(Click on images to enlarge)
With the end of the wire in a vice, I run it through a hole in a piece of wood, with a slot cut in which I place a knife to cut the insulation.
Then to go from this...
the end is clamped firmly in a vice.
The other end is twisted around the jaws of a pair of pliers and stretched as far as possible by hand.
Then the final kinks are removed by striking the pliers with a hammer. If the wire is wound around the pliers as shown, the force of the hammer tightens the pliers onto the wire. The bigger the wire, the bigger the hammer.
