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When young our fence posts got a good coating of this.

Any new fence posts get a coating of engine oil here, including my new gate post. Just need to do the rest of the post now, probably with the same used oil
Might not be good for the environment, but neither is losing another post due to rot...

Not that many years ago there used to be cyanide and all sorts of nasties in the cocktail used to pressure treat timber, so the odd lick of oil ain't going to hurt

Anyone remember the stink of creosoted wood ? (still used commercially for big telegraph poles)

In the mid-1950's I attended a small private school. The caretaker creosoted the long boundary fences, and I grew to somewhat like the smell. Recently, one of my neighbours (an army chap who had access to the stuff) creosoted his side of the shared-ownership boundary fence between us. Because of the overlap, the stuff ran through to my side and it has been a god awful job finding a modern alternative to over-paint it to conceal the mess. In warm weather it still stinks, I like it a lot less now

Oh Yes,
In the mid 60's I helped my grandfather put in a gate post after he had tarred and creosoted it.
When my brothers and I sold the property in the mid naughties the gate post was still there and working OK.
Memories!

My wife and I went on a 3 plus weeks drive around Turkey in 1984. It was somewhat rural back then, Marmaris was a 2 donkey village and some seaside villages did not have electricity. Oil lamps and restaurantsCooked by charcoal or wood. It was truly wonderful trip and the people so friendly, dragging us in for tea and other treats.
We turned up at Oludeniz and the two small hotels had no rooms.
We were offered a choice of several sheds with a double bed, marginally bigger than our home garden shed. The point, we thought we would die in the night from creosote poisoning but we thought it better than sleeping in the car.. The joys of being young !
MM
PS Got back tanned and refreshed, drove to work ( Renault 25 ?) in a thunderstorm, gave in my notice and decided to run my own business . Caught a train back as I left that day……….

Mix the oil and creosote 50/50 then use it for your fences. It smells a lot better and soon stops smelling completely. The oil aids application properties and the creosote gives protection. It truly makes fence painting ... almost a thing of pleasure! Got that one from the old man when still a kid and he got it from a fencing chap who worked out of our village.

Sewin ... that's exactly what I use on my wooden field gates ... served me well for years ... good black oil from the tractor engine was best 🙂

You can still get real creosote if you've got an agricultural holding ... at least you could last time I bought a drum.

New 'eco' stuff is ok, but not as good .... bit like modern adhesives that won't harm someone sniffing it but also don't do a great job of sticking things together like the bad old stuff 🙂

K

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/creosote-and-telegraph-poles/

Creosote is classified as a Class 1B carcinogen - “Category 1B (previously Cat 2) - substances presumed to have a carcinogenic potential for humans based largely on animal evidence.”

I've got loads to do surrounding our new garden, if you'd like to pop over