I've been wanting to build some arbors for my garden gates to serve as both the gates and trellis structures for hardy kiwi and passion flower. I just happened upon an opportunity to get a bunch of black locust posts, so the time is now! Or maybe not... I know I'll want to strip the bark before building, do I need to wait some amount of time (a year?) after I strip them, before I can build with them? I know locust is pretty special in terms of strength and rot resistance, but I didn't know if it was special enough to skip that step.
Second question... what method of joining would be best for an arbor like the example below (apologies for the bad AI, I found it on Pinterest)? Should I be protecting the cut tops somehow since there won't be a roof overhead? Kiwi vines can get pretty heavy, so I want to be sure it is sturdy and not just nice to look at. I'll also likely be building some sort of arbor or pergola to support some grapes in my woods that collapsed the trees they were climbing on. The base of one of the grape vines is massive, maybe 6 inches in diameter. I'm sure I'll need to prune it back a lot to train it onto the replacement structure, but whatever I build will need to carry a lot of weight.
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