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Wire strainer

A Wire strainer is a device for putting tension on fencing wire to remove slack in the wires.

Wire strainers can either be permanently installed on the fence or a reusable tool. Fencing wire was first used extensively in the wearly nineteenth century but not common until the 1850s. Initially heavy gauge iron wire could be rigid, but lighter gauge and more modern steel wires required tensioning to prevent them sagging or separating when livestock tries getting through.

The Hayes company located in Oturehua, New Zealand, developed a strainer with two clamps to hold the wires connected be chains. Alternately moving the jaws of the mechanism along the the chain. Once the wires are sufficiently strained they are looped together and tied.