I’m sure many of you already know about annealing metal and do it yourself when needed, but I’m sharing how I do it just in case some don’t know about it.


Annealing metal is a very useful process for trappers. Simply put, annealing metal is making it softer, making it easier to bend (wire) or smash (nuts).

I’ll put a box of nuts on a piece of wire then tie the ends together. (1/4” nuts for cable end stops; larger nuts to go on rebar). If I need snare supports, I’ll cut pieces of wire to the lengths I want and tie them together at dozen or more pieces per bundle.





I build a fire outside or in the fireplace, and I’ll toss the bundles into the heart of the fire on the coals. I let the fire burn, and then I let it die out after I know the metal has at least gotten hot enough to turn cherry red or hotter. I leave them alone to slowly cool until I can touch them with my bare hands. At this point, you’re done. The wire is now much softer and easier to bend for snare supports, and the nuts are ready to be hammered onto cable as end stops or onto rebar for stakes, rebar drowners, KPs, etc.


Most (or all) wire purchased from trap supply houses are already annealed, but if you have some tension wire in the barn or need some snare support wire in a pinch, you can buy rolls of 9 gauge tension wire at hardware/construction stores. It’ll be very stiff, but toss precut pieces or even the entire roll into the fire and give it time, and you’ll have annealed wire.



One advantage to doing it yourself is you can choose to only anneal part of the wire. For hog snares, I prefer having a stiff support to hold up the heavy snares. By only putting the last few inches of the bundles in the coals, I’ll have a stiff support with a tip that’s easy to bend to make a W. Also, tension wire makes good tie wire for securing panels to T-posts for hog traps and other uses.


Some say that metals don’t need to cool so slowly to use them (like letting them cool to the touch in a campfire that’s died out). They just get the nuts glowing cherry red or hotter with a torch and let them immediately air cool. If that works for them, great, but slowly cooling makes them easier to work with. For 1/4” nuts, it’s not really a big deal, but when I’m having to hammer 3/4” nuts onto rebar, I want them to be as soft as I can get them.


You can read more about annealing here:

https://www.metalsupermarkets.com/how-heating-metal-affects-its-properties/

Good idea.

Aix, the wire you are annealing, is it galvanized? If so, does the zinc coating burn off?

Yes and yes.




I’d like to also say that while I said I like them to cool as slowly as absolutely possible, I’m really referring to nuts and wire I’m using for bending (11 gauge wire to be used for tying, tips of supports) there are reasons to cut the cooling process a little short (to allow a little stiffness) when dealing with wire to be used for supports, especially the smaller stuff.


It isn’t difficult, and it’s just one more thing people can do themselves. I enjoy that kind of thing...

Good post.

Aix sponsa,

Thanks for posting. Good info.

Can you still used annealed wire for wiring traps off to trees, or will the predators break it too easily?

I wouldn't use any type wire for that purpose. A live animal In a trap Is going to be twisting and kinking that wire and that will cause breakage. Nothing worse than having a critter running loose with a trap on It's foot.
Use cable or use some type of a staking system or a drag set up.

Short answer is yes, as long as you’re careful. Always give one more wrap than you think you’ll need.

Annealed wire has all kinds of uses on traplines. If you’re going to wire traps to trees, I would make multiple wraps through the swivel and around the small tree. Better yet would be to use a large fencing staple through the swivel instead, and even better than that would be to use cable or stake the traps.

I have 50lb spools of baler wire I get from work to use for my drowning rig. I believe it's 10 gauge would it be okay to anneal it and still use it for beaver? Rewinding it into smaller more manageable spools is a pain right now with it as stiff as it is.

I have never used wire for beaver slides. What I do know is that when I anneal Wire in a campfire, it’s MUCH softer than annealed wire from trapping suppliers (read softer than I’d want it to be for beaver slides). What I’m saying is that if you do try it, I wouldn’t let it cool as slowly as I mentioned in the first post. I’d want something that’s somewhere in the middle between stiff and really soft, if that makes sense.

What I would do if it were me would either be to use it stiff, or, if you really wanted to anneal it, get it cherry red then take it out of the heat and let it air cool. That should make it easier to work with without making it too soft, but whatever I did, I’d do it in batches to make sure I didnt make the entire supply too much one way or the other. I know that metal can be taken back at least to some degree, but returning it to a previous condition is something I don’t have enough experience with to give any advice on the process.

Other then risk losing a beaver I would be using cable for my slides.

I will leave it the way it is. Thanks

Ttt

my drowners are a double of 14 ga spun tight with a drill but after watching a guest with cables i'll be switching.

When I do nuts, I put them in a coffee can and put in a fire I got going and then let the nuts turn red and then take the can out of the fire to cool slow, also I get the cheapest and lowest grade nuts by the pound to do this with.I use grade 2 nuts. I get them at farm fleet store.

Wow PCR aka Twerker is twisting 14 gauge wire when guys have been using cable forever. 1/8 inch wire works great by the way.

I've been using 11 gauge wire for drowning rigs for as long as I've trapped beavers. Never have a problem, and that's after catching thousands of them with the 11 gauge drowning wires.

I run 11 or 12 wire for beaver drowning rigs, always using the soft stuff, I've never annealed any and then used it for drowning wire. Wire in my opinion is much superior to cable for drowning rigs, I can cut it to whatever length needed on site, never have to worry about cables being too long and having to wrap them around stakes to shorten or (worse) being too short to reach deep water. I trap mainly small creeks and while there are places with nice big deep ponds, other places in these mountain streams the deep water to drown a beaver in is no larger an area than a bathtub, I want to cut my drowning wire to whatever length it takes to stake in that deep spot and put my trap where I want it, not be screwing around with precut lengths of cable or rods.

I did anneal a couple hundred pounds of 9 wire I bought at an estate auction. Works great for snare supports and I wouldn't hesitate to use it for tying off traps, as long as you were just wrapping it tight around the tree and through the chain, I wouldn't leave a chunk of any wire leading out as an extension to a chain for critters to bend back and forth (other than for little critters like, marten, mink, weasel, etc.). That being said, you can bend the stuff I annealed back and forth forever without it breaking. Really sucks if you managed to drop your wirecutters in a creek

We get an every other day check on a one way sliding lock drowner set up, otherwise its an everyday trap check (water or land) by state regulation. Have used wire and cable since '80 and both have worked for me,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, BUT................................. 1/8th GAC cable is wound up around the trap, unwinds easily at the location and when I move (pull) from a location, winds right back up into a compact ball. Fits better in the trap container and when I treat a trap before the season,,, the entire ball goes into the dye bucket..... Easy for me to wrap the trap+drowner store, treat, carry etc. and I know it's strong (cable) and will last for a long time ( I have deep 6'ed a few incidental coyotes in pocket sets through the years)...................... You can color code (paint trap and cable) different lengths if you want as using wire is handier for a specific length.......... my take. the mike

I believe the old timers used wire for everything. Except maybe wolves and bear.
just