Homemade Stakes.

Boxtroll

I need to do some overhaul on several fences and have a few trees to knock so was thinking of making my own stakes.
I have larch, oak and ash. Do anyone here make their own?

blue5000

Don't use the ash anyway. Is there a sawmill near you that you could take the lengths to?

Boxtroll

There is, would i be better cut into lengths and let them saw them up?

blue5000

Ya if you want 6 foot stakes, cut the lengths a couple of inches longer. You might be able to sell some larch to the sawmill, they like it for trailer floors. Use the oak for stakes, but it needs to be knot free or it will break at the knots.

cjpm

Boxtroll wrote: »

There is, would i be better cut into lengths and let them saw them up?

We got a fella with a mobile sawmill a few years ago. Very handy he called to the yard. All I had was spruce, wish I had larch and oak. He's not on the road anymore so looking for someone else

Boxtroll

Ill get onto the mill and use the oak for the stakes, be great to sell on the larch as i have a good shot of it. Would they buy the ash or will i just make firewood out of it?

Feckthis

blue5000 wrote: »

Don't use the ash anyway. Is there a sawmill near you that you could take the lengths to?

What exactly will the saw mills do with the lengths? Cut them to size, point them and treat?

blue5000

Feckthis wrote: »

What exactly will the saw mills do with the lengths? Cut them to size, point them and treat?

Usually cut them into 4'' square approx. with a band saw, then prop them up at one end to make an angle suitable for the points. Oak don't need to be treated. There will be some waste at the edges.

blackdog1

Boxtroll wrote: »

I need to do some overhaul on several fences and have a few trees to knock so was thinking of making my own stakes.
I have larch, oak and ash. Do anyone here make their own?

I made oak and larch stakes last year. Sent the trees to the mill and collected them myself. Serious job. I use tex screws to put them in. There is insulators out there that you drive a nail through to seal them and I just replace the nail with a tex screw. Nails and staples just bend.

Markcheese

Doesn't oak rot steel ? ( made a boat once, had to use copper nails ! )

joejobrien

Markcheese wrote: »

Doesn't oak rot steel ? ( made a boat once, had to use copper nails ! )

yes .........checkout oak tanic test

Miname

Boxtroll wrote: »

I need to do some overhaul on several fences and have a few trees to knock so was thinking of making my own stakes.
I have larch, oak and ash. Do anyone here make their own?

Knock the trees sell them and it should more than cover the price of the posts. If they are nice clean lined trees. Get them milled and stacked right and there's better uses for the timber.

Greengrass1

We had an acre of spruce here I think it was.
previous owner never trimmed them so we're no good for a mill.
We cut them down that they fenced the place for us.
granted they only last 3-5 yrs (some still standing after 11 yrs) but they did a job and saved us money at the time

blue5000

Miname wrote: »

Knock the trees sell them and it should more than cover the price of the posts. If they are nice clean lined trees. Get them milled and stacked right and there's better uses for the timber.

I dunno. A creosoted pine 6' stake is €7.00, I reckon that's around 3-400 a cubic metre. Or €100 for 14 stakes. Beech logs last year was selling for around €80 per ton, so it takes 1.25 ton to buy 14 stakes. I think I'd prefer to convert my own timber to whatever I needed it for. How much is planks of timber worth? Is there even a market for it?

Boxtroll

Thanks for all the replies and advice, would there be demand to sell oak stakes as i would have surplus if i decide to cut down all the oak trees?

Farmer Pudsey

Boxtroll wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies and advice, would there be demand to sell oak stakes as i would have surplus if i decide to cut down all the oak trees?

Have you got a felling licence. Not sure if you will get a licence to fell all of them. Oak stakes will last 40 years. However you should check commercial value as well. It may well pay to sell as tree trunks as oak it is getting harder to source.

If you use the larch you will need to get it treated. Not sure what it costs but I think a lad that makes stakes said that 6' takes a gallon of preservative. So it is not just the cost of the stake. Huge difference in value between a stake that lasts 10-15 years and one that lasts 40 years.

You have another option and that is the firewood business. An acre of forrestry would supply an income for 10-20 years cutting in sections and processing timber and selling as firewood.

Feckthis

What would Douglas fir be like for stakes ??