Original Astron igniters were 30 Ga with a smooshed area covered in a flexible pyrogen. The smooshed area was easy to bend and provided higher resistance right where you wanted it. Later, they switched to a non-smooshed slightly thinner nichrome (31 ga?) and it still had the flexible pyrogen coating and you just had to bend it anywhere within the pygrogen coated zone. They were fantastic and i installed them with a wadding wedge/ball...
+1!!
As for the wadding ball method, I still use it on occasion. Recently, during a scout launch, we ran out of plugs and I tried to show the kids the wadding ball method. They thought I was conning them.