We've been building and experimenting with different style fences for different uses: board, split rail, high tensile eight and six wire, woven wire, and high tensile woven wire. We've used osage orange, black locust, milled treated pine, metal and fiberglass t-posts. We need to keep horses and cattle in and the kids from the sub division next door out.
Osage orange are the posts that last the longest, but need to be put in dug holes versus being driven because of each posts unique shape. Black locust posts can be driven, if you are selective when you purchase them. The milled posts are the most uniform in shape and can easily be driven. T-posts go in the quickest and require only a sledge hammer or a t-post driver to put in. Metal t-posts are the most durable. For a good looking fence, install all posts with a level and the same height from the ground (wood posts can always be shortened with a chain saw after installed).
Board fence encourages people to climb it.
High tensile wire does well with every other wire connected to electric. Bottom wire should be cold with the top wire hot. This fence holds up well to deer traffic and can easily be climbed through when not electrified. (Theo here: It can be climbed through while it IS hot if you are careful.) Some zoning laws will not allow it to be used for line fence. We use this method for interior fencing and prefer the six wire fence over the eight (turns livestock just as well and two wires cheaper). Easily allows water to flow through it and is more forgiving of debris.
48" woven wire with two strands of barb on top is standard for most line fence. CHECK OUT YOUR LOCAL ZONING AND LINE FENCE LAWS BEFORE BUILDING. Some states make your neighbor pay for and maintain his half of the fence. We've come up with a variation of this that we really like for our line fence and it's held up really well. Our oldest section is 22 years old and still turns cattle and horses. We run 39" high tensile woven wire. It has more galvanize on it than regular woven wire. On the top, we run two strands of high tensile wire with the top one electrified. The strands of high tensile wire on top seems to hold up better than barb from the deer hitting it as they cross.
The biggest detail to pay attention to (besides making sure you build your line fence on the line or your side of it), is to make sure you use good corner and end posts and that they are braced properly. It takes a lot more strength to hold the ends in place, than to hold the fence up.
