How to Build a Barbed Wire Fence

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Rick Compton shares generations of fencing experience: techniques and methods for building a barbed wire fence.
Rick Compton shares generations of fencing experience: techniques and methods for building a barbed wire fence.
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A basic one-post brace.
A basic one-post brace.
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Tamping with an old pipe section.
Tamping with an old pipe section.
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A homemade fence stick.
A homemade fence stick.
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A posthole digger.
A posthole digger.
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A complete post and wire brace.
A complete post and wire brace.
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Double bracing.
Double bracing.
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H-bracing.
H-bracing.
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A two-post brace.
A two-post brace.
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Four common tools for tightening up fence lines.
Four common tools for tightening up fence lines.
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If working alone, use your body to hold the gripping tool in place.
If working alone, use your body to hold the gripping tool in place.
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The wire should run inside the posts except at the corners.
The wire should run inside the posts except at the corners.
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A wire X-brace.
A wire X-brace.
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A wood-braced corner and slick-wire corner.
A wood-braced corner and slick-wire corner.
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A walk-through gate.
A walk-through gate.
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A poor man's gate.
A poor man's gate.
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8-gauge slick wire can also help hold the lowest posts down.
8-gauge slick wire can also help hold the lowest posts down.
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A cattle guard.
A cattle guard.
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Wooden braces between low posts help hold them down.
Wooden braces between low posts help hold them down.
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Woven wire fencing.
Woven wire fencing.
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A swinging floodgate. 
A swinging floodgate. 

Anyone who’s ever tackled the job of building a barbed wire fence will have to agree: There just ain’t no way to avoid some nicks and scratches when you’re stringing that “ol’ bob wahr.” And that’s the good news. The fact is–if you’re not real careful–you can get seriously hurt.

Rick Compton, one of the stalwart staffers out the MOTHER EARTH NEWS Eco-Village, remembers well the time a friend of his was stretching a long strand of Belgium wire–a thin type that’s particularly prone to snarling–while Rick was working near the ground at the wire’s fixed end. All of a sudden, the line broke. Before Compton could get up, that prickly wire had wound back up and wrapped around him like a boa constrictor! “I could barely move my arms,” he recalls. “My buddy had to cut the mess off me.”

“Of course, that kind of accident doesn’t happen often,” Rick admits. “What’s more common is having a snapped wire run through your hands while you’re stapling. Now that can really tear you up.”

It’s no wonder, then, that whenever Mr. Compton is stringing barbs, he moves right cautiously and wears “the thickest leather gloves I can put on and still work”. You should do the same.

With that warning out of the way, let us add one more note: If you think the techniques of building a barbed wire fence are downright obvious–you know, the “why, any fool can do that” type of thing–many of you will soon see there’s a lot of difference between putting up a “temporary” barrier that’ll start sagging after its first season and stringing a well-built fence that’ll last for years on top of years.

  • Published on Mar 1, 1984
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