You can use expedient wooden pickets of several types. Cut round poles 4 inches in diameter to standard picket lengths, sharpen them on one end, and drive them with a maul. Use the pickets without peeling the bark to prevent the wire from sliding on the picket and to simplify camouflage. You need longer pickets in loose or sandy soil and when driving through a snow cover. Driving wooden pickets is not as noisy as driving steel pickets, and you can reduce the noise further by fastening a section of tire tread over the face of the hammer or maul. For driving in hard earth, wrap the picket tops with wire to avoid splitting. Hardwood pickets, properly installed, are sturdy and rigid. You can use dimensional lumber that is ripped to a square cross section instead of round poles. This is equally satisfactory except that it is more difficult to camouflage. These pickets may be dipped in camouflage paint before driving.

Standing trees and stumps may be used as pickets when their location permits.

Table 8-1.-Wlre and Tape Entanglement Materials

Table 8-1 lists information pertaining to materials used in the construction of barbed-wire entanglements.