Patent ID: 8124905

Claim:
A method of making a guide wire comprising: positioning a connection end face at a proximal end of a first wire against a connection end face at a distal end of a second wire; welding together the connection end face at the proximal end of the first wire and the connection end face at the distal end of the second wire while applying a pressing force between the first and second wires to form a welded portion, which is comprised of a portion of the first wire and a portion of the second wire, that projects outwardly in a radial direction of the first and second wires relative to a portion of the first wire adjoining the welded portion on a distal side of the welded portion and relative to a portion of the second wire adjoining the welded portion on a proximal side of the welded portion; reducing an outer dimension of the projection at the welded portion so that after completing the reduction of the outer dimension, the projection projects outwardly in the radial direction relative to the portion of the first wire adjoining the welded portion on the distal side of the welded portion and relative to the portion of the second wire adjoining the welded portion on the proximal side of the welded portion.