Heat hardening Nicrhrome wire.
john lucas
I didn't have much time to play this morning but i tried my hand at making a basket weave burning tool. Apparently I need to play more. I did get one that sort of resembled the tool but it needs experimenting to learn to fold the metal correctly. What I did was heat and flatten a section of the wire. Then I folded the wire into a U shape sort of like folding ribbon at 90 degrees. then flattened the folded corners. Wasn't bad but I think I need to have one of those tools in my hand to really see the original was done. I ground a cove into it and then sharpened it. I seemed to work although this was quite thick wire and I had to turn my Optima burner all the way up to get a burn and then it was just barely hot enough. I have thinner wire but it won't flatten large enough to be able to grind a cove into it.
On the work hardening or heat hardening. With this particular wire that came out of a wall heater I was not able to harden it at all. I didn't try immediately quenching it in something but it cools down very rapidly. I was still able to bend it no matter what i did. I'm sure all nichrome wire is not the same but I certainly don't know. I may have time to play later this evening.
