We report on the successful use of electron-beam patterning of ambient hydrocarbon residues on silicon dioxide as a patterning tool for the formation of nanoscale conductors. This chemically enhanced vapor etching (CEVE) was employed for the production of lithographic masks for the formation of nanoscale wires on the silicon substrates. Cobalt silicide nanowires were formed by using the CEVE-produced mask in combination with conventional metallization and silicidation procedures. Cobalt silicide wires ranging in width from less than 50 up to 125 nm were produced in this study. Nanoscale wires of chromium/gold were also produced using a variation on the procedure employed in the cobalt silicide process. Using identical approaches to mask production and employing a liftoff of the oxide mask by HF solution etching, chromium/gold wires as narrow as 26 nm were produced.