There may not be a hell of a lot of Western Union splices being wound these days, fact is I've spoken with young college trained linemen who have no damn idea what one is, but those winders come in handy as hell to grip plastic tubing as well when you have arthritis and need to shove a fitting in the tubing.  I know 2 people who have a pair just for that purpose.

It's neat that some tools can flip around for more sizes...

In the mid-'60s I was taught by an olde guy to splice barbed wire with what he called a "telegraph lineman's splice," because it never broke from simply being pushed on by livestock nor stretch/sag from the summer heat/winter cold movement.  Lots of folks bend the two wires together in a "U" and then wrap the free ends around themselves — a sure recipe for a failed fence section in the future, as I dealt with when repairing such splices on my own place.