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Unwinding and repurposing barbed wire

 
M Ljin
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Hello! I thought I might share a project I’ve been working on. It is to repurpose rusty barbed wire that is sitting in the forest nearby working hard to trip deer and human beings, and turn it into some useful little things. So far I’ve been able to debarb and straighten the wire, and have used it for hollowing out sumac for maple tapping, and made one into a crochet hook. Other plans include knitting needles, and flattening it twisting it into a hand drill (also for making spiles).

I would like to be able to make something larger than the diameter of the wire, like knives or other cutting tools, but I’m guessing that would require melting the metal, which would require a more involved setup. Or are there other ways?

What would you make with this abundant material?

IMG_9746.jpeg
De-barbed wire crochet hook
De-barbed wire crochet hook

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M Ljin
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To clarify—my tools at the moment are fire, the blunt end of a hatchet, stone, and pliers. It isn’t that involved.

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Dan Fish
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Look up a "dirt box forge". It is easier than you might think to heat and work metal. I mean it isn't THAT easy but if it might be interesting either way. I made a couple junky knives for fun using one of these last year.

Fish heads fish heads roly poly fish heads

 
Robert Ray
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.
barb-wire-hat.jpg
[Thumbnail for barb-wire-hat.jpg]

Our inability to change everything should not stop us from changing what we can.

 
M Ljin
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A little awl I made yesterday
IMG_0133.jpeg
[Thumbnail for IMG_0133.jpeg]
Awl

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Jim Fry
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Something to keep in mind. There are many dozens of different styles of barbed wire. There are folks who have large collections of the many different configurations.

But more importantly for this discussion, there are mostly two kinds of metal of which barbed wire is made. The good stuff, and the poor-quality cheaper wire. The more expensive to purchase quality wire is made of a somewhat more pliable and bendable metal. You can more easily straighten it to put it up, and more easily roll it up when taking it down. It lasts longer in use. The poorer quality wire is much harder, more brittle, doesn't bend or unbend well. It's much harder to put up or take down. The better-quality wire lasts longer, and even when rusty can often still be used and bent for other projects. The cheap wire rusts faster and tends to break easier when re-purposing.

If you are going to go to all the work of reusing barbed wire you will probably have a much easier time of it and have more success with the better-quality wire. I've never found much use of much any kind for the cheap wire.

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Mike Philips
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Earthbag construction layers 2 strands of barbed wire between each course of bags.
 
M Ljin
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Some simple tongs I made. Except that they seem to bend out of shape easily if I try to pick up anything too large. Maybe there are ways of changing this? Hardening the metal more?
IMG_0710.jpeg
Tongs
Tongs

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M Ljin
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Also some tweezers. I don’t know what I will use them for, yet. Plant breeding? Anyway, they were easy enough to make and they work well.
image.jpg
De-barbed wire tweezers
De-barbed wire tweezers

One can never be too kind to oneself or others.
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M Ljin
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Aha!
IMG_0760.jpeg
Wire clamp used to hold birch bark in place for basketry
Wire clamp used to hold birch bark in place for basketry

One can never be too kind to oneself or others.
Never our fault, always our responsibility

 
Douglas Alpenstock
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Hm! Your barbed wire appears much heavier than anything I've ever seen around here.
 
M Ljin
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Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Hm! Your barbed wire appears much heavier than anything I've ever seen around here.



That is interesting. Would you be able to share what it looks like around you for reference? All of the barbed wire around here looks like this—except one little section of an antiquated sort of barbed wire, a thin sheet of metal with projecting barbs on each side and which is twisted.

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M Ljin
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Here is some of the old style of barbed wire, as I passed by the area today:
IMG_0785.jpeg
[Thumbnail for IMG_0785.jpeg]
IMG_0784.jpeg
[Thumbnail for IMG_0784.jpeg]

One can never be too kind to oneself or others.
Never our fault, always our responsibility

 
J Hillman
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Maieshe Ljin wrote:Some simple tongs I made. Except that they seem to bend out of shape easily if I try to pick up anything too large. Maybe there are ways of changing this? Hardening the metal more?



I like the tongs.

Instead of a simple bend at the back to of the tongs you should try making several full circles to make more of a spring.  That way they should deform less when picking up larger items.
 
Douglas Alpenstock
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Thanks for the photo! That looks like a version of what we would call razor wire or concertina wire.

The barbed wire used for cattle around here looks like this:
 
M Ljin
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I have been wondering as of late if barbed wire could be turned into nails.

I know putting them in fire can harden them. I know how to sharpen the end too. I even know how to flatten them into a thin strip if need be. But creating a head might be a little more difficult…

One can never be too kind to oneself or others.
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M Ljin
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It actually seems as if nails and barbed wire are a rather similar type of iron—both quite flexible. So maybe needs no fancy heating at all?

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Douglas Alpenstock
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M Ljin wrote:I have been wondering as of late if barbed wire could be turned into nails.  


Experiments are always good. The alchemy of steel is always interesting.

I built a lot of barbed wire fences in my youth. It is designed to be stretchy and springy and withstand the forces of being stretched out and loose hung off the ground for a 1/4 mile with no supports.

As found, it would make the world's most frustrating nail. Would that change with the alchemy of controlled heating and cooling? Hmm.
 
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