I've used a high wattage soldering gun and just burned the enamel off, then clean it up. Tin it when it was all clean.
Commercial enamel wire strippers are available.
Something to experiment with would be dipping the wire in acetone. I would do this far away from a heat source!
You are correct though, using an Xacto knife or sandpaper will ruin the integrity of the wire by creating very small nicks in the copper.
Leave the solder on the tip.
The tip of most soldering irons are iron plated copper.
As such, if the tip is exposed to the atmosphere, it will rust.
Now, typically, there is a layer of solder which coats the tip. However, if you wipe the tip off, the solder coating remaining is very thin, and can oxidize through, allowing damage to the actual iron plating of the tip. Leaving a heavy coating of solder on the tip (e.g. the "blob" the manual describes) is indeed a good way to preserve tip life.
However, the great majority of tip wear occurs when the iron is hot, as the increased temperature dramatically increases the rate at which the tip will oxidize and react with the solder, so it's not absolutely critical you leave solder on the iron tip when you turn it off. It's a good idea, but it's not absolutely vital.
It's also worth noting that the solder blob will probably protect the tip from light mechanical damage during storage as well.
During normal use, the mechanism that wears through the tip plating is different. Basically, over time, the iron plating actually dissolves away into the solder. However, there's not much you can do about this, short of using a fancy soldering system that reduces the iron temperature when it's in the stand, which reduces the rate at which the iron dissolves away (at least when it's in the stand).
Basically, iron tips don't last forever.
During normal use, you should never wipe the tip before placing the iron back in the stand. You should always wipe it after removing it from the stand, before actually soldering something.
- Remove iron from soldering iron stand.
- Wipe tip on sponge.
- Solder something
- Place iron back in stand with solder left on tip.
- Repeat.
Best Answer
The sponge comes thin as purchased because the cells have been flattened, but once it is wet the cells relax and the sponge will take its final form. There is no difference between thicknesses of sponge as all they are doing is abrading off the solder without damaging the tip. The grooves provide a larger abrasion surface without increasing the volume of the sponge.