I got some 8 gauge copper wire at Home Depot that says it’s already annealed, but I’m having incredible difficulty bending it.

[raenstorming]

I’m new to wiring, I’ll say that up front, and this is my first experience with pure copper. I want to use it on a Juniperus procumbens 'Nana' with a nice cascading branch. I got about one and a half turns around the trunk without too much issue, but then no luck. All the wiggling and fighting with it led to the wire messing up the bark in an ugly way. I think I need a thinner gauge for the branch in question, but this was the closest to correct they had in stock at the time. Anyway, if hardware store wire says it’s annealed but it’s giving me this much grief…does it need to be annealed again? I admit I am not very strong—I just don’t have experience with how much strength is needed either.

 

[PaulH]

There's no way wire from Home Depot is properly annealed for bonsai. Order some good wire from ptbonsai.com

 

[Paradox]

What Paul said. Wire at home depot is probably made for electrical wiring. That wire isnt annealed like bonsai wire is.
Also if you got solid wire, its probably a heavier gauge which will make it very difficult to bend as it is.
I've been there, done that with wire from HD, its not worth the effort it takes to get it properly annealed.
It costs about the same to just buy bonsai wire

 

[gooeytek]

8 gauge is very thick to begin with, and as you uncoil and twist, it starts to work-harden (this is the reason for using annealed wire. work-hardening helps for your bends to take a set properly). It's harder for do-overs if you re-use thicker wire.

 

[stewarjm192]

The annealing process can result in...well...different working results......and I cant imagine that wire sold at Home Depot is as soft and workable as it could be, and needs to be for bonsai use. Dont cut corners, buy some wire from a reputable source like Julian Adams, or stone lantern, or a number of different sources. Also, copper has holding power, but is unforgiving, you could also use aluminum, depending on the severity of bend and how much holding power you need, and it will be a bit easier to work. Moral of the story, buy wire for bonsai from bonsai

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Quite recently I bought a bunch of coiled wire that was annealed.
When it went on the roll..
Then when I take it off, it has made the "two moves" for it to work harden. Not sure if that's a general rule, but in my hands it's two bends or moves and then it's set.

So I had to roll it up again and torched it to redo the annealing and now I can unroll my coil, and apply it and it work hardens on the tree.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

I’m new to wiring, I’ll say that up front, and this is my first experience with pure copper. I want to use it on a Juniperus procumbens 'Nana' with a nice cascading branch. I got about one and a half turns around the trunk without too much issue, but then no luck. All the wiggling and fighting with it led to the wire messing up the bark in an ugly way. I think I need a thinner gauge for the branch in question, but this was the closest to correct they had in stock at the time. Anyway, if hardware store wire says it’s annealed but it’s giving me this much grief…does it need to be annealed again? I admit I am not very strong—I just don’t have experience with how much strength is needed either.

Now you know what the Japanese went through back in 1910, except the first wire available was zinc galvanized steel wire. Tough sledding!

Home Depot wire is perfectly fine for electrical work and it is annealed. Yet it isn’t annealed as much as bonsai wire. This is because electrical wire doesn’t need to make as many bends as bonsai wire and the wiring runs tend to be straight..

If you have a barbecue, toss the roll onto the barbecue. Heat to cherry red. Let cool slowly. Brush off the oxidation and try wiring again. Ought to work much better. Of course if one has an air proof chamber to put the wire in while cooling, more better!

cheers
DSD sends

 

[awarrenj]

Julian Adams has been the best source for copper bonsai wire; he has since past it on to another who is referred to in Adams website. Go there, can'tgo wrong.

 

[jandslegate]

I’m new to wiring, I’ll say that up front, and this is my first experience with pure copper. I want to use it on a Juniperus procumbens 'Nana' with a nice cascading branch. I got about one and a half turns around the trunk without too much issue, but then no luck. All the wiggling and fighting with it led to the wire messing up the bark in an ugly way. I think I need a thinner gauge for the branch in question, but this was the closest to correct they had in stock at the time. Anyway, if hardware store wire says it’s annealed but it’s giving me this much grief…does it need to be annealed again? I admit I am not very strong—I just don’t have experience with how much strength is needed either.

I work at Home Depot as a DH over Garden, Electrical and Plumbing. The solid copper wire is absolutely not annealed (to bonsai standards). It's sold for the purpose of electrical wiring. That being said I do occasionally get wire from work and then anneal it myself at home. YMMV but it's not too tedious of a process if done in a reasonable scale and also is kind of fun. But yeah, solid 8 AWG straight off the rack is going to be tough to work with for bonsai and likely to damage the tree. There are some useful posts here from other members that have annealed their own wire. Good luck!

 

[Wilson]

As mentioned above, electrical wire is annealed for construction, also called "soft draw" sometimes. You need to anneal it at your home for bonsai use. As a hobbyist I have made a bunch of annealed copper from wire I gather at work. I just sit by the fire in the yard and heat my coils, and quench in a bucket of water.

 

[jandslegate]

As mentioned above, electrical wire is annealed for construction, also called "soft draw" sometimes. You need to anneal it at your home for bonsai use. As a hobbyist I have made a bunch of annealed copper from wire I gather at work. I just sit by the fire in the yard and heat my coils, and quench in a bucket of water.

Its pretty fun tbh! The quenching part makes me feel like a blacksmith, lol.

 

[Paradox]

I've annealed wire in my fireplace by building up a good bed of coals and placing the wire coils in the coals and taking them out when they were uniformly bright orange. I quenched them in a bucket as well to allow for handling sooner.

The work comes in if the wire is plastic coated. I stripped all the plastic covering off because I didn't want to burn that off inside my house. It was time consuming but the fumes from that would not have been good.