Knot Tying Basics - for Hi-tensile Wire
Whether you choose to crimp or hand tie your wire, hand tying is a good technique to know. And, it is always nice to be able to hand tie in the event that you need to make a repair without aid of tools, or your tools are a quarter of a mile away! It is definitely a process that is easier shown in person, than described in words alone. Gary will walk you through the process with the 13 photo segments shown below (for this 15 second job), in hopes of giving you an understanding of the procedure. Take a handful of 6' pieces of wire and practice. You will get good at it. The wire used in these photos has a breaking strength of 1358 pounds. It is very seldom you will see a good knot fail. The C23 crimp sleeve has a 900 pound holding power. The C2L has a holding power of 1500 pounds. If you get good at tying, you may only crimp when you absolutely have to.
Additional Note: It may be an arguable topic of: Is a hand tied knot as strong as a crimp ? Its my personal contention that it depends upon the quality of the knot. If it is a good knot, then I think it is superior to a short crimp and maybe a little less than a long crimp, as noted above. On the other hand a lousy hand knot may be a weak link. So, if you do not feel comfortable hand knotting your wire - we will be more than happy to sell you the tools and the crimps.
Wrap the wire around your post, then back over the top of the wire. We are then going to pass the wire back through the loop (as in the photo below) from the under side, pulling upward. Leave about 18" to 24" of wire to work with. I generally wear some soft deerskin gloves as I feel it gives me a better grip on the wire.
You can now put a tight bend in the wire over the entrance wire and pull towards you. You now have somewhat of a slip knot and can tension the wire up. It doesn't need to be extremely tight to the post. As in the photo below, pull your right hand towards you and pull taunt on the entrance wire with your left hand.
This next step is probably the most important one of all. You need to put a "HANDLE" in the wire so you can control it. In the photo below, you will see that I have bent a 90 degree turn in the wire in my right hand. This is the handle that will allow me to twist the wire around itself. They make a tool for this, but I have never had much use for them.....some people love 'em.
Now give the wire a taunt pull with your left hand. With your hand firmly on the "handle" wire in your right hand pass under the wire and begin your wraps - clockwise. You can do 4 or 5 wraps, but I have seen many New Zealanders use only 3 wraps. It will take you some practice, but once you get the feel for it, you will be able to lay these wraps in beside each other nice and tight. Some rainy day, just take some scrap wire and practice........
Once you have your desired number of wraps, you can grasp the handle very firmly and give it a reverse sideways twist - the wire with snap clean at this point. Its almost impossible to get a still photo of this in process, but it works and gets better with practice. When done this way there are no sharp edges - only a smooth break, that lays smooth in the wrap.
Now your can cut your wire to a length of about 24"+ that will give you enough to pass through your end strain insulator and enough wire to make another knot.
For this knot in the insulator I grasp the insulator firmly and cross the wires in the center of the insulator. At this point you are going to bend in another "HANDLE" to allow you to control the wire and make your twists. Again, make about 4 clockwise wraps around the wire. (insulator note: personally, I like the Speedrite 1018 or the O'Brien end insulators - because they fit my hand & grasp the best and do not tend to turn in my hand when working with them)
The photo below shows me making my reverse sideways motion to snap off the wire. What you are doing here is bending the wire against its memory and it will break off smooth and clean. This all takes a matter of seconds and should be done as fast as you are comfortable with. The wire will build up heat from the friction of making the wraps. It will be hot to the touch. If you pause too long before making your break - then it will not break as cleanly. Things you will learn as you practice !
Now you are ready to attach your fence wire to the insulator in the same fashion as we did this last knot on the insulator. You can do all this without any tools except a pair of cutters to trim the wire to length. There is also a figure eight knot that you can use for in line splices. I hardly ever use it, as this is one point that I do prefer a crimp, like the one at the top of this page.
For this illustration I used our #WSA2, 12.5 gauge, 180,000 psi wire. It works quite well for me in knotting. It is a little stiffer than the 170K wire but still knots very well. I can also tie the 200,000 wire, but it will wear you out if doing it all day long because of its stiffness. A note about the insulator *** make sure that you attach to the insulator so that you are pulling into the long mass of the insulator - not the short end. I see a lot of these being put on wrong. Per the pic above, you are now ready to install the actual fence wire in the same manor that we did the last tie. Good luck & practice-practice-practice ! After the first full day in the field you will be an old pro at it. Look us up at a show someday and I'll be happy to do one for you.
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