that may not last as long as locust, Osage orange, or white oak, I look at it as long term firewood storage. In five or ten years, they may not be worth much as rails but they’ll make great firewood. If they were free, that makes it even more practical. Good luck!
Didn't expect them to turn out so strong, looks very aesthetically pleasing too
I was pretty surprised myself. I’ve only seen these fences in old black and white photos. The ugly sad effect is that, whenever I visit a historic site, modern fences are going to annoy me for the rest of my life😂
This is the kind of greenwood working I love. I want to do it someday. Only done parts of this on a smaller scale. Very well done. I didn't even think of assembly. Good to know.
It was really a lot of fun… for the first fifty feet. Then it becomes work lol. I’ve got another hundred feet to go on my place and I dread it.
@HiraethRestorations The scale at which you're doing this is really big! I haven't split timber longer than 6 ft. Extra length can make it feel exponentially more difficult with big heavy timber.
Largest diameter I've rived was about 25 inch white oak. Was 5ft long. My thoughts on riving is if the timber is cooperative it can be really fun and easy. If the timber fights back, it can beat you worse than the wedges. Made the mistake of attempting to rive green black tupelo early on... American beech has also been painful in my experience.
@@ethicalaxe It’s definitely a challenge. The thing I lightly alluded to in this video was that fences were largely made out of smaller stock. In the old photos, almost all of the rails have bark on them, telling me that the logs were generally small, no more than maybe twelve or fourteen inches, getting four rails at most from the largest. Bigger timber gives nicer rails(if it has a straight grain) but uses more valuable timber on what is, at the end of the day, a throw away item. And it takes much longer to get twenty four rails out of on big log than it does to get twenty four rails out of twelve sticks.
Then, the wood species. White oak is good for rails. Decent for posts even though locust would be better. Chestnut was the ideal for rails: easy and fast to split but also durable and strong. I’ve got a few American chestnuts growing at my place now. They’re not hybrids, so I don’t expect them to live forever. If I can get them to the point where they’ll make two rails each, say six or eight inches around, I’ll be thrilled. I split some European chestnut a few years back for rails and it was the finest splitting timber I’ve ever worked. A clean, straight split every time. Historically, the fence builder would use whatever timber he could get at no expense on his own property. In all the documents I’ve read, they were always ready to use whatever they had with the understanding that paying nothing for a five year rail would be better than paying a dollar for a twenty year rail.
After researching this subject, I could go on for hours about 19th Century fences, including all the testimony of farmers that totally contradicted the testimony of other farmers. I’m working on my next “historically accurate” fence build over the next couple of months and I think I’ll go into much greater detail when I put that video together.
Awesome fence dude, but very labor intensive. Do you think the average person would have this or would this be for the more affluent? I see many stacked zigzag split rail where I'm at in southwestern PA.
P.S. almost no videos on TH-cam show the actual use of a mortise axe like this one. I used mine for the same purpose and it excelled. Good practical investigation of a mysterious tool.
@@jace2344 It is labor intensive but compared to a lot of things I’ve done in a historic fashion, it’s not too bad. I think the use of post and rail really took off as timber became more scarce. It uses a lot less material than the snake rail fences. Around 1810, the self-feeding auger bit became available, making post and rail much easier, too. In the video, my mortise holes were way too far apart. When they’re spaced properly, there is just some light trimming for the mortise axe to do. My goal is to do another video covering this subject using all authentic tools and going into some of the documentation I used in my research. Pretty fascinating stuff for some of us… but it puts my girlfriend and most normal people to sleep.
@HiraethRestorations lol my girlfriend too 😆 but I can't think of anything more riveting. Looking forward to the next video.
BTW have you seen a socketed splitting wedge? I just picked one up as a curiosity, but it's cool because I don't have to worry about mushrooming anymore... food for thought in splitting rails
🖐👍👍👍✌