Stainless steel fence staples?

[Martin Shupe]

OK, so I've been spending my time building a stupid fence instead of woodworking. It is a split rail cedar fence. It is almost done, but now I need to line it with "non climb" wire, so the dog stays in and the skunks stay out.

So I've been to Home Depot, Lowe's, Sutherlands, and Tractor Supply, in search of stainless steel or Primeguard coated fence staples. No luck. Everyone has varying grades of galvanized, and then it says right on the box something to the effect of "for outdoor use or cedar fences, use stainless steel or Primeguard Plus coated fasteners". Can someone tell me how I can do that if I can't find them? Do they even make them? I have tried google searches, but the only stainless steel staples I find are designed for pneumatic staplers, which I think are too small for this application.

I am looking for 1 1/4" fence staples, stainless steel or Primeguard. Has anyone one ever seen such a thing? Maybe at Menard's? I'll be visiting Iowa soon, perhaps I can pick them up there.

I will call the grip-rite people on Monday, but even their website is down, so no luck trying to email them.

If anyone has any suggestions, I am all ears.

[Allen Bookout]

Martin,

I wonder why galvanized would not do OK. I grew up in the Texas Panhandle near Dalhart on a ranch and I saw staples in barbed wire fences that had been there thirty years and were still very good. I see that you live just southwest of Ft. Worth. It is not as dry there as in the Panhandle but it is not real humid either. If I could not find the stainless or Primeguard I would just not worry about it and go ahead and use the galvanized. Galvanized stuff even stays faily good around here on the salt water (I have galvanized lag bolts in my dock post). If you are not using it on the side of something that you do not want stained I say go ahead. If it is painted white I would not do it.

I am no expert but just my thoughts.

Allen

[Kelly C. Hanna]

Hey Martin,

Hot dipped galvanized will work just fine...read this page...

http://www.wrcla.org/cedarspecs/installing/nails.asp

[Barry O'Mahony]

When it comes to stainless steel Ag stuff, check Farmtek first:

http://www.farmtek.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10052&storeId=10001&langId=-1&division=FarmTek&productId=28689

Dairy outfits are obsessive about SS hardware.

[Martin Shupe]

Kelly and Allen...

I read that galvanized would eventually leave rust spots and streaks, especially on cedar, for some reason, but I'll check out Kelly's link.

Barry, thanks for the link. Those are pricey, but I think that since I already spent over $1500 on the rest of the fence, this is probably the way I will go. (First need to read Kelly's link)

Thanks to all who answered...should have posted this 3 days ago when I first started looking.

[Martin Shupe]

Dairy outfits are obsessive about SS hardware.

One of my distant cousins ran a dairy farm in Minnesota that we visited a few times when I was growing up. I remember watching them milk cows, and how spotlessly clean it was. Those folks work hard, everday, 24/365! You can't skip a milking or it will hurt the cows.

Of course, the country kids also thought it would be fun to teach the city kids about electric fences and cattle prods. Ouch!:mad:

[Andy Hoyt]

Kelly and Allen...

I read that galvanized would eventually leave rust spots and streaks, especially on cedar, for some reason, but I'll check out Kelly's link....
Martin - Here's what I was taught on this point. In the old days, galvanized nails were hot dipped providing a nice thick coating on the steel nail. This worked fine. Then nail makers strove to economize and began galvanizing the nail in an electro-plating process which resulted in a uniform but much thinner coating.

When you hammer (or shoot) these electro-plated nails into wood the heat from the friction removes some, if not all, of the galvanizing. It's now just a matter of time before the steel in the nail reacts with the tannins in the wood (cedar is heavy in the tannin department) and you get rusting and streaking.

You might want to check out Maze Nails (http://www.mazenails.com/). They still hot dip. They even double hot dip. Not cheap, but less than stainless.

[Allen Bookout]

I agree one hundred per cent on what has been said so far. Of course stainless steel would be the first choice but if you are going to use galvanized use only hot dipped.

[Kelly C. Hanna]

Martin...yes galvanized by itself isn't good enough....has to be hot dipped and those are best fired from a nail gun to minimize head damage. You can rent one at HD for about $25 for four hours. Double hot dipped is better and then of course stainless....stainless is very expensive, yet remains the best thing to use.