The $5 Chinese Trick That Makes Fence Posts Last 100+ Years

The $5 Chinese Trick That Makes Fence Posts Last 100+ Years You set a fence post today. Good solid wood, proud of it. Five years from now you're on your knees and it snaps off right at the ground like a dry cracker. In mountain villages across southern China, fence posts and pigsty rails still stand after eighty, ninety, over a hundred years. Blackened at the base, hard as stone. The method costs about five dollars a post, and by the end of this video you'll know exactly how to do it. CHAPTERS 0:00 Why your post snapped at the ground 0:29 The one spot every post dies 2:12 The old method: scorching the wood 4:44 The second step almost everyone skips 6:55 The small details that decide it 8:43 Starting with the right wood 9:58 Why this method got forgotten 11:03 What it actually costs 12:25 The whole method, start to finish 13:19 Your turn SAFETY Rags soaked in tung oil and other drying oils can catch fire on their own as they cure, with no flame anywhere near them. Never bunch them up in a bin. Lay them out flat outdoors until they're completely dry, or drop them in water. The method in one paragraph: char the buried section until it cracks into an alligator pattern, quench it, let it dry, then work tung oil into the char. Cap the top so rain sheds off. Slope the ground away from the base. Stand the post on a bed of gravel rather than bare soil. #ChineseMethod #FencePosts #Yakisugi