[TheForge] Wire question

[Phlip]

I just got some steel wire, to use holding billets together, for pattern
welding in my forge. I got two kinds, hoping one will work properly, one
being floral wire, which I realize in plastic covered, but am hoping the
plastic will burn off (I'm familiar with floral wire from using it in
corrective shoeing of horses). The other is something called "dark annealed
stovepipe wire".

Will either wire tend to poison my welds? Understand, they'll be removed
before I actually weld, but they'll also get pretty hot before I move the
weld up enough to remove them. Also, on the stovepipe wire, it says
"Warning: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California
to cause cancer, and birth defects or other reproductive harm". I'm assuming
they're referring to the coating that makes it dark- what is it? Have I
managed to acquire what I was trying to avoid, a variant of galvanizing? Or
do I file this under anothewr Caliufornia eccentricity, and just not worry
about it? Since it's designed for stovepipes, I'm assuming that it's
intended to get quite hot, but with some products (and Californians) you
never quite know.

Wondering if Californians have managed to come up with stoves that use ice
for fuel, to go along with their vegetarian sashimi....

Saint Phlip,
CoD

"When in doubt, heat it up and hit it with a hammer."
 Blacksmith's credo.

 If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
cat.

Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....