As I finally get around to stripping bin after bin of long-gathered low-gauge (thick) insulated copper wire, I'm wondering if I'm the only person that finds it kinda therapeutic to make that slice along the insulation then loose beautiful shiny top-grade copper. Maybe I'm just easily amused.
While I'm sure everyone has their own techniques for stripping, I want to share a personal advancement I've made in slicing.
Where I had long used a favorite Case pocket knife, I was recently doing some woodcarving and it suddenly hit me that a special carving blade -- one of the sharpest cutting implement out there, second to only a straight-edged razor -- might be ideal for slicing across long stretches of insulated wire.
Sure enough, it put my Case to shame. In fact, the rubber insulation was far less dulling to the blade than the cedar/bass/oak wood it was usually faced with. What's more, carving blades are specially balanced to fit the hand perfectly, based on ergonomics developed via centuries of decoy carving and the likes.
Of course, it is still all but mandatory to first heat the insulation a bit to soften it up. Amazing how many strippers still don't know that trick.
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