The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Smallholding => Equipment => Topic started by: Clay on June 08, 2020, 08:43:17 pm

Title: Barbed wire
Post by: Clay on June 08, 2020, 08:43:17 pm
What’s the best type of gloves to use when handing barbed wire. Got some fence repairs that need doing.
Title: Re: Barbed wire
Post by: Buttermilk on June 08, 2020, 10:17:18 pm
Strong ones.

I wear leather ones.
Title: Re: Barbed wire
Post by: arobwk on June 08, 2020, 10:52:01 pm
Untried on barbed wire, but Screwfix's leather "driver's" gloves (orangey coloured) are quite good/thick enough for handling brambles and dog roses without concern.  They are in-expensive (about £6 I think) and definitely worth a try I would say.

(I use even thicker welders' gloves for anything with needle-like spines - e.g. berberis shrub - but they are probably unnecessary for barbed wire and they make hand movements a bit cumbersome.)

Title: Re: Barbed wire
Post by: Fleecewife on June 09, 2020, 01:09:38 am
We replaced all our barbed wire with plain.  It's such hateful stuff, injures animals and humans alike and doesn't stop jumpers, just damages them. Having had one dog rip her tummy open twice, we decided enough was enough.
Title: Re: Barbed wire
Post by: SallyintNorth on June 09, 2020, 04:31:36 pm
Hide gardening gloves.  This type https://www.screwfix.com/p/stanley-split-cowhide-leather-driver-gloves-brown-large/23256 (https://www.screwfix.com/p/stanley-split-cowhide-leather-driver-gloves-brown-large/23256)
Title: Re: Barbed wire
Post by: twizzel on June 09, 2020, 08:21:22 pm
We replaced all our barbed wire with plain.  It's such hateful stuff, injures animals and humans alike and doesn't stop jumpers, just damages them. Having had one dog rip her tummy open twice, we decided enough was enough.


But it does stop cattle rubbing hedges  :innocent:  and it’s a lot cheaper than stock fence
Title: Re: Barbed wire
Post by: doganjo on June 09, 2020, 09:42:25 pm
We replaced all our barbed wire with plain.  It's such hateful stuff, injures animals and humans alike and doesn't stop jumpers, just damages them. Having had one dog rip her tummy open twice, we decided enough was enough.
Quite agree
A friend of mine ran 2 miles to the vet with his munsterlander bitch in his arms that was wrapped up in barbed wire that had sprung off the fence. She died just as he got there.
I HATE it with a passion
Title: Re: Barbed wire
Post by: arobwk on June 09, 2020, 10:17:20 pm
Hide gardening gloves.  This type https://www.screwfix.com/p/stanley-split-cowhide-leather-driver-gloves-brown-large/23256 (https://www.screwfix.com/p/stanley-split-cowhide-leather-driver-gloves-brown-large/23256)
Yep, those are the ones I was referring to.

I am, however, thinking about all the anti-barbed comments now.
Title: Re: Barbed wire
Post by: Fleecewife on June 09, 2020, 11:58:38 pm
We replaced all our barbed wire with plain.  It's such hateful stuff, injures animals and humans alike and doesn't stop jumpers, just damages them. Having had one dog rip her tummy open twice, we decided enough was enough.


But it does stop cattle rubbing hedges  :innocent:  and it’s a lot cheaper than stock fence


Rubbing?  Our neighbour's cows used to hop right over the barbed wire to start pulling out our hedging when it was small, then they hopped right out again when they saw me coming. He put up a couple of extra (plain) wires above the normal height stock fence (shared costs) and the cattle don't touch our hedge now, even though it's about 8 feet high and bushy. A bit more expensive than barbed wire, but so much kinder.  I suppose though it's the Marmite of the fencing world - you either love the stuff or hate it.  I hate it!
Title: Re: Barbed wire
Post by: twizzel on June 11, 2020, 11:50:39 am
We replaced all our barbed wire with plain.  It's such hateful stuff, injures animals and humans alike and doesn't stop jumpers, just damages them. Having had one dog rip her tummy open twice, we decided enough was enough.


But it does stop cattle rubbing hedges  :innocent:  and it’s a lot cheaper than stock fence


Rubbing?  Our neighbour's cows used to hop right over the barbed wire to start pulling out our hedging when it was small, then they hopped right out again when they saw me coming. He put up a couple of extra (plain) wires above the normal height stock fence (shared costs) and the cattle don't touch our hedge now, even though it's about 8 feet high and bushy. A bit more expensive than barbed wire, but so much kinder.  I suppose though it's the Marmite of the fencing world - you either love the stuff or hate it.  I hate it!


If we turn our cows out into a field with no fence, just a stone hedge, they will find a bit with some bare soil and rub it till the hedge falls down (our hedges are stone on lower/laid to hedge on top). 2 strands of barbed wire job done. Stock fencing 150 acres not economically viable so our grazing fields are a mix of 2-3 strand barbed wire or 1 strand of electric galv wire.
Title: Re: Barbed wire
Post by: YorkshireLass on June 11, 2020, 02:36:35 pm
Hide gardening gloves.  This type https://www.screwfix.com/p/stanley-split-cowhide-leather-driver-gloves-brown-large/23256 (https://www.screwfix.com/p/stanley-split-cowhide-leather-driver-gloves-brown-large/23256)
Yep, those are the ones I was referring to.

I am, however, thinking about all the anti-barbed comments now.


Would plain wire do the job?
I keep having to remind myself to really look at the least "mean" option. Why make something nasty and spikey (for us as well as the livestock and wildlife) if it doesn't need to be?
Title: Re: Barbed wire
Post by: SallyintNorth on June 11, 2020, 07:02:11 pm
Because they will lean all their weight on plain wire and it won't take it.  Barbs stop them putting all their weight on it.  (Although not, apparently, if you are a Fell Pony.  My two can judge exactly how to approach the fence in order to still reach over it ::) )