Barbed wire, also known as barb wire Glidden Steel called its product "Barb Wire". (and frequently in dialect form spelled bob "In my book a pioneer is a man who turned all the grass upside down, strung bob-wire over the dust that was left, poisoned the water, cut down the trees, killed the Indian who owned the land and called it progress." Timothy Egan is quoting a surprising source, the celebrated cowboy artist Charles Russell. or bobbed), is a type of fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strand(s). It is used to construct inexpensive fences and also on walls surrounding secured property.