Straightening a cloth coil cord?

[Bill]

I just picked up a nice Spacesaver. The cloth cord is in very good condition BUT it looks like it started life as a coiled cord. At this point, it is badly stretched out, closer to straight than coiled. And since I like a straight cord better than a coiled cord anyway, I'm wondering if anyone has any experience straightening a CLOTH coiled cord.

Suggestions welcome.

Bill

[LarryInMichigan]

I would vote to recoil it since coiled cloth cords are far less common than straight ones.  To recoil it, try coiling it around a dowel, soaking it briefly in hot water, and then setting it in a cold place to cool and dry.

Larry

[HarrySmith]

I have read of guys straightening cloth cords by soaking them and hanging to dry with a weight on the end. I would recommend remove it from the handset so the water does not get in.

[Dennis Markham]

I've done what Harry suggested and it worked pretty well.   However that was with a straight cord that had a bad kink in it.  I just washed it in warm water and then hung it by the strain relief at one end and attached a C4A ringer at the other end and let it dangle until dry.  It worked pretty well on that occasion.

[Bill]

Result not good. "Hot" needs to mean "warm", as Dennis suggested, but I don't think "warm" would have succeeded in either recoiling the cord, or straightening it. Works on plastic cords (I've done it), but apparently not on an old cloth cord.

Well, I learned something (one of my continuing goals), and a new straight cord is only a few bucks.

So tuck this nugget of knowledge away, folks!

Bill

[bingster]

I've only got one coiled cloth cord (mid-fifties ivory cloth), and it has a bundle of fine elastic threads running through the cord along with the conductors.  Does anyone know of that's how all the WE cloth coiled cords are constructed?  If this one is like that, and the elastic is shot, I'd seriously doubt any heating method (or any other method for that matter) would restore it, since you'd be relying solely on the conductor jackets to provide retraction.