Abstract: A method and apparatus for drawing steel wire to produce high tensile strength, steel wire with increased torsional ductility. The wire is drawn through a plurality of standard dies (14) in a wire drawing machine (10). The cross section of the wire is reduced by a constant reduction of about 15% to about 18% at each of the standard dies (14) with the exception of the final two dies (18, 19). The wire is then reduced by about 10% to about 90% of the typical reduction at the next to last die (18) and the remainder of the reduction at the final die (19).