Here is a photo of one of my working area with some of my tools for splitting:
Two steel splitting wedges with wooden attachments (Stubai, with custom ash wood extension, longer than the custom ones)
Halder/Simplex with malleable cast iron head and hard plastic inserts and self-made ash handle. After two years of intensive use, I managed to break off my handle at the top. The handle was still long enough, so I turned the handle upside down and taped the broken side.
Large mallet (for rough work and when the wedges are more difficult to drive in or get stuck, for splitting stones as well)
Three axes, one of which is a splitting axe (Fiskars).
Two shingle irons (the small one is a very old one from our own barn inventory).

#handmade #handsplitted #heartwood #hardwork #woodwork #arollapine #pine #wood #handtools #woodworkingtools #workingtools #sustainability

30/10 Last two arolla pine spelt section. My small carver Kalthoff axe and my Morakniv knife did a good job again today.

#handmade #fence #handsplit #heartwood #hardwork #woodwork #larch #arollapine #wood #art #sustainability

The first section of the fence in larch wood.
I wedged the first and last fence posts very accuratly with stones 80 cm deep. You could tie a wild bull to this posts.

Instead of using 150 cm nails, I should have used thick 120-130cm nails to nail down the crossbars. Wooden nails would have been even better. The 150 cm iron nails were a little too long and pierced some of the halved columns by a few millimetres and split some of the crossbar ends. When using thick nails on larch boards (especially near the board ends), you should always pre-drill a hole that (ca. 80% of the nail diameter), as iron nails have a strong splitting effect on larch wood (blunting the tip of the nail slightly reduces the splitting effect). I did this, but did not pre-drill.
The strong fence posts does not have to be predrilled at full lenght.
I started with wood nails, but that was too slow for the lady. The extra hour wouldn't have made any difference. After setting 8 larch wood nails, I switched to the too-long iron nails without pre-drilling. Didn't make the whole thing any better.

#handmade #fence #handsplit #heartwood #hardwork #woodwork #larch #arollapine #wood #art #sustainability

30/10 I also like the variety provided by the last two sections made of arolla pine wood spelts. Both larch and and arolla pine are excellent woods for outdoor use, although arolla pine prefers dry conditions. If it is not constantly wet and can dry out thoroughly, the heartwood can also last for many decades.

#handmade #fence #handsplit #heartwood #hardwork #woodwork #larch #arollapine #wood #art #sustainability

30/10 This afternoon I finally finished my handmade fence.
A beautiful back can be delightful.
The upper front side of the fence is also special, but it is hidden due to a chain-link fence and a steep slope with lot of young arolla pine trees. So it's difficult to photograph.

#handmade #fence #handsplit #heartwood #hardwork #woodwork #larch #arollapine #wood #art #sustainability

30/10 This afternoon I finally finished my handmade fence.
I didn’t keep track of the total hours, but overall there must have been more than 200 for sure. I didn’t rush and I carried out each step precisely, accurately, and with consistency. From trees in a remote local forest (only windthrown ones) to this finished fence in all its elements. Parts of the triple larch are also used here.

#handmade #fence #handsplit #heartwood #hardwork #woodwork #larch #arollapine #wood #art #sustainability

29/10 Yesterday afternoon I further set, adjusted and nailed about 2.5 sections of the fence. In the morning, I split about 10 more larch slats out of some logs to finish the larch section and have a few larch spare slats apart.

#handmade #fence #handsplitted #heartwood #hardwork #woodwork #larch #arollapine #wood #art

New fence in the making. Two and 3/4 larch section completed to this day.
I took a wood-chopping block straight to the workplace.
On the left side of the photo, you can see a straight-cut, turned, and screwed larch fence from the neighbor. It's quicker to make, but doesn't last nearly as long as one that's hand-split, hand-chopped (using only heartwood), charred, nailed, mortised into the posts, accuratly and deeply wedged with stones soley...

#handmade #solid #fence #handsplitted #woodfence #wood #art #heartwood #hardwork #woodwork #larch #sustainability

New fence in the making. The first two section are fully completed.
The halved fence posts (handchopped - round on the upper side) are 2.8 m high and blunt at the bottom (approx. 1.2 m charred and 70-80 cm wedged accurately into the ground using only stones). The two crossbars are 8 cm x 6 cm heartwood larch as well, cut with our woodland sawmill. The crossbars are wedged (with a chisel) into upper part of the column. I kept the distances between the fence short ca. 2.2 - 2.8m in order to have even more solid fence.

#handmade #solid #fence #handsplitted #woodfence #wood #art #heartwood #hardwork #woodwork #larch

New fence in the making. I ran out of larch wood spelts, so I split some arolla pine wood. It is not that easy to split knotty trees out of this length and completly remove the splint wood. Three lengths of larch spelts and two lengths of arolla stone pine spelts.
Where the excavator cannot reach, manual labor is required. This is mostly individual solid hand work, which is why it takes me a little longer. However, this makes it all the more stable, unique and long lasting.

#handmade #fence #handsplitted #heartwood #hardwork #woodwork #larch #arollapine #wood #art