A method of making wire wound electrical resistance elements comprising the steps of winding a respective resistance wire helically around and along each of a plurality of elongated wire cores which cores are coated with an insulating material, coating each of said wound cores with a protective layer, arranging said wound cores in closely spaced parallel relation, encapsulating said arranged wire cores in a block of plastic material, cutting through the block and the wound cores at longitudinally spaced points along planes perpendicular to the longitudinal axes of the wound cores to form a plurality of wafers each of which contains a plurality of resistance elements, and then separating said resistance elements from the plastic of the respective wafers. The disclosure also includes the steps in which prior to separating resistance elements from the plastic of the wafer, the ends of the wire cores are contacted with an etchant to etch away a portion of the ends of the wire cores, after which the ends are coated with a film of an insulating material.