Burnishing wire

[Rob Mathis]

I am thinking of going to the Guitar shop tomorrow to look at wire. I also was thinking of Piano wire. It is pretty cheap and you get a lot in a roll. What do you guys think of this idea?

[Steve Schlumpf]

Rob - all sorts of wire works for burnishing - but I have to ask if you know any guitar players? They break strings all the time and just throw them away. Talk to any of them and you will have a free supply of strings!

[Chris Rae]

I use picture hanging wire and it works fine too.

[Scott Conners]

I've used guitar strings, but the piece of wire I use the most came from the inside of a twist tie! I stripped the plastic off, wrapped each end around a small bar magnet as handles, and it is stuck to my lathe ready to use whenever I need it.

[Reed Gray]

I use an old piece of bailing wire. Do put handles on the end. Some time I might remember to take my old guitar strings when I change them, but usually don't remember.
robo hippy

[Reed Gray]

I use an old piece of bailing/rebar tie wire. Do put handles on the end. Some time I might remember to take my old guitar strings when I change them, but usually don't remember.
robo hippy

[Billy Tallant]

I like to fish so I've been using a wire fishing leader to burn with.

I grew up in the country & have been using bailing wire for everything. But this is the first time I have heard of it being used for wood turning projects...:)

[Wally Dickerman]

You can buy a lifetime supply (100 ft.) of steel wire at Ace Hdwe for about $3 per roll in several gauges for different effects. I have 28 ga., 24 ga., 22 ga. and 16 ga. There is so much wire in each roll that you can share with other turners.

For safety sake, make some little handles out of wood dowels.

Wally

[terry richards]

For a fine line, I use the "E" string from a violin. Players break these on a regular basis, so they are in good supply.

RE: dowel handles - be certain that you do not wrap your fingers around the dowel handles. Rather, squeeze the dowels so that any wire grab doesn't pull your hand into the piece, but rather jerks the handle out of your hand. A dowel handle flapping around the piece is scary enough; flapping around with your fingers attached is even more so.

[Bill Bolen]

Looks like everyone uses something a bit different,, Like Billy I use a wire fishing leader..Even has a hook built in...Bill...

[Bernie Weishapl]

I use the steel wire from Ace like Wally. Cheap and you get a roll that will last for a long time.

[Steve Trauthwein]

I bought three different gauges of stainless steel wire from ebay. Supplied the whole club with plenty of wire. The nice thing about stainless is that it doesn't galled.

When you put handles on them I would suggest you make a ball instead of a T handle so it can be pulled from your hand if it catches or grabs.

Regards, Steve

[Kyle Iwamoto]

If you're too lazy to make your own, I bought a set from Woodcraft. Yes, it's more expensive than 3 rolls of wire that you can give your whole club. But it does come with nice colored ball handles. I would also say to use a ball vice a dowel, for safety reasons. I was not going to pop for those expensive wires, but when I thought about the ball ends, I picked them up. I also got tired of looking for that small piece of bailing wire. This way, since you spent some hard earned bucks on the wire, I made a bag and put them in it. Now I always know where it is. Of course, I never thought of making handles, I always just grabbed a spare scrap piece and wraped the wire around it for handles. Looking back, that's probably the way to go. You can buy wooden balls from your local craft store.

[Tony Kahn]

ONe thing that worked for me is if you have anytapered dowels, use those to secure to the ball. Drill through the woodwen ball with the tapered bit, slip the wire through and then put the dowel in and give it a tap with a mallet. may need to trim the dowel, with this you have reusable handles, just punch out the dowel and replace wire, or you can glue or epoxy the dowel in to make it permanent.