Just a couple quick tips for how to straighten wire for making wire wrapped jewelry. Is there anything more frustrating than pulling your wire off the spool and finding it’s got kinks in it? Sure, some come out easily enough just by running the wire through your hands. But sometimes you just get those stubborn little bends that just won’t go away. For some designs that really won’t matter much. But for a lot of techniques, you really do need perfectly straight wire. In this quick tip video I’m going to show you a couple ways to do that.
For method 1 you just need 2 bench blocks. I’ll be honest, metal bench blocks work best. The weight and hardness of the metal does a much better job of putting those little kinks in their place. But if you don’t have 2 metal bench blocks, you can use nylon bench blocks as I did in the video. Just keep in mind that, although metal bench blocks will do a much better job, they will also harden the wire quicker. So, if you need your wire to stay softer, nylon will be the better option. Nylon blocks will also be the best option if you are using plated wire, or color coated wire, instead of solid metal.
For method 2 you just need a pin vise and a pair of flat nose pliers. This method will harden the wire a bit. If you need your wire to be soft you’ll need to anneal it afterwards with a torch (annealing is not shown in this video, but there are lots of tutorials on the web about how to do that).
See more of my videos at the GailaviraJewelryWJT YouTube channel.
You can find my free wire wrap PDF tutorials by clicking here.
