AngusR

Hi all, I am looking at milling timber for fencing over the next few years. It will all be home grown Scots pine and larch that I’ll be using but I’m swithering on treatment. I can’t seem to find any form of treatment that works (20 years +) except creosote. I have existing fences that were installed in the 60’s and 70’s, made from the old estate sawmill but these are very well soaked in creosote. So I know it works but it’s kinda nasty stuff so I’d rather not work with it or use it on the land if I can help it. Then I stumbled across pine tar - the self proclaimed black gold! I doubt it works that well or I’d have heard about if before now but does anyone have any experience of using it specifically on ground contact timbers like fence posts as a sole form of treatment. Would it need reapplication which makes it impractical or could I super dry posts and soak them in tar to get the best absorbsion of tar? Also with the Scots pine I have available i assume I could extract it myself. Was thinking about using a retort to minimise firewood needs and make charcoal at the same time. Anyway this might all be too good to be true but would be great to hear others experience or thoughts on this. thanks Angus