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Posted

It's been a few years since I did any fence work. When I was living at home and had horses we did quite a bit. Dad and I had our own fence pliers and twisters.

The fancy how to video looks to be an ad for a brand of hay wire pliers I'm frankly unimpressed with. It has too many bells and whistles, "features" that don't account for much. I didn't see him do anything we wouldn't do in 1/4 the time with a hay hook and fence pliers though any pliers with cutters worked as well.

For wire slip knots, fishing, fencing, etc. we tied a modified "Blood knot" same thing as a hangman's noose but with only 3-5 turns instead of the 13 of the hangman's knot.

I don't recall ever tying a fence wire to a post with a slip knot but we used a wire stretcher, tensioner, I can't think of a reason to anchor a top, bottom or other fence wire with a slip knot. After tensioning the wire we'd bend a 90 where it met the post wrap it twice around the post staple and simply twist the standing end around the tensioned wire. Then we went back down the line and stapled the wire to the posts if wood or used hog wire ties if metal.

We used a cable come along with a wire gripper to tension wire or a spreader bar on chain link. I don't remember anybody having tensioners that pulled along a chain like the ones in Bekaert and other videos. When I was a kid and we hung fence wire on a family friend's cattle ranch we stretched it with a pick up truck and we youngster's job was to help it up to level and signal when it was tight enough. That was smooth, barbed or welded wire. Chain link was mostly for the house yard if then. 

Sorry, hanging wire fence brings back some good memories.

Frosty The Lucky. 

Posted

It's useful sometimes if you want one end of something done in a way that allows easy release or want to get good tension without stressing the wire too much and risking having it break. I used a bunch a couple of years ago to run some wire between posts in the garden like strings to train vines up and peas. Could only use slip knots on one end, but the wire was brittle enough that it proved worth it.

Stretched barbed wire with a pickup, but if it pops or comes off wrong, you can get cut up. My brother used to have some scars up near his eye where a loop of wire caught him doing that. Never seen that hay wire twist tool though; always used a bolt or something if ya needed a consistent loop.

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