I like Gaucho wire for new fences. It stays tight for decades if the corners are good. I buy the four barb. It's been quite a while since I bought any, but at that time it cost $1.00 per roll more than the two barb.
My great-uncle and aunt moved to town in 1969. We moved onto their place. My father bought roughly 22 acres, which was all he could afford, and he sold the rest to someone else. He told me once that back when he farmed watermelons they'd use just about anything for fence posts around the watermelon fields since the land would get too poor to grow watermelons after just a few years. They're let that go back to pasture and fence off another patch. He pointed out a large sycamore tree and told me it started out as a fence post. He had cut it green and used it right away, and the weather stayed wet enough that it sprouted roots and grew.
That tree is still there. I doubt if I could reach around it.
Back about 35 years ago I was helping a guy build fence who didn't think he could get the wire tight enough with one of the ratchet type fence stretchers, so he used a come-a-long. I was walking along and stapling a wire to the post and hit the staple one time too many. The wire broke at the staple and ripped my shirt wide open without putting a scratch on me. It's a wonder it didn't gut me.
