A stent is mounted upon a tubular braid. A tapered mandrel is placed within the inner lumen of the braid to allow the stent to be expanded to a larger diameter. The tubular braid acts as a transport that reduces friction between the stent and the mandrel to help uniformly stretch the stent circumferentially. Uniquely shaped expansion mandrels limit the stresses applied to stent struts while the stent is expanded to a larger diameter. A plurality of longitudinally extending expansion blades cooperates to form a complete mandrel body. The expansion blades lie adjacent to one another and are capable of independently moving relative to each other in a longitudinal direction. Subsets of alternating expansion blades can be moved axially relative to the other subsets. The expandable mandrel may include numerous regions having progressively larger diameters than an adjacent region.