Making Leather Barbwire

[Henk]

I saw a lot of pictures of Leather Barbwire. And for a project I would like to make some myself.

Does anyone knows how you make Leather Barbwire? What's the secret? Below some examples of what I'm talking about:

Gr. Henk

[ClayB]

That looks like the leather lace that Tandy sells (or used too). It doesn't look like it would be all that hard to do with some round leather lace. Just twist it together for the wire, and wrap some around that for the barbs. Then cut the ends at an angle to make it look sharp.

[Henk]

My thoughts exactely, so I gave it a try. Did not work that simple.

The wires did not stay together and untwisted the whole time.

And the barbs where no succes either. I could not figure them out.

Is it done with a knot? Or do they glue them? How do they do it?

Please help.

Gr. Henk

Edited October 18, 2009 by Henk

[ClayB]

Hmmmmm.......

For the wire, I wonder if you could wet the lace first. Not sure if it would take water, but if it did, and you could keep it together until it dried, it might stay that way if you glued the ends together???

For the barbs, I think I'd try a dab of contact cement on the wire, then lay in the pieces for the barb, more contact cement and then the wrap. If I had some round lace I'd give it a try, but that's one thing I don't have. Good luck!

[whinewine]

My thoughts exactely, so I gave it a try. Did not work that simple.

The wires did not stay together and untwisted the whole time.

And the barbs where no succes either. I could not figure them out.

Is it done with a knot? Or do they glue them? How do they do it?

Please help.

Gr. Henk

Gr:

the barbs are pulled through the inside of the loops so they are tightened & can't come loose. I know I'm not making myself clear, but if you've ever built your own fishing rod from scratch & wrapped the rod guides, it's the exact same process. I guess if you google 'building your own fishing rod' you'll come up with directions on how to do the guides.

russ

[Henk]

ClayB

Good idea about wetting the lace. That I did not think of that myself.

I will give that a try very soon.

Russ,

You where making perfect sense to me. I know a thing or two about

lurebuilding and rodbuilding. And I know exactely what knot you are talking about.

Although I would never have thought about using it for this. So many thank's for the advice.

I have already tried it on a little piece of lace I had laying around and it works like a charm.

I discovered that there are two ways of doing it. You can use two of the knots and ty them together

and in/over eachother. But that is a nasty and difficult little job. So I changed this methode and I

just use one knot, but tie in a extra piece of lace to form the second spikes of the wire.

Know what I'm talking about? Or am I now talking jibberish?

If there is an interest I could put in some pics?

In any case, many thanks for the advice and the help.

Gr. Henk

Edited October 18, 2009 by Henk

[Fathers Son]

The knot looks very similiar to what is used to "whip" a rope to stop it from unraveling. THe only difference is that it looks like a double strand.

Fathers Son

[Henk]

The knot looks very similiar to what is used to "whip" a rope to stop it from unraveling. THe only difference is that it looks like a double strand.

Fathers Son

Looks very similiar indeed. Think this knot does the trick too. I'll give it a trie with a double strand tonight.

Gr. Henk

[JoeS]

The knot looks very similiar to what is used to "whip" a rope to stop it from unraveling. THe only difference is that it looks like a double strand.

Fathers Son

my knot book has one called a Capuchin knot, used by French monks, also a single strand.

joe

[BWL]

Gr:

the barbs are pulled through the inside of the loops so they are tightened & can't come loose. I know I'm not making myself clear, but if you've ever built your own fishing rod from scratch & wrapped the rod guides, it's the exact same process. I guess if you google 'building your own fishing rod' you'll come up with directions on how to do the guides.

russ

My change on this; along he same vein.............. a hangmans knot is made the same way. Two ends opposite each other, looping the cord around as many turns as required then pulling the loop/knot tight pulling both ends of the cord. Look up hangmans knot....................or not

[BWL]

If I was to hazzard a guess.......................... after a quick study........................ Looks like one strand of round leather lace (as long as the wire). The second piece as long as the distance between barbs (wrapped). The knott is a barrel knott (used in the making of Cord Rosarys. The barbes sticking out would be the start and the stop of the short cord and each end of the barrel knot (I think @#$%) I'd have to practice this project first to be sure. I hope this helps somewhat.

I saw a lot of pictures of Leather Barbwire. And for a project I would like to make some myself.

Does anyone knows how you make Leather Barbwire? What's the secret? Below some examples of what I'm talking about:

Gr. Henk

[Phatdaddy]

in just looking at this for the first time, to me it looks like a single piece of round lace twice and long as the length of the wire, hold one end twist the other, double it from the middle, it should twist together. The barbs look like 2 pieces 1 shorrt about 1.5 inches and the other long enough so one tag end sticks out while you wrap it back over itself, the short piece and the twisted pair then feed the other end back trough forming the fourth point on the barb.

i could be way off.

Kevin

[Phatdaddy]

forgive my weak drawing skills, hopefully this illustrates what I mean.

[mndless]

the long strands probably need a 2 strand twist to get them to stay togehter (twisted).... this approach is used to make chordage...

Here is video I found on it....

I've done this with 550 parachord and it works very well... just really gives your thumbs a workout...

[rcsaddles]

Forgive me please but I think you are all making this way too hard. Here is my process for making leather barb wire.

I will take the round lace, up to 30 feet of it and put it in my jug of brown dye. I use rubber gloves and also as I pull the lace out of the bottle, I pull it through a piece of sheepskin or similar to wipe the excess dye back into the bottle. After the lace is out of the bottle, I will fold in half to have two strands next to each other. I take the looped end and attach to something I can pull against. I usually put it through a hole in the punched angle iron that is the support for the garage door track. I put a piece of wood dowel through the leather loop so it won't pull out of the hole in the angle. Then I pull on the two loose ends and start to twist them together. When it is twisted as tight as you want, attach that end to something heavy enough to hold it. I have a 4 inch vise and a piece of railroad iron. I stretch the lace and let it dry. After it is dry, it will not untwist by itself.

The barbs are a little tougher. I will cut pieces of round lace I have dyed and dip them in water and wrap around the wire. Have to keep tightening them to get them to stay but it works.

Hope this helps. Hard to explain, easier to show.