I found an old rusty pair of wire cutters that cleaned up nicer than Jack on the Titanic. $0.
What type of Stovetop?
Gas anneals copper wire pretty easy on the stove, and a good session shouldn't add too much to the bill.
Dumpster dive your local cable company.
My At&t people ALWAYS leave the intertwined yellow and black copper that is perfect for fine wiring Junipers without even annealing it.
When you add I all up, including effectiveness of the wire, you spend less $ and energy finding and using copper than using anything else. If your final goal is having excellent trees you can display in training.
Too....
Any other wire you'll find doesn't come in the range of sizes amd strengths as copper or proper aluminum.
So you get used to it for what it is good for...
But then fuck up all your other branches you have to use a different type of wire on, or vice versa.
Like at a basketball arcade game, where 4 balls are one weight and the 5th is different, you're likely to miss the 5th. Then also the one after the fifth.
Dumpster Dive. I got a crate full of copper and counting.
Sorce