Making Leather Barbwire

[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.