scrap house wire with tar stuff

I think I know what you are talking about. Is it one solid core a little less than a 1/4 inch thick? If so it is old overhead wire.

You can remove the "tar" type substance by taking a hammer to it. Put your wire on an anvil, or the flat portion of a vice and just whack it and it will split the insulation. Couple inches at a time.

You can do this on a cement floor also, but that's hard on an old man's back. I'd rather stand or sit on a stool and do the whacking.



Then rub it on the edge of the flat parts of the vice to remove any sticky residue.

Originally Posted by brassbuster

Not likely asbestos, and should be older house wire. Most of the wire we buy like that is a tar, rubber based cloth covering. As for not being shiny most of this wire is tin coated.

What brass buster said.

No, it's not in use anymore.

What year was the house built? My rental house was built in the 1940s and used to have that wire, with the old fuse boxes with the round fuses. If you ran out of fuses you stuck a penny in the fuse socket. Lol

It's going to be #2 copper once you get it all stripped. There is no easy way to strip that stuff.

Originally Posted by pjost

It's going to be #2 copper once you get it all stripped. There is no easy way to strip that stuff.

That is debatable since it is solid core, how clean it is would be the deciding factor.

Unless it is in fact tin coated.

Originally Posted by mike1

yes its kinda like that but the black part was on the outside like this and the wire isn't covered in tar but its like a rubbery stuff just how old is this stuff and do they still use it today? and thanx very much.

um not sure when it was built but my uncle rewired the house and he had some of the white romex i think its called wire nutted onto that old wire is it safe to take it out and just wire nut the two romexes together or will it mess up something that gets power from it? i mean we have a breaker box and i see none of that wire going into it its all new stuff but sone of the wires have to old stuff attached to it. i forgot to add that i also incountered another wire like the one i described but this one had two wires in it with the same casing and it was plastic but the wire had some kind of green oil stuff when i stripped it and it looked to be maybe 12 or 14 gauge wire not sure it went like this outer black casing then paper wraped around the wire casing and then green oil stuff it smelled likee oil maybe to reduce the heat or act as a isulator not sure.