Razor Wire (or "bob-wire") Help Needed

[warrenss2]

I'm looking for suggestions on making those coils of razor wire seen on the top of chain-link fences and for fortifying defensible locations.

The more frugal the idea... the better. 

[Viper]

Buy some wire...coil it round a pencil of the desired thickness till you have the right length...cut wire...slide off...stick on top of fence/wall/whatever.

That would be the cheapest and easiest.

If you want to take it a bit further and make it have spikes then you can take the idea above then stick some wee spikes on.

Or maybe, I'm not sure if this would work, coil 2 pieces of wire round each other, to make kind of a rope. Perhaps with one piece of wire being slightly thiner than the other.

Then with this "rope" of wire coil it round the pencil like with above. Now the bit I'm not sure about. Take some clippers and carefully cut one of the pieces of wire (the thinner if you have 2 different thicknesses) then bend the cut piece out to form the barb/razor. Perhaps add a little superglue behind the bent part then move down the wire and make anther clip, and bend those bits up...repeat down the length of the wire.

Hope that makes sense, it's just an idea that popped into my head as I was typing the really basic no barbs version.
 

Also you could do it by taking a tiny piece of some really thin wire making a loop with it then sliding it onto the main piece...my first idea would be faster (easier to production line) but having individual spikes might look more realistic.

Then at the opposite end of the scale to "getting some wire and coiling it" you have the various brass/metal packs of barbed/razor wire...minimum effort maximum price tag on those.
 

[Aaron]

I have heard of people cutting individual strands of window screen also. Seems a bit fiddly but should work.

[Luckyjoe]

Here's a link on using the window screen wire for barbed wire that one of the forum members posted a while back. You should be able to make the razor wire the same way.
http://saskminigamer.blogspot.com/2007/01/36-miles-of-barbed-wire-part-2.html

Also I recall seeing a post about using the wire mesh screen that sculptors use and doing pretty much the same thing as the above link describes with window screen. I have made some coiled wire with the scuptor's mesh. It holds it's shape well but can be a little pokey. 

Luckyjoe

[Big Sexy]

I stumbled on this a while back and couldn't remember where I found it.  Well, I found it.  Haven't tried it myself but its the best homemade razorwire I've seen.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/The_simplest_barbed_wire_ever.

[warrenss2]

@ Viper - I had thought about the wire method, but I want some blades/barbs to be seen.

As for the pipe cleaner method... being a pipe smoker makes this an easy and doable method to try out.

I also have some window screening too...

I'm going to try out the pipe cleaner and screen methods.

[Big Sexy]

Please show us your results.  And don't try smoking the pipe cleaners.