Re: What is it? CXXII

[Mark & Juanita]

Yep, and making sure that the clamp stayed attached to the wire was a trick. Always had to get the wire hauled a bit tighter than needed because you knew you'd lose some tension between the stretcher and the post onto which you were tying the wire.

Those were even more fun with woven wire fences like hog wire. I made a clamp out of a couple of 1 x 4's to get reasonably even tension among all of the strands.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[Bart Byers]

With woven wire I'd pull and fasten the top strand first, then work my way down, keeping the strands lined up vertically where I stapled them. That required me to lug a minimum of tools. Then I'd restore tension to all strands by walking along and using two pairs of pliers to tighten the ripples.

Tightening was a leisurely activity. It left a fence so straight that I could I could see from a distance if everything was okay. The ripples allowed stretching if a limb fell on the fence, and the ripples could easily be retightened.

[Lew Hodgett]

Ah yes, hog wire, I still remember helping my dad string it.

We had a big old brood sow that could give a fence a good test.

The metal intermediate posts weren't to bad; but, the corners and those locust post.

Ever try to drive a staple into a locust post?

Might as well try driving them into steel.

Lew