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Wooden Fence Post?

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BROKEN FENCE

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Joined
Feb 17, 2007
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Hello everyone. I have a question for the northern ranchers up in Canada. I recently bought some posts from Saskatchewan and they are black treated with some type of oil. The man I bought these from said they were also treated with Penta. He said they were Jack Pine and were the best around. Before I got them I thought he said they were creosote. Anyone know about these posts? Good or Bad?
 
Those black ones are all some guys will buy. I don't like them myself. I prefer the green ones but they aren't always the best either. I don't know if they can still use creosote.
 
Thanks for the reply Mrs. Greg. What I was wondering is this. These are not creosote posts that I recieved. What kind of treatment is on these that makes the posts black and oily? And how long will these posts last when you put them in the ground? Our creosote posts in the states last around 35 years.
 
Big Muddy rancher said:
Those black ones are all some guys will buy. I don't like them myself. I prefer the green ones but they aren't always the best either. I don't know if they can still use creosote.
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Same here we only ever bought green,and like you BMR,I don't really think you can even get posts soaked in creasote anymore :???:
 
BROKEN FENCE said:
BMR is there a particular reason you don't like them?
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They are just dirty to handle. we do lots of fenceing in the heat of the summer and some of it by hand in the hills.
Used to be some of the flyby nighters that hauled posts treated with used oil. I hope most of those guys are shut down now. Those post boys were like gypsies.
 
We don't use the black posts either, but there are some in the country, and the bears seem to prefer chewing on them more than the green ones. You'd have to ask the bears what they are treated with that makes them so much more tasty! :D
 
We got black posts a few years ago and can still get them.. The stickers on them sure said Creosote. I can't remember why we got them instead of the CC(It was A at the time, now something else)... They start off nice and black and turn to grey over the first few years. neighbor just got a few semi loads in last year of the same posts except these were pointed at one end...

One warning he gave us, but it was also so we didn't mess with the galvinized wire we were using, don't burn your fence lines, creosote is a bit flamable..
 
The black ones are ivferior, more old oil than perservative. Bought 1000 of them 12 years ago and replacing many of them. The green ones are very good, they are treated to last.

We have bought the oily ones from Vermette and no more, cheaper at the time but not in the long term.
CA
 
That's funny. The black ones last longer around here. Cedar lasts the longest. I've got post in my fences that my Great Grampa and my Grampa had to have set and they are still good. The older ones had more red in them.

You must be able to get some things that use cresote because the bridge planks and railroad ties have them.
 
Thanks Canadian Angus. I was wondering about that. I have two semi loads of them and wanted to know more before putting them in. I was not happy when we unloaded them. They are a lot heavier post than what we get as a CCQ post here. What species of tree are your post?
 
When we pulled out fence around here in 2001 and 2002 we pulled a lot of different posts. All of them were very, very old according to the folks who used to farm the place (And judging how all the metal was breaking all over the place).. the best shape posts, by far, were untreated Osage orange. Looked like they day they were cut off the tree from ground level down. A few had rot but most were just in perfect shape. Second best ones were the Oak Rail road ties that some folks used. 1/5 were rotted out but the other ones were just about perfect. Bout break a nail on them. One section was all CCA that was put in 10 years previous. Wet ground, 90% of them were either rotted hollow or almost rotted through. Terrible, terrible.. Turned us off the green. Steel t-posts were here and there and some were actuallr broken off at ground level.. Ripped open a couple lovel holes in my trucks to left tires driving through that field.


I think our creosote posts were lodgepole pine that came out of Alberta into North or South Dakota were they were treated with creosote. There are places that you can't use the stuff anymore but our fence guy said he had the best luck with that stuff, especially in stuff that was wet...
 
Creosote is a distillation of coal tar, and is used as a wood preservative. There has been much criticism of it of late for being carcinogenic (Cancer-causing).

But, of course, EVERYTHING is carcinogenic in one form or another. This is the stuff that telephone poles and railroad ties were treated with to prevent rotting and to keep insects (Termites, etc) away from them. They smell gaggy, particularly when they are wet. You can paint the creosote on them, or better still, boil the posts in the stuff. It works very well.

DOC HARRIS
 
Yes you can buy dark posts that will last, however the dark ones that were good were bought years ago when the treatment of choice, left them dark. Around here that ended twenty years ago and now they are green treatment. The trees they use now is usually black spruce, the lower end trees. We used to blue stone our poplar trees and we also have posts treated that way are 40 years old. Had to cut and treat in the spring when the sap was running.

Cedar trees are too far away for us to access, but Tamarak ( not sure of spelling) was a common used corner post before treating was used. These would be fired posts and they did last.

Another popular post was willows, hard as the hubs of hell but they also last a long time.

Steel posts were never popular here because of our abundance of trees.

CA
 
I always thought they used jackpine for treated posts in our country-I've been lucky post wise we had a local plant 5 miles away that made good posts-when he retired we found another source that had a good product. I'd NEVER buy posts from a peddler-I've run more than a few out of my yard over the years. I'm sure there might be some good ones but alot are fly by nighters with poor quality posts. Wedge sharpened posts drive alot straighter than pencil sharpened ones-I know I've driven alot of crooked posts in my time.
 
you guys and your silly fences..... I just show my cows the county map, and tell them where I want them to graze...... never have a problem!
 

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