The present disclosure relates generally to wires and more particularly to textured powder wires containing nanoscale metallic silver powder. The invention presents an improvement of the process of making compressed cores of textured-powder high-temperature superconductor previously using the micaceous high-temperature superconductor Bi-2212. Embodiments of the claimed methods are useful with the micaceous high-temperature superconductors, notably Bi2Sr2CaCu208+x (Bi-2212) and Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10+x (Bi-2223) and rare earth barium copper oxide (REBCO).