True, you'll find a straight length of cable inside a cable end that's been swaged on (those ends will be steel, by the way, *not* lead).
On the other hand, shops used to make their own cables by soldering ends (usually brass, maybe lead) onto bare cable -- the inner cable of a terminated cable that's made this way *must* be crushed/flared at the ends or there's a very good chance it'll pull out.
I just threw up an instruction sheet onto Wool Jersey that shows this alternate process.
http://www.wooljersey.com/
or... http://tinyurl.com/
Maybe there's another process where metal is actually directly cast over a cable end.
Scott Minneman San Francisco, CA, USA
-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] On Behalf Of Dickey Sent: Monday, November 10, 2008 6:47 PM To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: [CR]Re: cable end
Take one and grind the head down. Nothing but a straight cable inside.
Dickey Greer
West Monroe,La