SteelKey facts
- Drawing steel wire at room temperature is cold working, and cold working raises hardness, yield strength and tensile strength while lowering ductility.
- Annealing is a heat treatment that increases ductility and reduces hardness, and it can reverse the effects of cold working.
- Reinwent’s cold drawn wire, the hard drawn product, runs from 0.8 to 6 mm at 500 to 1,000 N/mm².
- Reinwent’s black annealed wire, the soft product, runs from 0.8 to 8 mm at 300 to 450 N/mm².
- ASTM A641 applies the same soft, medium and hard idea to zinc-coated wire as three tempers.
The short answer
Both wires start as the same kind of steel, drawn from wire rod (how rod differs from wire). What differs is the last thing that happened to them. Hard drawn wire comes off the drawing line and stays as it is, so it is strong and stiff. Annealed wire goes through a heat treatment after drawing, which makes it soft, so it bends, twists and knots with little effort.
This page is about steel wire only. The whole route is in the wire drawing process guide, the cold working in what cold drawn wire is, and the heat treatment is in what annealed wire is. Here we set the two conditions side by side.
What is hard drawn steel wire?
Hard drawn is a trade description of a condition, not a grade. In this guide it means wire that has been drawn and left hard, which is the wire sold on our site as cold drawn wire, also called bright wire. We found no standard that defines the words hard drawn, so always back them with a strength band.
The hardness comes from the drawing. Wikipedia states that drawing is usually performed at room temperature, and that the strength-enhancing effect of wire drawing can be substantial. IspatGuru describes the result as an increase in strength properties and a decrease in plastic properties. Wikipedia names the mechanism: work hardening, a gain in strength during plastic deformation.
Cold working increases hardness, yield strength and tensile strength, but the ductility of a work hardened material is decreased. So hard drawn wire is stiffer and has less ductility.
What is soft annealed steel wire?
Soft annealed wire is drawn wire that has been heat treated to take the hardness back out. Wikipedia describes annealing as a heat treatment whose aim is to increase ductility and reduce hardness, making the metal more workable. It adds that cold worked steel tends to be harder and less ductile, which makes it difficult to work.
Wikipedia notes that intermediate anneals are often required to counter cold working and allow further drawing, and that a final anneal may be applied to the finished product to maximize ductility. For a buyer, the final anneal is the one that produces soft wire.
On our site that wire is black annealed wire, sold as tie wire and binding wire. Wikipedia adds that coarsening of the microstructure may cost the metal a substantial part of its original strength, which is the trade-off.
Hard drawn and soft annealed wire compared
Strength bands and standards below are from our product pages. Ductility is stated only in relative terms, as the sources state it; no source gives a bend or elongation figure.
| Feature | Hard drawn (cold drawn wire) | Soft annealed (black annealed wire) |
|---|---|---|
| Last step | Drawn at room temperature, left as drawn | Heat treated by annealing |
| Tensile strength | 500 to 1,000 N/mm² | 300 to 450 N/mm² |
| Diameter | 0.8 to 6 mm | 0.8 to 8 mm |
| Ductility | Lower, because of work hardening | Higher, because annealing restores it |
| In the hand | Stiff, holds its shape | Soft, bends and twists easily |
| Standard | EN 10218-2 | EN 10218-2 |
| Typical uses | Nails, staples, bolts, screws, small hardware | Binding, fixing, tying, bundling |
The two bands do not overlap. The strongest annealed wire we list, 450 N/mm², sits below the weakest drawn wire, 500 N/mm². EN 10218-2 covers diameter tolerances of round steel wire, per the BSI and iTeh catalogues, so it does not set the strength and the band must be written separately.
Soft, medium and hard on galvanized wire
Coated wire uses the same logic with different words. ASTM A641 covers zinc-coated carbon steel wire in soft, medium and hard temper, and each temper carries its own tensile requirement. Soft is the annealed end and hard the drawn end, with medium between. Our galvanized product runs from 0.8 to 8 mm with a coating weight of 50 to 300 g/m², and lists no tensile band.
The bands by temper and diameter are in galvanized wire tensile strength, and the other coated choices in types of galvanized wire. We quote no galvanized band here.
How to choose between hard drawn and soft annealed wire
Start from what the wire has to do after it leaves the coil.
- It will be tied, wrapped or knotted by hand. Choose soft annealed wire, which is ductile and does not fight back. See black annealed wire uses.
- It will be formed into parts that must stay stiff. Choose hard drawn wire. Nails, staples, bolts and screws are its product page uses; for spring wire see high carbon steel wire and oil tempered vs hard drawn spring wire.
- Strength has to be a stated figure. Write a band, as the guide to high tensile wire explains.
- It will be exposed to weather. Neither bare wire carries a zinc coating, so ask for a coated product. Bright wire explains the bare case.
A job that sits between the two bands is a question for the manufacturers: tell us the use.
What to state in an RFQ
Soft and hard are relative words, so a request using only them draws offers that test differently. Write the following.
- Diameter in millimetres. Cold drawn wire is quoted from 0.8 to 6 mm and black annealed wire from 0.8 to 8 mm. If your drawing uses gauge numbers, convert them with the wire gauge chart.
- Tensile strength band, or temper for coated wire. Give a minimum and maximum in N/mm², or the temper name tied to a standard.
- Standard. EN 10218-2 for both bare wires, and ASTM A641 where you want a named temper on zinc-coated wire.
- Coil weight. State the coil weight your line takes, since packing is part of the specification. How coils ship is in our container loading guide.
- Surface, quantity and port.
Hard drawn and annealed wire from Türkiye
Reinwent is a trading and sourcing company, not a mill. We take your specification to manufacturers in Türkiye, collect their offers and put them on one basis, so you compare like with like. Some products are available from stock. Our pages on cold drawn wire from Türkiye and black annealed wire from Türkiye describe the supply route.
A quotation reaches you within 12 hours at the latest, and we stay in contact until delivery. Once the diameter, strength band, standard and coil weight are settled, request a quote.
