Using your hands - fence knots

I've been a big fan of knots and rigging for a very long time - I use it when I go rafting, for instance - and when I have a chance to learn a new knot or technique, I'm interested.

In this case I'm putting up the wires for the grape trellis and supports, and took a few pictures as I worked on the wires.

With my high-tensile fences, wires do break from time to time, and being able to perform a repair on the fence with no tools at all is a great ability.  So here's the basic knot for high-tensile fencing

 the first part is a simple overhand knot.  basically the one you start your shoelaces with.  The free end of the wire is the one that is at the bottom.  I'm using this knot to tie the end of row post to the ground anchor (the red eye bolt-looking thing at the right of the picture)

 After the initial overhand knot I then make a series of tight wraps around the wire leading to the load.  As I wind the wire I'm pulling back towards the ground anchor to keep the loops as close as possible.

After making the loops I then unwind 1 loop, and working the free end back and forth, snap the wire off.  Snapping it off like this leaves a smooth surface that won't cut you or livestock.  If you cut it with diagonal cutters or wire cutters it'll leave a very sharp point; much prefer this.

So when a wire breaks, I take a 6' piece of new wire out, tie the new wire in place, and then re-tension the span.  15 minutes, no tools, just a bit of wire and good technique.  makes fence repairs very easy.

This knot is to tie to anchors, but you can do two of them to tie wires together, or use a figure-eight follow-through knot