When I first started out building my poles with insulators I recently collected I strung a small thin steel wire to use as conductors. I thought it looked nice, when I came to check on my line I noticed weeks later the little steel lines were rusting, I didn't think much of it. When I thought about energizing my lines with power from a solar powered fence charger I thought that the original rusted steel wire wasn't going to do the job.

So then I reconductored the line to a copper wire, It was still small but I thought it would work. Seems that it did conduct electricity but not for long distances though. After that I had to reconductor the whole line again to a thicker aluminum fence wire. It conducted electricity very well for long distances. I now use it as a standard when building my lines that I energize.