Reproducing Fabric-Covered Cable

[Winky Dink]

Braided fabric covering for multiconductor cable in early radios is so often brittle, friable, or unraveling. Some years ago I asked for suggestions for replacing cable like this:



It was suggested that shoelaces could be used…hold on a second…the picture above IS the reproduction. Hah! I even fooled myself. This is the original cable:



I actually wanted to try the shoelace trick for a long time. I used "flat tubular athletic" laces, and did this:



The new shoelace looked too, well…new, so I gave it a heavy lacquer coating and, before it was fully dry, rolled it between my palms. That flattened the nap and imparted an aged appearance. The laces are available in 6-foot lengths and also come in brown and other colors. The limitation is that I could only find two sizes--7/16-inch and 5/16 inch. The other problem is that now my shoes tend to fall off when I'm walking down stairs.

It's a cheap technique, and it might also be useful to put a fabric covering over vinyl zip cord to fabricate a vintage power cord. I would recommend this technique for anyone who has too much time on their hands.