If you own cows, you’re guaranteed a lifetime of learning to become a professional fence stretcher. Just when you think you have a reasonably tight barbed wire fence, it’s a sure bet that the cows are out there busily trying to figure out how to loosen it up again.

With a claw hammer and a pair of fencing pliers, you can splice and tighten a broken wire relatively fast with a reasonably low amount of fuss. To accomplish this, take one of the broken wire ends and create a small loop, then cross the wire over itself and wind the end around the body of the wire three or four times. Repeat this process with the other broken end.

Next, thread a piece of splicing wire through one of the loops and splice it to the wire by bending it over onto itself and making three or four twists in an aforementioned manner. The splice wire should be long enough to thread through the opposing loop plus an additional five or six inches. Now untwist the splice wire and strip off all the barbs with your fencing pliers so that it will slide through the opposing loop more easily. After you’ve stripped the barbs off, twist it back together. Note: On some barbed wire brands, the barb is twisted around both strands of wire. If this is the case, it’s not the end of the world. It will just require a little extra effort with your fencing pliers to remove the barbs.

Now take the opposing wire in one hand and thread the splice wire up through the loop you created earlier. Pull the splice wire through the loop as far as you can, then lay the neck of your hammer, which exists between the head and the claws underneath the splice wire and across the loop. Next, put the splice wire across the hammer’s neck, then around the side and down between the claws. After that, begin winding the splice wire around the hammer’s neck as you continue to keep the hammer lying across the loop.

If you’ve followed all the above steps correctly, you’ll be able to stretch the wire just as tight as you need it to be. When you’ve wound the wire sufficiently tight, keep ahold of the hammer handle with one hand. With the other hand, firmly hold the splice wire where it goes up through the loop and the loop itself with your fencing pliers so that the wire can not slip. When you’ve got ahold of the splice wire and the loop with your pliers, you can unwind the wire a couple of turns from your hammer by turning the handle in the opposite direction. After all of that, bend the splice wire over onto itself in a “U” shape.

After you’ve bent the wire over onto itself, it won’t slip anymore, so at this point can let go with the pliers and finish unwinding the wire from the hammer. All you have left to do now is twist the wire back over itself three or four turns. Using this method, you can have a wire spliced and stretched just as tight as if you’d done it with a fence stretcher.