Wire Wrapping idea

Heating wire to make it more maleable is called "annealing" it. It won't harden again once it cools, it will only harden through working it. Heating it, say, with a torch, will also cause firescale and this has to be removed with chemical pickle. Kind of a pain imho. Your best bet is always to get the hardness of wire best suited for your needs.

the other way to harden annealed wire is to tumble it (yup, in a regular rotary tumbler) with steel shot and metal burnishing powder. shines it up nice too.

KD

Annealing is a way to soften metals. The firescale is removed with Pickle, sodium bisulphate and boiling water.
I have been a wire wrapper for over 25yrs. The biggest mistake I made was starting with soft wire. When I wrap, I use only hard wire. I have written several tutorials on this forum on that subject.
The key to keeping the wire wraps looking good, is first practice, practice, practice, practice and then practice! The next step is keeping tools sharp. Sharp tools leave no marks! Sharp, square, and never, never, never mix metals with wire. A tool for silver should never hit gold, a tool for gold should never hit silver. Same with copper, brass, and titanium.
Never, never, never allow a tool for non-ferrous metals even touch ferrous metal. It will permanently damage the tool for further use on gold, or silver.
Keep at it, you can do it.

It sounds like you want to anneal the wire. Ok. First, keep O2 off the wire. Either anneal it on a board, like a 2 X 12 or smaller. I like the larger pieces so the flame does not hit the table. Watch the colour of the wire when heating.
First, make a solution of denatured alcohol and borax/boric acid mix. Dip the piece(s) to be annealed into it, and light the piece(s). You should get a green flame off the piece. Then anneal on either a piece of wood, or charcoal. You should do it in a kiln with ground charcoal. That is the most predictable way. I do it that way. If using a torch, make an enrichening flame. You should see occasional yellow in the blue point. Enrichening the flame reduces the amount of O2 to make fire scale. When the colour of the particular metal is reached, either remove the heat source, or slowly change the colour as needed to reach the temper needed.
Then, immerse the material in Pickle. Rinse in clear water, and then polish the entire piece. Firescale especially in silver goes into the stellatite layers of the alloy so the outer layer, unless being soldered over, the silver solder displaces the pitting, must be mechanically removed. It is in microns but it must be done, or the material will not polish properly.
Cratex polishing wheels are real good. Silicone rubber is also great for a smooth polish. Use the highest speed on the handpiece, and lower the rubber to the work. Keep the rubber at the same height from the work so the finish will be identical from start to finish.
Annealed pieces, though, will return to original shape in time. If any transition from original is made, the piece must be supported mechanically by at least two intersections. An hard intersection is recquired. Use either hard solder, or planish the finished joint. Use a 3 micron pad to polish the planish hammer so it does not print on the work.
It is that easy. I anneal a lot of pieces in my work for a desired effect.

I agree. That whole heating, chemically treating, pickling .. process seems silly when lots f folks eventually manage nice wraps without all that.

I like Kim's work and asked her about her wire. She recommended 22g dead soft square, and 21g half-hard half-round.

You can also get some 22g brass square wire to practice with. It is dirt cheap.

Also you can put tape on your tools to avoid some marks. There is also a plastic dip to coat the tips of tools.

Finally, there were some rubber clamp thingies discussed a while back. They help hold wire and keep things lined up an organized.

Anthony~

You might benefit from picking up a metal working or silver smithing book if you're interested in learning some of the finer points. A book like that can help you learn some of the basic principles of metal work and how metals respond to heat, impact, annealing, etc... I have a great one at home but can't think of the name right now.. I'll post the name later.

But.... if you just want to learn wire wrapping, the folks here can give you all the information you need. If Kim says you don't need to treat (soften) the wire before hand than you can take that to the bank! I took her advice and got some of the 22g dead soft SS wire and I can work with it easily. ...and like Daniel said it's probably best to buy some cheap brass wire first and then practice, practice, practice!!

To add to Herm's comment, dead soft wire can also become full hard or at least half-hard if you keep playing with it or work it too much with hands or tools!