Fabric cables are normal PVC cables with a woven sheath of cotton, linen or viscose over the top. It's exactly this sheath that makes stripping them a bit of an art: it frays if you cut it wrong, and the fine strands underneath break if you go too deep with the knife. Here's how to do it cleanly.
Tools
An automatic wire stripper (10 to 20 euros, grips the insulation and pulls it off without touching the strands), a sharp utility knife, small scissors, a lighter or superglue to stop fraying, optionally 0.75 mm² ferrules with crimping pliers.
Step 1: Trim the fabric sheath
Mark the point up to which the fabric is to be removed (ceiling rose: 8 cm, lamp holder: 4 cm, plug: 3 cm). Lightly score the fabric all the way round with a utility knife – only the fabric, not the insulation underneath – then pull it off with your fingers. With viscose braid that's easy; cotton and linen fray more readily – here it helps to secure the fabric with a piece of tape before cutting and cut through the tape.
Step 2: Secure the fraying ends
The cut edge of the fabric would keep unravelling over the months. Two methods: with viscose (artificial silk), briefly melt the edge with a lighter – half a second, otherwise it turns black. With cotton and linen, put a tiny drop of superglue on the edge and let it dry for a minute. Later the edge disappears under the strain relief; this is just insurance.
Step 3: Outer insulation
On round cables, there's a PVC sheath around the cores beneath the braid. Score it lightly lengthways with a craft knife (only score it – the cores underneath are protected by 0.2 mm of insulation, but no more) and pull it off. Flat cables and zigzag cables don't have this layer – there the cores sit directly under the braid.
Step 4: Strip the wires
Strip each core 8 mm (screw terminals) or 10 to 11 mm (push-in terminals, it's printed on the terminal) with wire strippers. Twist the strands with your fingers so none stick out. If you like things tidy: crimp on ferrules. With fine-stranded cables in screw terminals they're the professional solution and stop individual strands from being crushed under the screw.
What doesn't work
Tinning the wires (solder creeps under pressure and the terminal works loose), stripping with combination pliers (the strands break), stripping more than 12 mm (risk of a short circuit in the terminal). And: always close the cable grip over the fabric, never over the bare wires – it grips the sheath, not the copper.
All fabric cables in our range are H03VV-F cables with 0.75 mm² – the details above apply to all colours and patterns. For an overview: Fabric cable.