[UDDYBUDDY]

Hey all,
     I'm looking to figure out what metallic wire would fit a specific application best. I'm looking to make a homemade portable backpacking grill "system" if you will.
     The idea is to not have to carry around a pot or a pan or other heavy cooking equipment, and commercial alternatives I've found are of low quality, or don't quite hit the mark. It occurred to me that using a makeshift "tripod" from sticks/poles lashed together in the field over a fire with a "grill" hanging in the middle would be a very effective way to make this work. The problem I found lies in finding an appropriate "grill" to hang in the middle, and how to hang it. I thought about wiring it to the poles, then realized "why not just use the wire itself as a grill?"
      In essence, I'm looking to find what metallic wire meets these following conditions the best:
-must be food safe, and won't leach into meats or vegetables or react with their juices, or pose a health risk.
-has as high a yield strength as possible
-is as resistant to heat as possible
-and is as resistant to losing strength when being formed, reformed, twisted, etc.

     Any and all input is welcome, and your help is much appreciated, Thanks!

[Enthalpy]

Hi Uddybuddy,

Nice idea, I like it. Heat resistance is the difficult part. Strength is very easy.

The only available wires that resist a camp fire are stainless steel. Copper alloys don't fit food and strong heat, other heat-resistant metals are overexpensive and less available. Since red heat would destroy the heat treatment of steel, the best choice is an alloy that responds little to heat treatment, and usual stainless (called austenitic) is just fine. NiCrMo 17-12 = AISI 316L (marine stainless steel) would resist oxidation better if you find it; NiCr 17-7 = AISI 301 is more common and should do the job, just getting coloured more quickly by superficial oxidation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stainless_steel

I expect no worries from reactions with the food, even at heat. If it were for me, I'd trust it without further interrogations. For you: your health, you decide. If you want to market it, you'll need to investigate more. Also keep in mind that some proportion of people (1/3 of Northern European women ) are allergic to nickel, and austenitic steels contain some. That's enough that these people avoid spoons and coins that contain nickel; as a roasting tool not in contact with the skin, I expect no problem.

Grills are more often of banal steel covered with chromium. I feel this can't work here because the chromium layer bursts on bendable parts.

If you find a stainless steel wire thin enough to bend, fine - but it should be like D=0.1mm, hard to find. What's available is a (stainless!) wire rope
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wire_rope
which stays bendable at bigger diameters. At the first heating it will lose 9/10 of its strength (obtained by cold work) but it's still more than enough. Just choose the thinnest you can find.

Cutting such a hard wire isn't easy, but the biggest difficulty will be to make nice ends that don't hurt the user (consider cutting with a torch). If you find some special parts (heat-resistant! Thin stainless sleeves?) to crimp on the ends, to close loops and make harmless ends, that might work
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimp_%28joining%29
often available from the same supplier as the wire.

Then you must find a triangular mesh pattern. Rectangular would be easier to imagine.