How to Anneal (soften) wire for wire wrapped jewelry using a Micro Torch
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 พ.ค. 2023
- Hi everyone! This is a Membership tutorial that I've released so that you can see some of the fun things we do in here! I hope you'll consider to join! The link is below. Enjoy this free preview video of How to Anneal your wire for wire wrapping, this video will be out for about a week or two before I put it back into the Membership Playlist. Thank you for your continued support!
Click this to JOIN! / @perfectlytwistedjewelry
Hi Members! Thank you all for your support over this past week. Moving forward and onto something new! I've decided to add a bit of 'fireworks' into our Membership! In order to show you some of the larger wire frames we talked about in Livestream last month, I feel I also need to show you how to anneal wire first. Annealing is the process of heating up the metal to a certain point where it softens and becomes more malleable and easier to work with. This process is optional and you don't need to heat up your wire for any of my tutorials, it just might interest you to consider it if you're not already doing it and if you like working with bigger wires but maybe your hands (like mine) need the wires softened even more than Dead Soft. For new wire workers... this might help you feel a bit more at ease with a torch if you're interested.
I am not a Silversmith. I am only introducing the Micro Torch to the Membership for the purpose of annealing (softening) wire and later on, for balling up the ends of wire for decorative purposes. I encourage you to explore other artists and sources to learn other methods too. I have added some links below to a couple of videos I watched.
Please read through all the notecards in this post and please consider that safety must always come first. This is a fun and easy tool to add to your jewelry bench, but there are things to be very aware of. While this little torch is small and cute, it reaches temperatures of over 2000 degrees.
I am not an affiliate anywhere, I'm just trying to give you some reputable sources for tools.
The video I watched and learned from - Riogrande.com TH-cam
How To Quickly Anneal Wire & Metal Sheets
• How To Quickly Anneal ...
The Tools I'm using (you can also find these in Hardware stores, Craft stores, and big online Marketplaces)
Micro Butane Torch
www.firemountaingems.com/shop...
The Butane Fuel you can find at Walmart, pharmacies, grocery stores, etc
The Soldering Block
www.riogrande.com/search-page...
The fire-safe surface (Cement board from the local hardware store works great as a surface or a gravel-filled pan).
Old pie pan for my water Quench.
Long nose pliers (hardware store)
Small crock pot from Walmart.
MY PICKLE solution to clean the wire is 1 CUP of White Vinegar and 2 tablespoons of Salt heated on low in the crockpot.
How to Anneal (soften) wire for wire wrapped jewelry using a Micro Torch - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
Amazing instructor. Thank you!
Thank you again!💞🙏🌷🌷🌷
another great video by a great teacher!
Thanks, Bill!
Thanks!
Thank you from my heart🙏💞🌷
Thanks! Nice video!❤
Thanks, Ann!
Found it!❤
Thank you again, so much!🙏💞
Great video! I need to buy a small pot for it....😉
Thanks, Rachel! I think I got mine at the Walmart? They're very inexpensive, the small one, just big enough to fit your wire.
Great video! I've never tried annealing. Does mixing the metals in the pickle pot change their color? Thanks!
I would think so with silver and copper or silver and brass but I'm honestly not sure about the brass with copper, you make a great point, but I've never noticed before. Worth researching further! Thanks for your comment!🙏💞
Never can figure out, how long do you leave it in the pickel for? Also, if you are using the chemical purchased pickle, would that change the time? Thank you for this video! Ive watched many and this one is the most straight forward, and hands on with a pleasant voice!
Thank you so much for this lovely comment! I only use the white vinegar and salt pickle, I don't use the chemical pickle at all, so I can't comment on that. I find it only takes a few minutes for the hot vinegar/salt pickle to remove the fire score... you will notice the color change in the metal and see it pretty quickly. Use tongs to handle the wires and rinse them afterward. You might google for Silversmithing videos that might show and talk more about chemical pickle...I don't solder, so the use of fire and this pickle in my studio are very limited. There will be more and better information out there from other experts on the use of chemical pickles in your studio and how to safely handle all that. Thank you again!
I can’t find your donate button. I want to thank you for your beautiful teaching.
