no deposition on a workpiece and can machine a workpiece with an increased machining accuracy and at a high rate table 1 shows a comparison of various characteristics of a conventional wire electrode of brass plated with a coating layer of zinc about 10 microns thick a wire electrode of brass and a wire electrode of copper the characteristics being obtained when machining a steel workpiece and indicated by way of percentage with brass characteristics used as a reference table 1 clearly indicates that the zinc coating layer is highly effective in reducing the unwanted wire material deposit and increasing the machining speed it is thus apparent that the advantage of the coating layer remains the same when the electrode core is an amorphous metal wire table 1______________________________________wire coatingelectrode diameter thickness tensile machiningmaterial mm microns deposit strength speed______________________________________brass 0 2 100 100 100copper 0 2 700 50 80zinc 0 2 10 5 8 75 180coatedbrass______________________________________ the amorphous wire electrode of the present invention having a core of an amorphous metal and a thin crystalline surface layer may be made of any metal that can be in an amorphous state metals and alloys that can be used to prepare amorphous wires of the invention include since the wire electrode should be of good conductivity the amorphous wire electrode may be coated with an electrically conductive material fig9 shows such.