Spent 5 hours on a simple twist twist that shoulda took 45 minutes

Was making some gate hooks for a customer over in Tulsa and needed to do a quick decorative twist on 3/8 square stock. Figured it was a no brainer, heated it up and went at it with my hand twist wrench. First one came out all wobbly and uneven, looked like a drunk snake. Tried again with a slower twist, still got that weird ripple in the middle. Turns out my stock was slightly twisted already from the way it was stored, and I never thought to straighten it out cold first. After fighting it for hours I finally marked the center, straightened the bar on the anvil, and then did the twist in one smooth pull. Worked perfect after that. Has anyone else run into pre twisted stock from cheap suppliers and how do you check for it before you start heating? That little bit of time lost really messed up my whole afternoon delivery schedule.

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