I certainly recommend getting your annealed copper wire from Julian Adams.
Excellent stuff at great prices that make it not worth doing yourself, but,
if you must.....
see below

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kitsune Miko"
Subject: [IBC] Fwd: [IBC] Copper Wire


You can buy bare copper wire at places like Home
Depot
and detemper it yourself. Copper does not need to
be
heated too high in temp to achieve this. My son the
metal worker says to put it on the driveway and heat
with a torch until it starts getting red.

No, don't do this. It takes forever and you can't get it even. Some places
annealed, some not and some melted!
Do it in your barbecue, at night, so you can see the color as it heats.

You can
let
it cool or you can quench. The jeweler friend says
quench the son says not necessary.

When I did my own I always quenched it. Had nothing to do with hardening,
tempering, etc, but it cleans the wire instantly when it hits the water so
you don't get black crud all over you when handling. Use tongs to drop in a
bucket and a quick "phsst!" and the dirt is gone!


(quencing is
quick
cooling in water. I thnk it would excite the wire
too
much, excited copper wire gets hard quickly (did I
really say THAT?))

No, this does not effect copper wire. It is not like heating and quenching
steel for tempering. It won't effect it, but it will be clean and still
annealed.


I find
the wire work hardens as I apply it to the tree.
Not
easy to change once it is on.

That is the point of using it!

Regards,
Dale

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