[Nhcoll-l] Mammal Specimen Preparation - Wire Recommendations

[Benjamin Hess]

Sam,

You can get coiled wire at a cheaper cost, but pre-straightened wire is a
great savings of time/effort. Pulling wire is possible, but challenging
with thicker wire. In the past, I had used the following as a standard in
mammal preparation. Feel free to connect me if you have additional
questions.

Sincerely,

Ben


   - Pre-straightened stainless steel wire (McMaster Carr -
   https://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/127/4057/ )


   - Straight wire search - https://www.mcmaster.com/products/straight-wire/
   (select
      - 1-ft. Straight Length Wire (0.015 - 8908K87) à for small shrews
      - 1-ft. Straight Length Wire (0.026 - 8908K26) à for most small
      rodents
      - 1-ft. Straight Length Wire (0.045 - 8908K48) à for medium mammals
      - 2-ft. Straight Length Wire (0.045 - 8908K78) à this seems to not
      exist now, but I used this for all longer tails.
      https://www.mcmaster.com/straight-wire/length~24/
      - I would recommend another thicker and longer wire for bigger items.
      Nickel Copper Alloy (Monel) wire is also good as it is non-conductive and
      non-corrosive. https://www.mcmaster.com/straight-wire/length~3-ft-/




On Tue, Sep 16, 2025 at 12:55 PM Samantha Getty <getty031 at umn.edu> wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> My name is Sam and I am the specimen preparator for the Bell Museum. We
> have been struggling to find suitable (modern) wire for our mammal
> specimens. Our wire stash is decades old and is running low. Everything I
> have purchased to try is too flexible and does not pull properly. Does
> anyone have any recommendations on what type or brand of wire to use and
> where to source it?
>
> Thank you,
> Sam Getty
>
> --
> Sam Getty (she/her)
>
> Zoological Museum Curatorial Research Associate
> Bell Museum
> University of Minnesota
> https://www.bellmuseum.umn.edu/salvage-wildlife/
> _______________________________________________
> Nhcoll-l mailing list
> Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
> https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l
>
> _______________________________________________
> NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of
> Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
> mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of
> natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
> society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information.
> Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate.
>


-- 

*Benjamin M. Hess | EEB Museums Registrar | **EEB Museums Safety
Representative to the RMC *

University of Michigan | LSA Ecology & Evolutionary Biology | Research
Museums Center

3600 Varsity Drive, Ann Arbor MI 48108-2228

bmhess at umich.edu | 734-764-2432
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20250916/0a50db93/attachment.html>