stripping insulation from these tiny wires??

Like these?

The idea is to NOT scrape or cut the wire. I use one of several Teledyne Stripall thermal wire strippers:

Now for the bad news. Surplus thermal wire strippers have become expensive. I obtained my first used Teledyne TW-1 thermal strippers in about 1968 by dumpster diving, surplus stores and garage sales. I probably paid about $5 for my older models. Today, the same wire strippers sell for about $100 on eBay.

More bad news. You will need to spend some time learning how to strip fine wires. A thermal wire stripper will make things easier, but you can still make a mess without adequate practice. Repeating whatever you're doing wrong isn't going to help. I suggest you find a YouTube tutorial and practice on scrap insulated wire.

I've been stripping wire for most of my life. I suspect I've mastered the art by now. I mostly use thermal wire strippers for PTFE insulated wire and coaxial cable. For most everything else, I use a pair of small, flush cut, wire cutters. This looks like my favorite:

Good luck.

Try touching the insulation on two sides of the wire with a clean soldering iron tip before pulling. Experiment with already-damaged wire to see if it works.

Interesting. I have never seen something like this. But I have used a lighter.

Sorry, all, I wrote too soon! A few weeks ago, I did another project that I encountered after I posted here where it used the same connector type with stripped wires. I scratched my head for a moment trying to figure out how I stripped the tiny wires. Then it came to me-- I used my stripper:

I initially dismissed using it, in part because I had forgotten about the prior use, and also I didn't think it would be able to strip the wires. On the unit itself, it does say stripping for 10-24 gauge wire. The wire terminating in the connectors is more like 26-28 ga though, but it still handled it successfully.

The soldering iron is too hot for most insulation. The insulation should melt, not burn[1]. Long ago, I attached a cutting blade to a soldering iron and tried to use it as a wire stripper. At the time, we didn't have temperature controlled soldering irons. I had two problems. The insulation burned instead of melted and the iron took too long to heat up and cool down. The Teledyne thermal wire stripper doesn't generate much heat. The "blade" did eventually glow red hot, but the thick "rods" were only slightly warm. I could make some temperature measurements (this weekend) if anyone is interested.

Most of the surplus Teledyne wire strippers I mentioned were made for the aerospace industry, which at the time, used PTFE (Teflon) insulation. PTFE melts at 327°C (621°F). PVC insulation melts at 170 °C (338 °F). Some manner of temperature adjustment should have been necessary. However, most of the thermal wire strippers did not have a temperature adjustment. That worked because the wire stripper was not running hot continuously. The cutter would be at temperature in a few seconds. The user would close the jaws or push the button, which would start the heating. After one or two seconds, the heated blade would be hot enough to strip the wire. Once stripped, the user would release the jaws, which turned off the power. They would then put it down on a stand or just on the workbench. In other words, the working temperature was set by how long the device was turned on.

I wonder if you should do something similar with an ordinary pair of strippers (or cutters) and a flame. Heat the nose of the tool in the flame, then strip a wire. Probably take some practice about how long to hold in the flame and how much pressure to apply, but you could perhaps get up to the temps of the thermal strippers.

No good of course if you're doing aerospace stuff where the tool and process need to be certified, but if you aren't bothered if the connection might fail...

Theo

Bad idea. The idea is to heat the blade but NOT the pliers.

"Hot Wire Strippers Are Probably The Best Tool You Aren’t Using"

"StripAll Thermal Wire Strippers from Teledyne Impulse"

Notice the blades and the "rods". The "rods" deliver current to the blades. The blades are thin and will heat or cool rapidly. The "rods" are large, solid and will become hot about the same time that the blades glow red.

If you try the same thing with a pair of insulated pliers, you'll burn your hand and possibly melt the vinyl insulation covering the plier handles.