Yes it can be used on broken wires and also barbed.

Hi Gus, they both lock as well, but the ratchet is heaps easier to use.

I've got and use both and, although the principal is similar, the way this one works in practice is significantly different; the wire fits in it, it doesn't 'bind' and it doesn't slip. It's just a better product all round, the differences can certainly be copyrighted.

@@ginojaco Its a bit rich that this guy is claiming he has invented something when the Texas Fence Fixer is around so long. He has essentially just copied it and made it with more modern production methods and improved it. It's clearly just a more refined version of that and not a new innovation.

@@MD-uu5nt Having an interest in this sort of thing, and having read that before, I did a bit of research. The earliest tool of this type that could find - and I am open to being advised of earlier ones - was from here in the UK in the late 18th Century. It was smaller and it seems was used for tensioning wires in textile mills, not fences - I have no idea what those wires were for. So I guess that the idea 'travelled' from here to Texas and thence to Oz, improving in utility each time. 👍

sure can Mikey