I'm planning a project with a twisted wire handle but have absolutely no clue how to begin. Here are a few questions, but I may not know enough even to ask the right ones...

1. Is stainless wire available anywhere? I think this would be preferable to silver.

2. How would one anneal stainless wire?

3. How could you estimate the amount of wire required?

4. Any plans out there for twisting jigs or setups?

5. What gauge wire would you recommend?

I think this will do for starters, but more questions keep popping up.

Thanks for any help,
Dave

If you have acces and several hours worth of time you can find an article in Blade Magazine from several years ago ( I guess it is somewhere in the early 90...92 or 93) that describes very well how to make a handle like that. I believe it was Tom Maringer that was showing his craft.....

Jim Hrisoulas aka Dr. Jim has detailed instructions in his book
The Complete Bladesmith Gib

Rio Grande has a wire twisting tool in their catalog for about $15....

You can make a hook for your electric drill and twist it that way.
S/S is brittle and has to be annealed. Put it in the oven at critical temp(about 1400') and turn off the oven, let the wire cool slowly inside like over night. It must be annealed again after twisting as well.
S/S is kinda dangerous, it breaks while twisting and slaps the fire out of you if not extremely careful, twist it at slow speeds,too.
aluminum breaks easily too.
I like spsingle strand speaker wire(copper). It twists easily, does not need to be annealed at any stage, twists tighter than most metals, and is easy to acquire.
I think I have a dagger in the display case somewhere to give you an example. It was matched with a aluminum wire(single strand of coarse) and gave a good contrast.

Drill a tiny hole at each end of the handle to tuck the wire into.
I start with a tiny drop of super glue in the first one.Once that sets, I twist it as tightly as I can, the tighter the better.
Clip off excess wire and tuck into the other hole with another drop of s/g.
Mix some epoxy, put on your plastic gloves and push it into the handle as deep as you can for a base, wipe off excess glue and let cure. It can be left rough or sanded down like the dagger I was telling you about.(it may be a few pages back on Display case forum-It was a month ago or so)

To twist the wire, lock the end in a vise, stretch the wire all the way across your shop twice, once to the drill and then back to the vise.It takes a lot of wire depending on the size of the handle. Twist it slow with a variable speed drill, and wind it as tight as you need(copper anyway). When that is done back off a little before turning it loose, there is still tension on it, it can pop off in your face if you don't.(and trust me, it hurts)
Snip off the end and bend to fit the handle hole.
Hope it helps. Hollar if you need me,OK?
BTW that dagger was almost 100 percent made with wire.

Oh, a wooden handle is slightly undersized the same diameter as the wire twisted. Once wrapped, it is the right hidth again, right?
Have fun and be careful.

Thanks for the ideas, I'll check out Rio Grande and Dr Jim's book (now I have a specific excuse to order it!). Jens, thanks for sending me back to my old mags, though I didn't find the issue you referred to I did find a bunch of other inspiring stuff. :)

Gene, thanks for the instruction. I think that will get me going. I'll check with my customer to see whether copper will work, but if not I think I'll use silver. I found the beautiful dagger you referred to, and that is an inspiration. I liked the way you spaced the twised wire with the alum one, and if I may will apply that to my project. There's a special connection to you on this one and I've sent email to you about it.

Dave

Got it Dave, good luck with the project.
Thanks for the kind words about the dagger.(I like daggers)
Send me a pic of the project when your finished, OK?

Try the fishing supply shops. You can buy annealed stainless wire used for making traces / leaders. Several thicknesses/breaking strains available

The spools of welding wire are annealed too, in a variety of diameters.
I have found it best to Keep it soft all through the process.
The twisting, work hardens the wire and is best to soften again before winding on the handle. You get a tighter wrap, and it is a lot easier to work with.

You can also anneal it with a torch once twisted. Bring it up to a cherry red for a while, and cool it slowly. The discoloration will buff off when you are finished wrapping the handle and the glue dries.

You can use most any kind of wire you can make of keep soft.

If you want a really tight twist, aneal it after first twist and then twist it again in your drill.

These handles are amungst the best in history for a good battle grip. Many swords and daggers carried them.
It can be a little work, but that can pay off when you get it right.

Hey guys if you are looking for a source for stainless wire try one of your Telecommunication supply houses like TVC, or Power & Telephone Supply.

The wire they use to wrap around the cables between the poles ("spinning wire") is stainless. The rolls come in 1200' lengths and can be taped up for dispensing. I currently use .045 size, and it is great for forge welding as well. The average price is about $30 per roll and you may check to see if they will break a case of six or not.

Mike

Easy to annaeal:- I use a car battary and a big old variable resistor (variac) . Lay the wire in a large circle or let it form a big spring. Don't let any one section touch another or the looped area will not heatup / anneal.
I start with minimum power across the ends of the wire and wind the power up until the wire just starts to glow and then I wind the power back very slowly (about a minute) back to zero. This is excellent with aluminium (migweld) wire, both before and after flattening for inlay work when learning. Old ball bearings bolted to a plate make an easy roller to quickly and precisely flatten the softened wire.

Hmmm... So I did a search on eBay for "variac" and found a bunch of transformers. Is this what you meant? So then you just attach the leads from the transformer to the ends of the coiled wire and crank it up? Sorry I'm so dense, electicity may as well be magic to me...

Dave

Dave, I think this was suppose to be on the variac thread, but I'll pop in here.
Electricity is NOTHING to play with. Seriously it can kill you.
Call me, I'll try to get you going with an anodizer.
It is something that most of us make ourselves, but it has to be done right. 817 451 8243
I want everyone to be safe while we learn together.
Get with me off line and we can get you going, OK?
Have fun. Work safe. Be Blessed.