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

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