oh... im sooo confused, i thought bare bright was number one? can anyone link to a guide that would explain the different grades of copper? I have ALOT
*edit* ahhh, just saw post above, thnx
...how come theres no #2 wire in that guide?

also i just stripped this ancient huge thing of copper cable, it started out at about over an inch thick and then unrolled into 4 cables along side some cardboard like rope which was all bound together with string. i was able to strip the casing off the copper simply by ripping it off with my hands pretty easily. for some reason the copper came out black... also underneath the casing was some paper thats sticking to a lot of the copper, should i just leave that on since the copper already *looks* pretty dirty?