Wire-Drawer’s Plate

Used for wiredrawing before the introduction of drawing dies. It was made of-high carbon steel containing a number of holes to suit the size of wire for which it was designed. A wiredrawer’s plate was about 40 mm (1.5 in.) thick with a shank at one end. When all the holes had been worked out, the plate was heated to a red heat and hammered round the holes to close them. After this operation, known as battering, the drawing plate could be used again. Drawer’s plates were also known as wortles after the name of the series of low-alloy tool steels containing several percent tungsten from which they were often made. Still sometimes used for short runs of shaped wire.