Bracing A Fence Corner for Dummies - The Freelance Files MMCCLI

T-Post Corner Brace

We don't know about you, but we hear an awful lot these days about the differences between people who live in rural settings and those who live in the big cities. While we think most of the difference is rubbish, there definitely are some things that people who grew up in or now live in rural settings know that lifelog city-dwellers don't. Based on what he wrote in "How to Make a Corner Fence With T-Posts" for HomeSteady.com, we somehow suspect that Keith Allen was a city boy (his North Dakota roots notwithstanding). We ran across his work while looking at a garbage post penned by one Jack Gerard/Jack Casteele about stretching barbed wire.

While we'd be inclined to ask how to make a "fence corner" instead of a "corner fence," we got the idea. Apparently Allen did as well, googling around until he found what appear to be instructions for hardware made by the Wedge-Loc^® company. What he did with those instructions, unfortunately, was pretty much useless.

The company kindly printed an image, reproduced above, showing how to use their product to set T-Posts for a barbed wire fence corner: You set three posts to make a right angle at the corner, then use four of the company's patented brackets and two diagonal braces to complete the braced corner. Keith's version of the instructions left quite a bit to be desired. Here's why:

1. "Drive the corner post." – Works for us...
2. "Place a second post... down the fence line. Drive this post..." – Again, works for us.
3. "Attach a... bracket to each end of a third post... Attach a similar bracket to the second post..." – Ummm, no, Keith, you drive the third post into the ground "down the fence line" at right angles to the existing pair (on the other leg of the right angle).
4. "Connect the brackets [sic] attached to the third post to the bracket at the base of the second post. Place the other end of the post against the corner post." – That isn't going to make a braced corner, Keith; that's an in-line stiffener such as might be used at a gate.

You need three driven posts and two T-posts set at an angle (they may need to be cut) to construct a braced corner, for five posts in all. Keith only seemed to think you'll need three posts total. So now you know why the J-school grad earned the title of Dumbass of the Day: he picked it up for faking a knowledge of fencing.

DDIY - FENCES