Kevin,
Sorry I didn't get to you sooner with this message:
>.055" wire . . . It's pretty hard stuff, but shouldn't be harder than the
die.
Depends. If it's "piano" or "music" or "spring" wire, and my bet is
that it is, it's very hard and you could ruin your carbon steel die and I
wouldn't subject my HSS die to it either. Generally any quick cooling,
like quenching, will re-hardened a hardenable carbon steel. For these the
slower the cooling the better.
And for anyone needing to anneal small steel parts . . . . consider
silica sand.
To heat a small, thin, or delicate part which needs to be evenly
heated, and/or heated to exactly a certain color (temp), lay it in a bed of
common sand in a shallow metal container and heat it from the bottom. This
will heat it slowly and evenly and you can stop the heat at just the right
moment.
An easy way to slowly cool a small steel item after annealing is to
place it (or leave it) in a bed of sand and after it's well soaked with
heat cover it with the heated sand and leave it all to cool. It's not a
time & temp controlled heat treat oven but it has successfully heat treated
many a small bit.
Regards,
Harry
