Considerations

• Barbed wire is an industrial product designed for animals and not people - it's not designed to be people "safe" or clean.
• Keep in mind, we are taking something that is designed to be unsafe (for livestock anyways) and trying to make it safe for humans.
• It is not designed to be sterilized and is cumbersome to sterilize via traditional methods (autoclave, chemical sterilants, etc.)
• Our goal is to be CLEAN not sterile.

Preparing Wire for Play

This is the hygiene regiment that fits my risk profile, you may decide to do less or more than this, your mileage may vary

1. Cut: Cut the wire to length and, if desired, build or modify toys. (It is much easier to clean and sanitize in shorter more manageable pieces rather than on the spool)
2. Clean: Clean surface contaminants from the wire with dish soap and warm water or use (it may be greasy or dirty from manufacturing, shipping, storage, etc.)
3. Dry: Let wire air dry.
4. Sanitize: Sanitize the debris and grease free wire by soaking in bleach solution or manually cleaning with Cavicide/CaviWipes
   • Bleach solution for soaking: 2 teaspoons of bleach per gallon - soak for 2 minutes (do not rinse), let air dry
   • Cavicide/CaviWipes: Follow the instructions listed on the package/container
5. Store: Once dry, package the wire for storage or transport (cardboard poster or document tubes work great for raw, straightened wire)
6. Pre-Play Clean: 5 minutes prior to actually playing, spray the wire down with either bleach solution or rubbing alcohol.

   • Bleach solution for pre-scene spraying: 1/2 cup bleach per gallon of cold water - spray on and let stand for 5 minutes, rinse and let air dry

   • Rubbing Alcohol (70% Isopropyl Alcohol): spray on and let stand until air dry

     (This is really just to kill anything that might have made its way onto the wire while in storage, or since you sanitized it)

Disposing of used Barbed Wire