AbstractIn this investigation on thin 0·7 wt-%C steel wire (0·25 mm dia.), the effect of an additional small reduction by drawing on the state of the tensile residual surface stresses in the ferrite was examined. For this purpose X-ray stress analysis was applied. It is shown that an additional reduction in cross-sectional area of 1·2% can change axial tensile stresses into compressive stresses, tangential tensile stresses being reduced in magnitude. The reduction is shown to depend on the orientation of the grains when intergranular microstresses are considered. These microstresses were calculated by means of a‘modified sin2ψmethod’.MST/50