Essential Tools You Need for Mending Fences

Mending fences. Yes, I’m talking about actual fences. Like the kind that holds in or keeps out animals. While having the tools to mend fences with people is also good information to have, I won’t be touching on that topic today.

If you are new to this farming/ranching life like me, then hopefully this list of tools will start you out on the right track and save you some time and money along the way.

This list is specifically for a woven wire/barbed wire fence. If you are working with a wooden or pipe fence, you may need some different tools.

I’ve been doing a lot of fence-mending on my property lately because I’m trying to get it ready for some cattle. When I bought it, it had wooden posts around the entire perimeter with rusty woven wire. Most of the posts were rotten and laying on the ground so the only thing keeping a lot of the fence up was where it was grown into trees along the fence row.

I wanted to salvage as much of the wire as possible so it’s been a process cleaning the fence rows by hand, driving new metal t-posts, and repairing the wire.

When I first started, I didn’t know what I needed or what would make it easier/faster. However, now that I have some experience, I wanted to share the tools I wish I had from the beginning.

Tool Belt

Before you do anything, go buy yourself a tool belt! It will save you so many steps.

While you are mending the fence you are walking down the fence row as you go. You may need a certain tool in one section of wire that you don’t need a few steps down so you put it on the ground or in your truck but you find yourself further down the row where you need it again so you have to backtrack to where you laid it down and then go back to where you need it.

It’s a constant back and forth.

You’re already doing manual labor fixing the fence. Save yourself the steps.

Buy the tool belt. Put everything you might need in it before you start.

This doesn’t include tools in the list that won’t fit in your belt.

Post Driver

If you have to replace posts or put in a new fence, you’ll need a good post driver.

There are a lot out there. Some do most of the work for you, some do not.

I tried using a gas-powered one but it was really heavy and hard to hold over my head until it was in the ground since I put 6 1/2 ft t-posts on my perimeter fence. So I just used a manual one with handles.

Yes, it takes a lot of work and I was sore for days afterward. You just have to know what your body can handle and decide where your financial resources should go.

Clip Bender

When I first started clipping the old wire to the new posts, I was using a pair of pliers and a screwdriver to fasten the clips. Then I found a clip bender tool and it was such a time saver. I replaced both of those tools with just this one.

Pliers and a screwdriver work just fine and if you already have those, you don’t have to have the clip bender. However, if you have a lot of fencing to mend, I would invest in this tool.

Hammer

A hammer might seem like an odd tool for fencing but it comes in handy more than you’d think. You need it for stapling wire to wooden posts, measuring, and kinking loose wire just to name a few.

Garden Shears

Garden shears are great for cleaning out vines and briars from your old fence, especially the long-handled ones. They are also good for clipping small branches out of your way while putting up new fencing.

Fencing Tool

A fencing tool is multiple tools combined into one. It is a hammer, pliers, and wire cutters in one handy tool. I like to have it in my tool belt for the times I need to snip some wire or pull steeples out of posts/trees.

Gloves

I used to think it didn’t matter what kind of work gloves I used so I would just get the cheapest I could find. However, there is a difference in quality. If you don’t want blisters, buy higher-quality gloves. Your hands will thank you. They don’t have to be the most expensive pair but look at what material they are made of.

Barbed Wire Roll Holder

Barbed wire is just difficult to work with until you get it stretched. The roll is heavy and it is awkward to tote around because if you get too close to it, it will make you bleed.

Side note: if you think fencing is going to be fun and that you aren’t going to end up with scraps and bruises, you are in for a rude awakening.

So to keep the blood in your body and lessen the stress on your back muscles, I recommend getting a barbed wire roll holder. It’s this thing that has a long handle that goes through the roll of barbed wire so you can unroll it along the fence to stretch it.

Post-puller

A post puller is a must because sometimes we don’t get our posts driven exactly where they need to be. What can I say? We are human. We make mistakes. So get yourself a post-puller so only you know about your mistake.

Post-hole Digger

If you don’t have a tractor with an auger, then you need a post-hole digger for your wooden brace posts. You need to dig a deep hole to set your wooden posts. A post-hole digger is just two shovels attached to pull the dirt out of the hole.

Wire Stretcher

When you are stretching wire tight, whether it is woven wire or barbed wire, you need a stretcher specific to the type of wire you are working with. You use the stretcher to attach the wire to the come along. A lot of pressure is being put on the wire when you are pulling it tight so it can be dangerous if you don’t have the right tool for this part. You don’t want to chance someone getting hurt because the wire came loose and hit them.

Come Along

A come along is a winch with a ratchet that pulls your wire tight so you can clip it to your posts. You want the wire to be tight so that if the livestock pushes against it, it doesn’t give.

Pocket Knife

A pocket knife or box cutter is great to have with you any time you’re working on the farm. There is always something you need to cut.

Essential tools you need for mending fences:

Tool Belt
Post Driver
Clip bender
Hammer
Garden Shears
Fencing tool
Gloves
Barbed wire roll holder
Post puller
Post hole digger
Wire Stretcher
Come along
Pocket knife

There you have it. Essential tools you need for mending fences. While this is not an exhaustive list of fencing tools and doesn’t even touch the materials you’ll need, I hope it’ll save you some time in the long run.

This list is just based on my experience. Let me know if I missed any essentials or if you have any alternatives to the items listed.

Gem of the Week:

My gem this week is the clip bender tool. It saves so much time and is so easy to use. I bought mine at Tractor Supply but it’s probably available at any farm store or online.