I got a roll of 25 foot by 4 foot hardware cloth and cut it into 5 foot sections to use as deer protection for some fruiting shrubs/trees. its working great in general, but the last 5 foot section that was the inner most part of the roll and was so tightly bound I’m having a heck of a time getting rid of the spring tension to make it into a single ring around a tree. right now I have it laid out flat on my driveway with a bunch of heavy stuff on it for several days but that doesn’t appear to be doing anything to help. does anyone have any tricks the could recommend? would hate for the last 5 feet to be unusable as I have more trees that need rings
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Take the recalcitrant crittur to a suitable power pole or tree and bend it against the curl as you unroll it. It will work better with two people. The clue is that the metal has stretched one way and now you have to stretch it the other way to balance the curl and flatten it. I’ll bet that by now I don’t have to remind you to wear gloves!
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Exactly as Mark said. I would add goggles to the safety gear. Hardware cloth is a pain and especially so in 50 foot rolls.
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and long sleeves and pants
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I was wearing shorts for the first roll I was cutting (before this post) and I had it laid flat with heavy things on both ends. when I got through the first cut the spring tension send the sharp end right into my leg and I had a nice clean puncture in my calf. so I learned this the hard way already lol
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