Hi Rick,
Here's a trick from an experienced solderer.
Take a piece of heavy copper wire about 5-6" long and solder an alligator clip onto each end. Bend the wire into a wide U so the clips are parallel about 3" apart, kinda' like goalposts. Now you have a wire soldering jig.
Strip each wire a 1/4" but do not twist the ends tight. Instead, fan the strands out a bit and then pinch them smooth again. This allows the strands to be far enough apart that you can interlace the strands from each wire and works great on dissimilar gauges. Get them started interlacing and then capture each wire with a clip and and work them into each other. Use your fingers to pinch and smooth the joint. You may have to push them together again and do some more smoothing. Solder them and they should look close to this:
