There's no need to anneal the copper after drawing down the taper on the power hammer so I can bring it right to the anvil and shape the curve that I need for this piece and the other as well.  While shaping the rod, there is a little bit of work hardening which will help stiffen these slender pieces which are vulnerable to bending. One of the drawbacks of working copper is its weakness in terms of structural strength when in the annealed state.  Even after work hardening, the weld zones are normally in the annealed state so you have to design your work to factor in this liability.