Is it Possible To Use Normal Barbed Wire (Low Carbon wire) as High Tensile Barbed Wire?

I have a lot of low carbon barbed wire, the heavier kind of barbed wire that is common to see on old fences and usually needs a post every 8 feet. Posts are not cheap. high tensile barbed wire is looking a lot more intriguing. I am curious is there a way to use that old barbed wire in a way that is similar to HT Barbed wire?



It seems as though stretching this wire out 25ft would not work out the same way at all. Is there any way to fix this?

Can you give us a little background? What is the situation? I assume you are running cattle?

It's been a while since I worked with barbed wire. I think our spans were longer than 8 ft., though it was in heavy clay soil. Farmers who went for longer spans between posts usually bought and installed spacers, two heavy wires twisted together that you would corkscrew onto the wires to prevent a gap from forming. There were also various gizmos that would be installed on the wire to tighten it after installation.

One safety consideration with posts is that it gives cattle a visual cue that the fence is there. It's also important for teenagers on motorbikes and skidoos (I have the scars to prove it).

Smooth high tensile wire is much stronger than mild steel wire.  If you went easy on the tension and put a post every 15-20 ft you might get away with it.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Can you give us a little background? What is the situation? I assume you are running cattle?

It's been a while since I worked with barbed wire. I think our spans were longer than 8 ft., though it was in heavy clay soil. Farmers who went for longer spans between posts usually bought and installed spacers, two heavy wires twisted together that you would corkscrew onto the wires to prevent a gap from forming. There were also various gizmos that would be installed on the wire to tighten it after installation.

One safety consideration with posts is that it gives cattle a visual cue that the fence is there. It's also important for teenagers on motorbikes and skidoos (I have the scars to prove it).

Well a little background is that it is wire that was used for cattle 30 years ago, I want to use it again for cattle now. Luckily it is galvanized so its not all rusted out, however the posts have turned to mush. What I am using is not the springy high tensile stuff, it is just regular. And you are saying you worked this with not "High-tensile barbed wire"?

By spacers do you mean fence stays?


And I know what you mean, one big part of fencing with cattle is visual cues, so i am planning on planting fast plants on the other side to make it seem like more of a wall.

Yup, fence stays, those are the ones I remember.

The wire I worked with 25+ years ago was labelled "high tensile" and maybe it was for its day. But looking at the videos, it's pretty clear it was low tensile by modern standards.

I will caution you about overstretching barbed wire. A friend was injured the other day, just standing by a run of wire and putting on the post  clips, when it broke a ways down, grabbed him and knocked him 10' away. Skin damage was minimal because he had a jacket on. But he basically got body slammed.

They had previously been boasting to me about how tight they were stretching it with a pickup truck.  I think a hand stretcher is safer.