Does anyone make their own stakes

[Old Boar]

If you use willow, you will have a good hedge within a few months, a giant hedge within the year, and then branches will fall and grow, and you are left with a small bit of grass in the middle of the field. Dont ask me how I know....

I have thought of going into Asprin production with all the rampant willow here.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

Yes we do, European larch, point them on a PTO sawbench.

Sometimes soak them in drum of waste oil but they're really hard, it's difficult to get staples into them sometimes.

They can't rot any faster than bought in tanalised stakes

neighbour used to make a lot of stakes back in England, he said never use a sawbench (I think he may have had one fly back at him), he reckoned always use a chainsaw

 

[Repeat]

Could anyone recommend a contractor with a mobile saw like a woodmiser who would travel to Penrith area and saw up some larch for us.
got 40 lengths left after clearing a 5 acre spruce wood on farm @Bobthebuilder @Hilly

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

We used to make all our own Chestnut stakes. Now sell the standing wood and have some from the Coppicers as part payment.

We hot dip in Creosote and tar, we have an old tank that tales 300 5'6" stakes with min 4" tops. Usually boil them twice, once when they first go in and then when we take them out.

We are just replacing some we put in 50 years ago.

 

[ollie989898]

I'd buy seasoned chresnut and sink them in creosote for a few months.

 

[Bury the Trash]

If you use willow, you will have a good hedge within a few months, a giant hedge within the year, and then branches will fall and grow, and you are left with a small bit of grass in the middle of the field. Dont ask me how I know....

I have thought of going into Asprin production with all the rampant willow here.

the only thing willow is good fer is cricket batz

 

[Hilly]

Could anyone recommend a contractor with a mobile saw like a woodmiser who would travel to Penrith area and saw up some larch for us.
got 40 lengths left after clearing a 5 acre spruce wood on farm @Bobthebuilder @Hilly

This fella is very good .

 

[Two Tone]

We used to make our own fencing stakes. All untreated.
One of the most successful woods to use was Hornbeam.

 

[Bobthebuilder]

Could anyone recommend a contractor with a mobile saw like a woodmiser who would travel to Penrith area and saw up some larch for us.
got 40 lengths left after clearing a 5 acre spruce wood on farm @Bobthebuilder @Hilly

Must be someone localish over there ours is a fixed unit in a shed running off the mains

 

[organicguy]

We used to make all our own Chestnut stakes. Now sell the standing wood and have some from the Coppicers as part payment.

We hot dip in Creosote and tar, we have an old tank that tales 300 5'6" stakes with min 4" tops. Usually boil them twice, once when they first go in and then when we take them out.

We are just replacing some we put in 50 years ago.

How do you heat the tank?
Is it a homebuilt tank or proper job?

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

How do you heat the tank?
Is it a homebuilt tank or proper job?

Use old fence stakes and other wood from around the farm.
The tank is an old pressure boiler tank which I had cut in half some 30 years ago. It is made out of half inch plate which was riveted together.
Built into a bank with a fire chamber under it and a chimney the other end.

Takes up to a couple of days to get it boiling.

 

[jellybean]

Use old fence stakes and other wood from around the farm.
The tank is an old pressure boiler tank which I had cut in half some 30 years ago. It is made out of half inch plate which was riveted together.
Built into a bank with a fire chamber under it and a chimney the other end.

Takes up to a couple of days to get it boiling.

So it's an open tank? do not all the volatile parts of the creosote just boil off quickly? and how long ago since you last bought creosote, finding good creosote is getting harder. As I understand it the proper treatment process is hot creosote in sealed tanks under alternating vacuum and pressure for at least 12 hours. When you consider the cost of the equipment needed it's no wonder creosote treated timber is expensive.

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

So it's an open tank? do not all the volatile parts of the creosote just boil off quickly? and how long ago since you last bought creosote, finding good creosote is getting harder. As I understand it the proper treatment process is hot creosote in sealed tanks under alternating vacuum and pressure for at least 12 hours. When you consider the cost of the equipment needed it's no wonder creosote treated timber is expensive.

We can still get Creosote in 205 litre barrels.
It is mixed with tar/bitumen.
The trick is to keep it just below boiling or it can catch light!!

Our stakes last 60 years plus, but we only treat the bottom 3'.
it is where it touches the ground and the air where they rot.

 

[organicguy]

We can still get Creosote in 205 litre barrels.
It is mixed with tar/bitumen.
The trick is to keep it just below boiling or it can catch light!!

Our stakes last 60 years plus, but we only treat the bottom 3'.
it is where it touches the ground and the air where they rot.

The first posts we dipped in oil and creosote we only dipped the bottom 3 ft, they have outlasted purchased creo posts but now the tops have rotted and won't hold a staple!
We now dip the top 4ft to include the 1ft in the ground.
You obviously have better timber than anything I can buy.

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

The first posts we dipped in oil and creosote we only dipped the bottom 3 ft, they have outlasted purchased creo posts but now the tops have rotted and won't hold a staple!
We now dip the top 4ft to include the 1ft in the ground.
You obviously have better timber than anything I can buy.

Chestnut that is around 20 years old, grown on good heavy clay ground.

 

[Danllan]

yep use some withy or willow, cut them down point them out and drive them in the same day and they will last a good few years

Yes and then, a little while later, he can have the novel experience of 'laying' his new fence.

 

[nails]

I've just taken on some land with very over grown hedges, they look like they would cut to make some decent stakes.

Does anyone make their own, if so do you use a chain saw or a saw bench.

Timber treatment an issue of course, we are on 5 year leys so only need to last 5 years.

My dad used to make cleft oak stakes and i still do a few but not recently. We used to make them by cleaving the round with wedges and a couple of axes . takes a bit of practice to get the most out of the timber but they are very strong and will last 40 years. Ash is nice and straight but rots quick in the ground but if they only have to last 5 years will be o.k. hazel the same . thorn will last longer especially old blackthorn but is never very straight .

 

[Wisconsonian]

One method of preserving wood to a degree is to char the outside. The idea is to get rid of the sugars in the sapwood, and create some combustion byproducts to drive into the wood, and provide a surface that won't promote biological activity. I can't say how it compares to other methods.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

One method of preserving wood to a degree is to char the outside. The idea is to get rid of the sugars in the sapwood, and create some combustion byproducts to drive into the wood, and provide a surface that won't promote biological activity. I can't say how it compares to other methods.

is that why on Grand Designs they often char the wood used to clad houses?

 

[milkloss]

The first posts we dipped in oil and creosote we only dipped the bottom 3 ft, they have outlasted purchased creo posts but now the tops have rotted and won't hold a staple!
We now dip the top 4ft to include the 1ft in the ground.
You obviously have better timber than anything I can buy.

The chestnut stakes have to cut in winter, peeled and pointed then soon into the tank, the top of the stakes are covered with tin to keep the rain off the post and out of the tank. When the creosote is heated the creosote is pulled up the inside of the stake as the moisture dries out of it.

It’s the most important part people miss out. A 44gal drum in the corner of the shed with some bone dry stakes in it won’t be a fraction as good even if you leave them there for years.