Baling wire

Baling wire, otherwise known as "farm wire" or "soft wire," is primarily used in an agricultural setting for everything from mending fences to manually binding square bales of hay, straw, or cut grass.

Baling wire is commonly used in many non-agricultural applications, usually in an informal, make-do manner. It is frequently referred to as one of the basic repair materials. Typical uses range from supporting loose mufflers to patching chain-link fences. Common phrases often include "baling wire" as an ad hoc, fix-anything material, alongside chewing gum, duct tape, and the cable tie. It is also known as "Haywire".

Its closest industrial (proper name) is Mechanic's Wire (Soft Annealed Mechanic's Wire , 18 AWG)

In the United States, Australia, and around the world, baling wire is used in mechanical hay balers pulled behind a tractor. The balers use a wire twister that first cut then twisted the ends of the wire such that the bale kept its shape after the baler had pressed the hay into a tight rectangular bale. These hay balers were in common use up until the late 1980s. When the hay was fed to the stock the wire was cut and hung in bundles around the farm. Farmers used the soft wire for fixing almost everything you could think of on the farm. From old leather horse harness to pins to keep castellated nuts in place on the tractor. Even tiny screwdrivers were made by cutting a short length of wire and looping one end for grip. The other end was then flattened and shaped to make a screwdriver for those fiddly jobs like replacing the tiny screws in reading glasses.

Baling wire was one of the most useful products ever used on the landFact|date=May 2008 but it was replaced by baling twine in the late 1970s.

External links

* [http://www.recycle.net/equip/menu/equip_10.html List of companies manufacturing baling wire]
* [http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/story091.htm Baling wire's contribution] to the earmuff