1wrong,
First I'm not sure what you mean "anealed" or even what "anealed" means. I've heard it used several times but never really understood the term. Now if you were to say "stronger", "weaker", I would understand. Second, you ask is it necessary to heat it to that point so I take it you never bent music wire by heating it or you would know. Let me put it this way, I had to heat the metal to the point where it starts to bend, and that was when it was starting to glow red. As I bent the wire, I slowly moved the point of my torch along the wire as it bent, maybe no more then a 1/4 inch. When I had the bend I wanted, I would take it off the vise and dip it in water. Now PLEASE don't take this as being the right way to bend music wire, it was MY way and I started this threat to ask if there was a better way.
So 1wrong, yes, I had to heat it to the point it started to glow to get a nice bend. The only problem I found doing this way was the wire would then bend easier without heat and after bending a gear on landings and straighting it again, it got to a point it would snap in two. Remember, this was with K & S 5/32 wire.
I decided to go with a heavier wire, 3/16 on my next set of gears for the same plane that had 5/32 wire simply because the gears are long and they flexed more then I wanted just taxing and bent after every landing no matter how nice a landing I had. On some of my warbirds I use a short piece of 3/16 wire and a oleo strut to absorb shock and I have had those short pieces bend, BUT they were first bent doing it with heat. Next time I'll cold bend them in the K & S bender and see what happens. My findings so far on the Ultra is that cold bending kept the strength in the wire but please remember, there may be a better way of hot bending and keeping that strength and we heard some excellent views on how to do this. Whatever works for a person, that's the way to go. There is no right or wrong. That's what this tread is about.
Larry