Bonsai Wires

[Bill S]

Annealing takes much more than wrapping some wire in newspaper and lighting it on fire, it has to get to a rather high temp to realign the crystal structure, so it works as it should.

As someone said cu and al. aren't cheap these days, and then you add fule to the fire, litterally, then rolling it packaging and mailing.

If you have not used a good propper wire, take the challange and see how much better it works, how much easier it is to put on, how you can use smaller wire to hold the same branch.

I have a bunch of # 6, and #4 I did, because I had the wire sitting around, and I tried the grille, but had to do a second firing, in a good hot fire to get it evenly annealed( not talked about yet) and soft enough to use.

Over heating and under heating give you problems. Over heat and as you get that perfect spiral going the wire breaks, under fire and as you try to turn it thru a tricky spot the branch breaks, because the cu was still very hard.

An easy way to change your minds about this is spend a days workshop with the likes of Boon, Marco, Collin, Andolfo, et. al., those that have, have heard the expression, thats no good do it again, more often than we'd have liked to, and this was with good wire.

If you want to save money get the bigger rolls, team up with the /a club and buy bulk cuts shipping .

 

[GerhardG]

Hi

Annealing takes much more than wrapping some wire in newspaper and lighting it on fire, it has to get to a rather high temp to realign the crystal structure, so it works as it should.

My recommendation is for people that:
a) don't have access to bonsai wire, or
b) can't afford it.

Myself, seen it for sale once while on holiday 1500km from where I live, and sorry, no way could I justify that price.

I've been mucking around with unannealed copper wire since I started, mostly because my hands can take it.

I usually buy 2m consisting of 6 strands, seperate the strands, bundle up 6-8 newspaper pages, coil the separated strands loosely which goes on top of the newspaper, light up the paper, grab the wire with pliers after the paper has burnt out and cool it under a tap. Done.

I am limited as far as the gauge of wire is concerned, but it is a quick, easy and cheap alternative.

BTW, I saw this advice in the bonsai book that got me involved 4 years ago, tried it the first time this year, and felt like a complete idiot

 

[Adair M]

Would that really get hot enough to really anneal? I can see that it would probably burn off the coating on the wire.

When I've annealed copper wire, I've cooked it in the barbeque until it glowed pink.

I bought my last batch from Julian Adams, and he does it almost as well as I used to ! <grin>

 

[Mac In Oak Ridge]

No, it doesn't, but annealing your own wire is like making your own bread for sandwiches. Stripping insulation of 30 feet of wire and Bar-B-queing it isn't my idea of an interesting afternoon

You don't need to strip it. You put the coil in a fire and the insulation burns off. Just don't be inhaling the smoke.

 

[Mac In Oak Ridge]

Would that really get hot enough to really anneal?

Copper starts to anneal at around 700°F and is completely annealed around 950°F. A newspaper fire can produce ca. 1800-2000°F, depending on how much H2O is combined in the paper fibers. In Japan traditionally rice straw is used for the fire. I just gather a pile of small, pencil to finger size twigs, start a fire with them and put the wire on it.

When you start to see places in your coil of wire glowing move it around so you get the heat evenly distributed.

A person doing this commercially would want a commercial annealing oven with temperature control. You would just stack all your coils of wire in it and turn it on. When the thermostat hits ca. 1000°F let it soak for a while then shut the oven off and let it cool.

Copper melts at ca. 1900°F so you have plenty of leeway in the process. The trick with a fire is to move the coil around when it starts getting hot so you distribute the heat all the way around the coil. It's not rocket science any one who will take the time can do it. And when you are done toss the coil of wire in a bucket of cold water. You need not wait for it to cool down naturally, from the fire into the water and you are done.