I never used the silver wire fro my NR...I just had a 50' or so roll of this 10 awg stranded wire left over from something, when I stripped one of the wires I got 20 or so nickel plated copper strands, works great and use it still today...I got stuck once down at the cottage and cut a 6" chunk off a lamp cord, same thing just not as many strands...the NR/kanthal/NR thing isn't all that fussy, and that type of wire isn't in there long enough for any corrosion concerns...but ya, with these rba's on cotton, once you get your kanthal and juice everything else is a Safeway and Canadian Tire away and it's so cheap it may as well be free.
I have been using the pure silver (40' for $11) and its amazing how easy it is to work with. The biggest problem is its so soft that once the Kanthal is oxidized b4 wrapping, the Kanthal is rigid one must take care when wrapping them together as to twist properly b4 doing the back bend & wrap.

