Always over run your cable more then you need to this eliminates mistakes.
How To Strip & Prepare Cable
Stripping and preparing cable is fairly easy, Showing to much bare cable can result in short outs, not showing enough bare cable can result in a weak connection.
We will show you how to strip mains cable and get it ready for connection.
Disclaimer - Please Read Carefully
Working with electrics can be dangerous, if your in any doubt contact a qualified and registered electrician to carry out the work.
Always make sure the power is off and disconnected before attempting to work with any electrics.
In a lot of cases there are regulations prohibiting non qualified or registered persons from carrying out the work.
This guide is for reference and to educate readers only.
Stripping the outer flex away
There are two ways of doing this, one will work with all cables but can be difficult, the other will only work with flat mains cables that have a solid earth cable inside. The earth cable is the one with no inner flex around it.
First we will look at the way to strip any outer flex away.
Method One
At this stage its always better to leave more then enough cable then needed before cutting down to size as this leaves room for mistakes 
and can make life easier when in small places.
I'm going to assume you have the cable laid just where you need it for the final connection.
Using a sharp utility knife very gently cut round the outer flex (see Fig 1), taking care not to cut to deep where you can see or have cut the inner flex. Scoring all the way around will make this part weak, now bend and twist at your score marks and you will see the flex start to tear to where it starts showing the inner flex, once you can see its free all around you can pull and wiggle the outer flex off towards the end of the cable.
This can be a bit of a struggle but once free this parts over with (see Fig 5).
Method Two
Only suited to flat mains cable that has a solid earth cable inside.
This is a bit of trick and one that saves time and makes this very easy.
Using a sharp utility knife cut a tiny slit in the flex at the end over the earth cable (see Fig 2), you could also use the corner of a pair of pliers jaw to just tear a bit out over the earth cable.
Once you have done this using a pair of pliers tease the earth cable out at an angle (see Fig 3).
Holding the outer flex where you just cut it in one hand and using a pair of pliers to grip hold of the earth cable start to pull away from each other, this will tear the outer flex (see Fig 4), once you have tared enough take the inner wires out of the outer flex and using wire cutters or your pliers cut the out flex away at the lowest point.
Striping the inner flex and preparing for final connection
This is the time you would cut the wires down to size, not all wires needs to be at the same length, in fact in most cases it's best to measure and cut the wires one by one to the individual connection point, this makes a neater jobs and can make life easier when space is limited to hide or encase the wires in, but always remember to over measure around 10-20mm, leaving room for movement and for the bare cable to be inserted into the point.
Stripping enough flex of to show just enough bear wire will depend on what's it connecting to, how every for most cases 8mm is a good rule, this also happens to me the thickness of most pliers and the widest points of wire cutters so with cutter end facing outer flex you can measure the cable just like in Fig 6.
Apply enough pressure to just split the surface of the flex or give you enough grip, holding the 
cutters in one hand and the wire in the other also using the thumb of this hand to push up against the cutters to give it a pivot point, pull in both directions using the thumb as a lever and the flex will come of with no hassle.
The only thing left is to measure up some earthling sleeve and slip on.
Now your ready for connection.
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