Bending music wire

[Russell Shaffer]

I have been heating music wire to get a sharp bend, then letting it cool.  Is this good, or should I quench it to re-harden?  Or is heating a bad thing?

[RC Storick]

Bend it cold

[Richard Grogan]

Hammer* + Vise = Bend !!      (*Requires muscle!) 

[Crist Rigotti]

Be sure you have a radius on the bend or you'll put in a stress point.  Radius the vise jaws some or use what I do the K&S bending jig.  The small one.  I'll bend 1/8 music wire with it.

[Tom Perry]

Russell,

If you absolutely must heat the wire to bend it, it will be to soft to function properly.  To fix this you should heat it then plunge it in cold water.  This will leave it too hard and subject to breaking.  You can try to re-temper it by heating it in an oven to about 450 degrees and then letting it cool slowly.  This will bring back some of the temper or toughness.  Sparky gave the best advice "bend it cold".  The tempering heat is based on the carbon content of the steel so the 450 degrees is just a ball park guess.