Rolling Wire

Believe it or not, there is an art to rolling up old barbwire. With springtime coming on strong, we took advantage of the opportunity to clean up last year's electric fence set up. 

#1 on our to do list is build this 500' section of fence on the north end of our pasture. We took down the old fence last summer. Now we need to spool up the temporary barbwire to get ready for permanent posts and fencing. 

This is the most common way to spool up barbwire. Get about a 24" loop built, then just start rolling it up from the bottom. The biggest trick, from start to finish, is to weave the wire back and forth as you roll it up. 

Left side, then right side. If you don't do this, your spool will spring apart. Doing so keeps it neat and tighty, in order to store it on the north 40 or re-use it again. 

If you do it well enough, you can simply loop the last end around the spool a time or two. Sometimes, I'll leave a long length and wrap it once at the top and then cut across the spool and wrap it at the bottom as well. 

Another method is the big loop trick. This is good for old men that don't want to pack the wire while they wind it up and don't want to bend over as they do so. 

Same theory applies here, left and right weaving pattern. 

Works. You'll often get a lot of trash wrapped up in the spool with this method. 

If you really have a mess on your hand, there's the old tumble weed approach. Just start balling it up. Move your spool all around as you do so. 

Not a bad tactic if you have multiple, uneven or broken wires to work with. Pretty much plan on not reusing it again after you've rolled up this ball of wax.

Simple as that. 

These days, lot of guys will use a hydraulic set up to spool up wire. Definitely has its place. But sooner or later, you're gonna find yourself hand rolling up some barbwire. No problem. Just get creative with your weaving pattern and go to work. Now that all the old wire is picked up, let's build some fence.