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Showing results for tags 'wire'.
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Hello hammerfolk! I considered posting this to the tools forum, but that forum seemed to have a lot of high-tech answers, and this one less so. I am wondering what it takes to make a wire drawplate using hammer/tong/anvil tooling and wrought iron material. To me it's obvious how to do it if you have an augur with HSS/carbide tip, but wire drawing (for gold and silver, and I presume copper) went down to hair-like fineness in the Egyptian days. How would you make such a tiny hole in a hard material without sharp edges, burrs, or irregularities? If I was asked to design a process for anything down to 1/8 inch, or even 1/16, I think I could do it with just poking narrow hard pointy things through hot iron, then massaging them with a BP hammer... but litz wire goes down to 0.03mm, and I have no idea how to get there with "normal" tools and materials. Reminder: This is for the process for making the drawplate, not the process of drawing the wire. If anyone has a pointer to a process description, I'd be grateful. If anyone wants to make a Youtube video showing how to do it, I'd be thrilled. Thank you kindly, -Jeff Evarts P.S. There's some evidence (if you're generous) that gemstones may have been used as drawplates, but the question "how did they make a fine, smooth conical hole in a hard material" remains.