A compressed knitted wire mesh article having soft and hard wires, some of which are flat and some of which are round, is used a bushing, seal, seat, bushing, or catalyst support, and is especially useful as an end seal for a catalytic converter. The soft wire can be flat and disposed on the outside to aid it shielding the internal wire from corrosion due to impingement of hot exhaust gasses, and provides increased surface area for better sealing around the catalytic monolith. The hard and soft wires can be co-knit in the same knitting head as alternating wires or in any order, or with one wire wrapped around the other being fed to the knitting needle, or as a striped pattern. The mesh can be textured by precompression, such as crimping between rolls.