What he needs is resistance wire - hence the earlier mention of nichrome - however, what we always used to do at work was get some from an electric fire element. In the VERY distant past we used to repair electric fires, toasters etc, and sell elements for them. What was easiest was replacement elements for silica tube heaters - you could either buy a complete tube with element inside, or a little cardboard box with just the element inside - you simply dropped a piece of string down the old tube, and pulled the new 'spring' element through the tube.
So if we needed a piece of resistance wire (making polystyrene cutters for example) we'd get an element, and cut off the length we needed. We'd then put the rest in a spares draw for if ever needed it again.
So he might have something at home he could raid?, toaster, electric fire, hair drier? - anything with an exposed coil element.