Some good advice on this thread. Personaly I think leather or rubber stretchers are a waste of time, OK for play but thats all. Need some weight to pull on your balls, the longer the better. You need to feel the pull all the time, its part of the pleasure. I wear just over 3lb. of split collars about 4-1/2"long all day and just over 4lb. in the evenings. Most I have ever worn for any length of time is 6.5". I dont wear them to bed. Have been doing it for about 8 years now so its not fast, cant be hurried. To help get the collars on when I first started I always warmed my balls up in warm water, I also warmed the steel collars in warm water, they hold the heat for some time which helps. I use cocoa butter as a lube, collars need to be able to slip about and the lube stops the chafing. If they do get sore, take off the collars before it gets too bad, that way the recovery will be quicker and the weights can go back on for more stretching. Something they need to get used to. Now and again during the day it helps to drop them into a jug of warm water, makes them drop and eases of the pull for awhile.
I also pump now and again just to stretch the sack, I use a 12" x 2.75" cylinder to go for length. I dont pump for the bloated sack look, I just want to stretch longer so that my balls have somewhere to drop into.
Only problem with collars is that they are visible under clothing. It wasnt a serius problem when I started with one 2.25" collar, but more collars become a problem. Nowadays even with my original one collar on my balls hang so low as to be visible down my trouser leg. Thinking of wearing a kilt, I am half Scotish.
As has already been said the most important thing is to take it easy. Good advice.
cirus.
PS. I have some pics on this site already, dont want to bore anybody by putting more here.