25/04 The whole fence from October 2025 still looking fresh, with an added last section from April 2026.
3 larch section, 3 arollapine sections in total. A lot of hand work involved.
The neighbor removed the wire fence in the back, so I had a little more room to extend the fence this time.

#handmade #fence #handsplit #woodfence #hardwork #woodwork #art #larch #arollapine #natural #wood #sustainability

25/04 Finished the last section (ca. 2,5m) with handsplint arolla pine 1,7m to 1,9m. I’d left my freshly sharpened chisel and my pica pencil at home.
But I had a second, not-so-good chisel as a backup. Next time, I’ll make sure to wear a belt again for my hanging my morakniv knife and the Pica Dry pencil for better workflow. I only had 90mm nails with me, but I also needed 70mm nails. Luckily, the owner who arrived later had some.

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

24/04 Set and fixed the last round fence post with stones only. Digging the last whole was not easy due to a lot of treeroots and stones. I stopped on 70cm (instead of 80cm) because there was a bigger stone on the bottom, that was diffcult to remove.

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

24/04: Today I cut down the last extension (40cm) of my existing fence to extend it by one more 2,2m arolla pine section (one additonal round charred larch post). I dug a 70-centimeter-deep hole and secured the post firmly in place with stones. The neighbor was kind enough to get me an oscillating multi-tool so I could cut the end of fence cleanly and trim it to the middle of the post.
It worked really well.
Here’s the front view of my fence.

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

09/04/26: The wood splitting continues. Over the last weeks and month, I've splitted further wooden spelts from arolla pine (ca. 3/4) and larch wood (1/4). I didn't count it but overall I have now about 100 handsplitted additional spelt in the sizes 1,5m, 1,7m and 2m ready for another new fence project.
But I'll need at least twice as many spelts for renewing and increasing our garden fence.
On average, it takes me 15 minutes to split a single fence spelt (from the log to the finished spelt with removed sapwood and heartwood). This doesn't include the final adjustments carving to the fence. The spelts with lots of branches and twists take longer to work out than the straight, knot-free wood which sometimes only take a few minutes. It's always a bit frustrating when a spelt gets too thin or breaks unexpectedly, especially when you've already spent several minutes on it.

#arollapine #larch #wood #handsplit #spelts #traditional #woodworking #craft #handcrafted #hardwork

Attempt to chop/carve a sphere out of an arolla pine cube freehand.
The diameter of the ball is approximately 8 cm.

#chopped #carved #wood #woodwork #arollapine

Attempt to chop/carve a sphere out of an arolla pine cube freehand.
The knots and resin ducts make part of the sphere look like a friendly yet sad face.

#chopped #carved #wood #woodwork #arollapine #handmade

Attempt to chop/carve a sphere out of an arolla pine cube freehand. Not so round, still making it a little rounder. Round about.

#chopped #carved #wood #woodwork #arollapine

Some firewood (two rows) under our woodshed (still under the old partly leaking roof). Some leftover wood blanks that I still need to hand split and a few leftover pieces of sapwood from the already splitted spelts.
The sapwood scraps I'll cut into firewood pieces. (60-80cm for the big oven and 30-40cm for the smaller stove)

#stacked #firewood #spruce #wood #stackedwood #splittingwood #larch #arollapine #hardwork #woodworking #spelt #fence

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