Music Wire?

Theo Koutz · Post by **Theo Koutz** » Fri Mar 30, 2001 11:07 am

I've noticed this stuff at Lowes in 3' lengths, but I've never bought any. Seeing that they have coils of the stuff at www.metalmart.com in thicknesses close to 16 gauge peaked my curiousity.

What is this stuff? Anyone ever used music wire for chainmaille? I guess I could be a sort of guinea pig for this material, but I was hoping for a little more info on this particular kind of wire.

schreiber · Post by **schreiber** » Fri Mar 30, 2001 11:42 am

It sure looks like piano wire to me. You'd also use something similar for guitars and such.

It's spring tempered. The only thing you can use it for is a. musical instruments or b. strangling people.

HELMUT

Frederick The Heavy · Fri Mar 30, 2001 11:48 am

Ahhhhhh spring wire. If you love your hands stay away from it. I run a small custom spring shop from home and have customers want that material used. I hate it. I'd much rather use stainless spring steel. It's a pain in the ass too, but somehow its not as "wily" and more preditable.

Theo Koutz · Post by **Theo Koutz** » Fri Mar 30, 2001 11:50 am

I could always anneal it before I make coils, cut, weave, etc. the stuff, right?

Galileo · Post by **Galileo** » Fri Mar 30, 2001 12:13 pm

Annealing spring metal makes it just metal (IIRC), and expensive stuff at that. I think Gundo or Sasha have said that if you anneal that stuff, you gotta send it out and have it re-tempered or some such...

G--

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Gabriel Tullis

"I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God."
Luke 1:19 (KJV)

Sasha · Post by **Sasha** » Fri Mar 30, 2001 6:44 pm

If it is real musical instrument wire then it is unsuitable for maille.
Most "string" for instruments are made with coils around a core material like silk or nylon.
Most of the sheath metals used are not actually steel but silver-steel or various forms of white bronze. I cannot realy tell you what this stuff is good for because I have never seen the specific thing you are looking at. But there are many useful and easy ways to get maille grade wire to look like it has those nifty spirals through it. Much cheaper too.

If you do decide to experiment with this stuff then buy a short lenght and have a seriious play with it.

Oh yeah. most musical strings are only tempered enough so that they will not kink and develop a weak spot (they do anyway. You should hear Margaret when a brand new $80 silver violin string goes "snap" as it is being wound on for the first time). These strings cannot be annealed and then retempered!

Sasha

Theo Koutz · Post by **Theo Koutz** » Fri Mar 30, 2001 7:03 pm

I'm not talking about strings for a musical instrument - this stuff is sold in .063", .067" and diameters. That looked usable to me, and hey, it's wire, not barbed.

I've decided against using it. From my what I now know about it, the pain-in-the-ass factor seems like it would outweigh any strenght benefit.

Thanks for the info, tho.

schreiber · Post by **schreiber** » Sat Mar 31, 2001 10:19 am

Spike:
I just took a look inside an upright piano, and there are unwrapped wires in there that are 16 g, at the very least they're 18. If memory serves, there are more strings in a grand than in an upright as well.

Plus, if you took a look at what most modern churches use for their bells, it's a percussive arrangement where wires are suspended in a sounding box and are hit to produce the sound, then amplified electronically. That would need wires a lot bigger than 16g.

I'm still convinced that's what they're used for.

HELMUT

JamesByngham · Post by **JamesByngham** » Mon Apr 02, 2001 11:06 am

I bought a couple short lengths of music wire form the local crafts store a few years ago. I was planning to use it to put tongues on the buckes I make for my armour.

The process I use to make the tongues is to heat the wire to cherry, then flatten 1/4" or so of the wire (to wrap around the buckle). When I did this with the music wire, it heated to cherry just like I expected, but when I put it on my anvil and gave it a smack or two it dinged the hammer and avvil more than it flattened the wire. (it was a good hammer, not a crappy tool by any stretch!! and the wire was *cherry* red!!!!)

I don't know what they put into that wire, but if you like your tools, I wouldn't ever hit this wire with a hammer-- your hammer will come out the worse for it!

--James--

randy · Post by **randy** » Mon Apr 02, 2001 11:11 pm

the afore mentioned strings of silver and silk and the wrapped ones are very spesific to types of instrument, piano, steel string guitar, electric guitar piano and a few others do use steel strings of verious compounds and even those very from brand to brand, for example the trend in electric guitar string has been to go to a cold temper on a mildly hard steel, this techknowledgy was developed for battle ship huls and makes a real durable string. if any one wants to try i will be glad to see what kind of deals i can get on the wire, i have a music store in the family. skip violin string all together, i was playing in an irish pub on st paddys day and a string broke up top and stabbed into the skin just past my eye, since then my urge to fiddle around has been greatly reduced.

Krag · Post by **Krag** » Tue Apr 03, 2001 3:13 pm

Most stuff sold as "music wire" in hobby stores is 1095 plain carbon steel, hardened, tempered and blued. Take it to red/orange to flatten it next time. If it's still hard when you hammer it, yes, it will definitely leave a mark in your hammer!

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Krag von Berghen
KragAxe Armoury

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Theo Koutz · Post by **Theo Koutz** » Tue Apr 03, 2001 3:43 pm

It's a good thing I didn't buy any - I found an easier way of abusing my body: cutting out lots and lots of tiny brigandine plates.