# Installing barbed wire fence stays



## ddossey (May 3, 2010)

This may sound too simple to be worthy of a post, but I stumbled on a solution that saved me a lot of time yesterday. Thought it could help someone else.
I am nearly 65 years old and have not built a barbed wire fence since I was 12 working with my dad. Back in the day, we did not know what a fence stay was -- if it could not be done with baling wire it just did not get done. 
Being a weekend gentleman farmer now, one of my projects last winter was building about 2000 ft of 5-strand barbed wire fencing. As the summer is beginning to cool off a little now, I wanted to put stays in the line to sturdy the fence up for the long run. (I don't necessarily want to be fooling with fences in ten years.) 
What I discovered is that in the 9 months since I was building the fence the wire had acquired just a hint of surface oxidation. In addition, the stays were similar. The result is that installing the stays went from what I thought was going to be a very simple job to a real nightmare. I was spending several minutes with each one and having to resort to twisting with pliers, etc to get them twisted on. The prospect of getting a couple hundred of them done was starting to look like a nightmare. 
SOLUTION: I found that a little WE-40 sprayed on the stays (10 - 15 at a time) completely solved the problem. Just a hint of lubrication and they practically twirled themselves onto the strands of barbed wire. The first couple of strands would literally twist themselves -- a little assistance with a screwdriver threaded through the top loop made getting the bottom three strands twisted a cinch. What I thought to be a simple job -- became a nightmare -- then simple again. Chalk up another one for WD-40.


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## farmertim (Dec 1, 2010)

Great hint there ddossey.
Thanks for sharing it.
Cheers


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## grnspot110 (Aug 1, 2010)

I carry a small can of used oil to dip the bottom of the stay before screwing it on. ~~ grnspot


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