Soften a Stiff Cloth Cord?

[TelePlay]

This may have been asked and answered somewhere on the forum but after searching for close to an hour now with limited success, I thought I'd ask.

I have a straight cloth multi-conductor cord about 3 feet long that must have been stored for some time bound up with a rubber band. After taking the rubber band off, the cord is retaining all of the bends and folds and is overall quite stiff.

I don't want to force it straight before asking if anyone has found a way to soften up such a cord, to relax the stiffness. The cord is in really great shape other than being very stiff.

I did find one reference on the forum from 2008 where Dan/Panther used Son-of-a-Gun (Armoral product) with some success.

Before I try that, does anyone have any other ideas or ways to turn this stiff cord flexible without doing any damage to it?

[unbeldi]

Is this a cord with rubber insulation around the leads?

If so, placing it in a very warm place may soften the rubber, at least temporarily.

[TelePlay]

Is this a cord with rubber insulation around the leads?

If so, placing it in a very warm place may soften the rubber, at least temporarily.

No, the two wires inside the outside sheath are both cloth covered, stranded wires. This is some of the nicest cloth coverings, both internal and external, I have ever seen but it's stiff.

[Wayback Mike]

Fabric softener?  Maybe spray it with a mister or soak it in a solution.

[TelePlay]

Got it back to like new condition, or softness. No longer stiff. Thanks to all for their help.

[.....]

Got it back to like new condition, or softness. No longer stiff. Thanks to all for their help.

And how did you do that? Do tell.

[HarrySmith]

Yeah, inquiring minds want to know, need to know.

[DavePEI]

Got it back to like new condition, or softness. No longer stiff. Thanks to all for their help.

C'mon, John. Share your secret! What worked? Did you take it out of the Freezer! 

[TelePlay]

I wanted to check the cord after a few days to see what happened. It is still soft, even softer if that is a word, and it does have a fresh, clean odor. I used Avon Skin-So-Soft. Applied it liberally with a cue tip from the jack to the headphones. It now is flexible like new with a bit of an odor (which may disappear over time). So, basically mineral oil and other softener ingredients. It darkened the black cord a bit so now rather than looking old and grey is now a nice, deep black. Before application, it would not unbend from being folded up as I bought it. Now the cord hands straight when dropped from being coiled up. Amazing stuff.

Now, for really hard cloth cords that are coiled (wrapped around a handset for years), I've found that running the cord through or dunking the cord in a dish with SSS wets the cord. Then wiping it with a paper towel will get the excess SSS and some surface dirt off and also force the SSS into the cords. This will get the "memory" coil out of the cord. Then, after hanging the cord with a weight on the bottom for a few days, washing it well in Woolite will remove the deep dirt. After rinsing out the Woolite, wipe it down with a clean cotton cloth to get a lot of the water out. Hang it again weighted until dry. If not soft after drying, wetting again with SSS as above will add flexibility to the cord.

So, that's the big secret.

[DavePEI]

I wanted to check the cord after a few days to see what happened. It is still soft, even softer if that is a word, and it does have a fresh, clean odor. I used Avon Skin-So-Soft. Applied it liberally with a cue tip from the jack to the headphones. It now is flexible like new with a bit of an odor (which may disappear over time). So, basically mineral oil and other softener ingredients. It darkened the black cord a bit so now rather than looking old and grey is now a nice, deep black. Before application, it would not unbend from being folded up as I bought it. Now the cord hands straight when dropped from being coiled up. Amazing stuff.

So, that's the big secret.

Had to pry it out of you, didn't we? Another use for SSS!

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Very nice, John! I need to order some SSS, I have a ton of cords with that issue...

Anyone else think Avon should hire Doug to be SSS's spokesperson? He lives on the stuff!

[jsowers]

Has anyone ever tried just plain Mineral Oil? It wouldn't smell like the Avon Lady had just been looking at your phone collection and would certainly be a lot cheaper and easier to obtain.

[TelePlay]

Has anyone ever tried just plain Mineral Oil? It wouldn't smell like the Avon Lady had just been looking at your phone collection and would certainly be a lot cheaper and easier to obtain.

I thought about that for several weeks before going ahead with the SSS. Yes, the SSS has a smell but it also has other stuff. The ingredients include not only mineral oil and carrot seed oil but also an emollient, a moisturizer and an emulsifier.

Over the years, I've discovered that mineral oil based hand lotions were vastly inferior to glycerin based lotions. So, plain mineral oil was not my first choice. Knowing and ignoring the fragrance issue, I went with the SSS to include the other ingredients in the process.

[TelePlay]

Yesterday morning the cord remained soft and flexible and the fragrance was about 90% gone. I then applied a thin coating of pure mineral oil to see what would happen. First thing I noticed was the pure mineral oil did not spread over and penetrate the cloth cord like the SSS did. Last night I checked the cord and found the lingering fragrance was still there along with the smell of pure mineral oil. The second coat of pure mineral oil did not seem to improve the flexibility of the cord - but maybe the liberal coating of SSS took it to like new flexibility so no additional flex could be expected with additional applications of oil. I'll have to try the pure mineral oil on an old junk cloth cord to see how it works on a dry cord.