Vintage looking radio power cords
 

I wonder what other collectors are using to replace the power cords on their radios. I used to use a replacement cord ,it was sold by Bob's Capacitors,came in brown & black. Looked great on radios. I know there are cloth cords sold by other vendors.
But for AA5 radios what's out there that has that vintage look to it?

I've found that for most of the sets, since they didn't have a really nice cloth cord anyways I use a brown rubber extension cord. If I recall correctly, most sets used a similar rubber power cord to begin with. (At least for AA5's) I know that philco used cloth at least till '32 I don't recall the year they switched over, but one I have from '37 didn't have cloth.

My only gripe is that most of the cloth cable I've bought, is that it's just cloth over regular wire. The cloth slides around and can completely slide off. It's a pain to work with, so I only use it on certain sets. Hopefully someone knows of better cloth wire.

Here's what I normally get from the hardware store for about $5.
Attachment 198187

Plastic or cloth?

For plastic I tend to either take new lamp cord and add period looking plugs (obtained at garage sales and where ever else encountered), or find period looking plastic (not rubber) extension cords. If I don't much care for a set or feel it has no value I'll take a modern cord off a junked VCR TV Soldering iron etc and use that...

A local ACE hardware used to carry cloth cord... I Need a new source now (I've been able to make do but my stock is depleting), but as long as I have decent cloth cord I can just swap it and keep the original plug... I also watch for cloth era plugs so I have a few for times when the original is destroyed or missing.

I actually like the cloth over normal plastic lamp cord type. I haven't seen the cloth slide much on that. I typically cut the center with dikes to separate the leads which does a decent job on the cloth. I also tend to cover the inch or so over the ends of the cloth with heat shrink to keep it from fraying.

I buy the same type of cord at the thrifts for 50 cents each. I only buy the brown or maybe black one. Dollar Tree is another good source.
BTW, Philco and RCA used cloth cords and screw terminal plugs until the 1937 model year.