Thank you soooo much! I appreciate your donation to my channel, that means the world to me! I'm super happy you enjoy my teaching, that also means the world to me 🙏💞💞
There is a “Thanks” choice in the same row as the Thumbs up icon. 😊
I’ve made ball headpins with the same pickle you use. Do you polish the wire after? I don’t have a good method for that. Do you have suggestions. TYFS
Thanks, Cathleen, I don't do this often as you can see in my jewelry images, because there is not a great way that's easy... this time, I am going to try throwing them into the tumbler for a while and see what happens... I might do a light coil and tie them together and then the tumbler... do you have a tumbler? I haven't shown it yet, but if this works out, I might. That's about the only suggestion I have other than trying to hand polish using a Sunshine Cloth (that works quite well, just takes the elbow greeze and some time ;) Hope this helps! Great question to bring up too!
@@PerfectlyTwistedJewelry
Unfortunately I don’t have a tumbler yet. I’m looking but know nothing about size, motor, durability, etc. I am starting to use sterling and find the benefits of getting one. I recently retired so more time to do wire work. I also am finding how poor the plating is on craft store headpins and clasps. So embarrassing when you gift or sell a piece that the silver clasp has turned to brass in a month or two. I purchased the Everbrite coating spray with mixed results. I think it’s a user learning curve more than the product. I see potential with it for plated pieces for a less expensive choice for craft show pieces. I still have a lot to learn and appreciate your expertise and videos. Thanks for your reply. ❤😊
Well the tumbler experiment reminded me of why I don't use it much for balled head pins or wire LOL! I did find that cleaning them in the pickle and then just polishing them up while on the pendant worked out fine. So for these, I think when I show them in future projects, I will show just adding them to the finished jewelry and treating them with all the rest of the wire.
I am not good at hammering on copper, it always seems. bit irregular and hard to shape. Would annealing it first make it easier to get a nice hammered effect?
Hi Ann, not really... annealing is more for softening the wire, while it might help, it's not the main factor I don't think so anyway. Try a Chasing Hammer if you don't already have one, the head of it is slightly curved, hit on the face of the hammer and pull back slightly to direct the wire, where to flatten out. If you hammer with the ball shape side of the hammer, then you get texture on the metal. You can watch this framing video and go to timestamp 7:00 minutes, I show how to hammer. th-cam.com/video/DbVh0fzLo2s/w-d-xo.html Hope that helps!
can you anneal Argentum Wire as well?
I don't work with Argentium but I think it has to be handled differently... I will look at Riogrande.com and find their video on it.
Hi again, Bill, here is the Argentium information from Rio videos... th-cam.com/video/K7XktyURhzk/w-d-xo.html
I have a question someone bought me a torch like 10 years ago I was just beading then I tried this because people got me some stuff for Christmas one year but the class I took was not one I flourished at. I used to think it was me but after trying this year it was probably both of us I was trained to be an engineer since my first intro to shop class in middle school. Any way the torch has not been out of the package. Will still work at least to start out till I find out if I can get comfortable with an open flame. The rest is just rambling but I left it in case you needed a story I came home and announced instead of being an astronaut I was going to be an architect. Part of the class was building design I fell in love art and math my two favorite things but my family did not believe art was appropriate for anyone actually I was told even if I was good I wouldn’t be able to support myself. My parents didn’t forbid art but didn’t think it was a school subject. When I announced architecture my uncle told me an architect was a dropout engineer and got dreams of an engineering dynasty the problem with his plan was I was the only one of that got math and physics it was kind of funny when I turned out to be an actual dropout engineer I have a bs in social science and a minor in digital controls I would have done the architecture thing but I would have had to done 5 years of studio along with the one year of electives I had to take to be a well rounded person.
Hi Mary, you have quite the interesting history! Regarding your 10 year old torch... I don't know if it will work today or not, but out of safety, I would encourage you to take it maybe to the local hardware store and ask them... the one I use is a Butane Torch and fills up with the same Butane fluid you'd fill up a Zippo lighter with... if they were unchanged from 10 years ago, then perhaps it would work, but I couldn't be sure of that. I'd take it to the hardware store and ask them if they think it is safe technology with the current fuels. I hope that helps!
@@PerfectlyTwistedJewelry I kinda knew that I was just wishing you would say yes it’ll be perfect I’ll go to the hardware store this afternoon it says it’s the same thing you showed us but I don’t want it to explode or start a fire
I am a subscriber to the TH-cam tutorials, but I am now shut out for not being a “member”. Why is that? I am disappointed because I am learning much from the tutorials, what “membership” iI do I need to join to watch the tutorials???
Hi Sharon, you can rejoin Membership at any time, I don't think the renewal is automatic, so you can press the JOIN button and just reactivate your membership. Let me know if that works, its TH-cam who controls the payments, not me unfortunately so I can't really do anything other than suggest you check to see if your Membership expired maybe?🙏🙏💞💞