To draw wire or not to draw

Jewelry Discussion
42

True, but the average bunsen burner will still bring it to its softening
point, you just get less working time. Not that the pull phase takes
long, fraction of a second to be honest. So if you have a oxy/gas torch
you have more than enough heat on hand, bonus with quartz is its less
prone to thermal shock than Pyrex type glass.

Thomas.

43

This is a joke , isnā€™t ? I forget to laugh , I am scared .

44
  1. hold the eire in a round hand vise and let out just 1 or 2 cm . You can hold it very well and - putting the peak onto the woodbench pin will not bend when you point it with a file .
  2. use a special (fine teeth ) plier , you can make it yourself by using a sawframe and cut the new theet after you grinded the surface . Very important is to have the plier jauws almost parallel when closing , otherwise will cut the wire when pulling .
  3. to anneal thin wire you must make coils and bend them tight with an iron wire ( not other metal ) , called bending wire . I think you can find at any supplier , even stainless wire , which is the best . Then you can heat the coil to red without any fear of melting .
  4. to not break the peak , use a pointed plier ( chain plier ) and draw slowly , holding the wire with an even pressure all the time .
  5. lubricate well , using liquid or paste ( liquid will be better , pouring the drops into the hole after the wire is inserted and is pulled a little outside of the plate . You can find the best material at Rio Grande . called " Bur Life " , they have paste , liquid and stick , or a set of three in a bag .
  6. to avoid breaking the wire , you can use copper to "brace " the drawing plierā€™s jaws , this way the hardness of the wire will not be crushed by the iron . And Copper is not slippery and has a very good adherence to other metal , like a rubber . Thatā€™s why is so difficult to be filled or cut with the sawframe .
    There are more tricks to get thin wire from a drawplate without break it and without any bother , but itā€™s not so easy to describe , showing (the practice) or video tutorials are better .
    There are some basic techniques in processing the metals ( precious or not ) that people here do not know , making the metalsmithing to appear very complicate end tangled . Also , there are hundreds of tutorials in Ganoksin archives ( many of them posted by me , under ā€œskilmanā€ nickname and Giacomo ) .
    I think many persons donā€™t know to search with tags or they are simply too lazy to do that , prefering to complain about any simple task they face at the bench .