So I wound a rough representation of a coil I want to use to magnetize the ultimate goal magnet.

The first one was wound on a lamination plate from some transformer. When I connected it to capacitor, a loud bang followed. The insulation of wire failed, causing a dead short in the coil.

Then I wound another one. I removed it from the carrier, and wicked with superglue to hold it together. When I pulsed it, agan a loud bang followed.

Then I noticed that the coil looks a bit odd. OK, ripped apart by magnetic field. And only after careful investigation I realized how much did it actually deform. The places where there were sharp bends were straightened out, and new bends were created where the coil was straight. Wow, that was quite some force!