The braided wire thats around the inner plastic layer,(that contains the copper coated steel wire) is normally tinned Copper, filled with a **** sticky jelly of some sort.

Buy(sic) the time I got to the copper, I'd made a real mess of the area I was working in & got a small fist sized ball of sticky tinned Copper braid that dissapeared into the amount of Copper wire I had at the time.

So the other two leftover reels are still sitting there untill I need the actual wooden reel for something.....