"Unwound" strings?

[mid_life_crisis]

There is a thread over in the Luthier section where the OP created a super short scale bass and he mentioned that he "unwound" some strings to fit.
What is he referring to here? Do you not simply cut them to length?

 

[J Posega]

If the bass is less than 28" scale, then there is no company that makes strings that fit that scale length and can be tuned to E standard. I had to do this with my Samick 25.5" scale bass; cut a B-string down, and then peel back the outer winding past the nut so I could fit it into the tuning gear without winding the 130 gauge part of the string on the tuning gear.

 

[mid_life_crisis]

"past the nut". When I first read this, I thought you meant so the peeled back portion rode in the nut, but you mean between the nut and the tuning machine, correct?

 

[mid_life_crisis]

Now that I know what a pita this idea is to live with, I guess I'll be leaving it alone.
Does anybody know the shortest strings that are readily available?
28" scale, but how long is the actual string?