Choosing the right hardness of precious metal wire can be difficult when creating handmade wire jewelry. For example, sterling silver wire comes in three types of hardness such as dead-soft, half-hard, and full-hard. The hardness property of wire pertains to how easy the metal bends.
Here is an overview of each type of wire:
1. Dead-soft wire: Is easily bent, extremely soft, and pliable. This type of wire is great for making shapes. However, if not properly handled the finished piece could be bent out of shape.
2. Half-hard wire: Is slightly stiffer than dead-soft wire. This type of wire is great for making loops or for wire wrapping objects. Compared to dead-soft, the half-hard wire makes more of a permanent piece that will keep its shape.
3. Full-hard wire: Is very stiff and hard to form components because the wire tends to spring back after being bent. When using full-hard wire a hammer is sometimes required to form the wire into certain shapes, making it more difficult compared to half-hard wire to create wire jewelry.
Although, the hardness of each metal can be changed by the metalsmithing technique called annealing or by work hardening. However, each type of wire hardness shows that it has an advantages and disadvantages depending on the type of wire wrapping or wire jewelry design.
