Wire twisting apparatus

A wire twisting apparatus capable of one handed operation, said apparatus comprising:

• a handle adapted to be grasped by the hand of a user;
• a shaft coupled to said handle, said shaft having an axial bore and a wire receiving apertured tip portion with a tapered wall region forming a seat;
• tapered plug means retractably received in said tip portion in normal contact with said seat, the tapers of said wall region and said plug means being substantially identical, said wall region and said plug means each having a taper angle lying in the range from about 5.degree. to about 30.degree., said tip portion having an axially extending open slot intersecting the aperture in the tip portion and extending longitudinally therefrom for a distance along said tip portion and a depth which intersects the bore in the tip portion for enabling a pair of wire ends to be positioned between said plug means and said seat without requiring insertion through said apertured tip portion;
• means extending along said axial bore and coupled to said tapered plug means for enabling retraction of said tapered plug means relative to said seat so that a pair of wire ends can be received between said plug means and said seat via said slot, said retraction enabling means including means for normally biasing said plug means toward said seat;
• and
• means for retaining a pair of wire ends received between said plug means and said seat, said retaining means including a roughened portion of said plug means and a roughened portion of said seat, each roughened portion having a ridged surface with peripherally extending contour lines.