Hello

[Don M]

As long as the insulation is flexible, not cracked or broken it should be ok.
By the way, the bulb socket set up is designed to hold a white glass globe probably easily found on Ebay or at a lighting store. My guess is your light is probably a vintage 1970's era unit. You may have to break the bulb to remove it. Wear gloves & try wrapping a flat thin sponge around it to give more purchase. Hold on to the socket so it doesn't turn with the bulb. If the bulb breaks use a pliers to unscrew the base. I've even had to break out what's left carefully with a screw driver. Use care so you don't cut your hand or damage the socket. Good Luck!

[Texas_Ranger]

70s wire is usually PVC-sheathed and perfectly fine unless it overheated at some point in the past. Older wire (50s and earlier) was often rubber-sheathed and rubber doesn't age so well so it's usually due for a full replacement. The downside is that PVC is usually much stiffer than rubber and doesn't look as good on pendant lights or worse table lamps - you can't beat cloth-covered rubber for that purpose.

[phil]

you can get reproduction lamp wire if you want it. I often work on old radios and pick up the odd toaster or clothing iron as they often have authentic looking cords and if they have been put away in a drawer or something often they are fine. look and feel near the socket , often it would be hardened from heat there if anywhere and you might be able to cut 6 inches out or something. The other thing that happens to old wire is it gets blackened and oxidized. this can make it a bit harder to solder to , you can usually clean it with fine sandpaper just be careful not to loose too many strands. I still use lead solder and haven't had a lot of luck with the newer no lead solder. Ill buy the odd old roll at garage sales and such to obtain it. I also keep myself stocked with various colors of new repro cloth wire as part of restoration is making wiring safe.

rubber wire is weird. I find some that's old and fine and other ones turn to goo or get brittle. sometimes I find certain colors are rotting and others are ok. cloth covered wire seems to fare better but may also include rubber under the cloth. sometimes I resort to pulling heat shrink over wires or sections of wire if they are difficult to replace.
older stuff from the 30's often has a silk covering.
most heat shrink is a sort of plastic that you can shrink by heating with a lighter. there is also heat resistant covering that's often used in stoves and such. it doesn't shrink but can be slipped over the wire to protect from heat. usually it's a white braided material. the plastic heat shrink comes in colors but the most common is black.

I wouldn't hesitate to use repro wire but you can make a decision based on your observations. the most important thing is that it doesn't short out and if you make connections in the wire that it's done safely. not having splices is always best. most sockets have screws for the connection and its better to shorten up or replace the cord so you don't need to splice but in certain circumstances its not possible to access and you need to replace the socket or splice the wire. I think you probably still can get new porcelain sockets or if you switched to a newer metal one that' would be ok too. most lamps have common threads so you can mix and match parts. I agree about wrapping the bulb with a cloth and maybe using a leather glove to protect from breaking the bulb and cutting yourself. If you have one of those silicone rubber pads used for handling hot items in the kitchen or opening jars that might work well. you could probably use needle nose plyers to grab the edge of the bulb socket if it's broken.

I just did a quick search for repro lamp wire, there are lots of sources to choose from. maybe a white bulb is original but there are some neat repro filament bulbs and they look neat too.

a bit more on wire. it's always fine to install a larger diameter of wire, a lamp only requires enough current to light the bulb (s) so they aren't usually really heavy cords as compared to say a toaster or iron which draws a lot more power. the thickness of the wire ( not insulation) is classified as it's "guage" I wouldn't go a lot heavier or it might be ugly are hard to fit it in. You'd probably be hard pressed to find lamp cord that wouldn't be appropriate. if it's too thin it can generate heat but it's doubtful you'll have that problem with a lamp but good to know if you plan on replacing cors on other appliances. you;ll see that sort of issue if you put a couple long cords together outdoors. the length of the wire is also a consideration but again I don't think youll have an issue with it I just thought I'd mention it. In certain cases one might be concerned about the voltage drop ( or power loss due to a long length of wire) and a thicker wire will have less voltage drop. really not too concerning for your lamp just FYI

https://www.google.ca/search?q=reproduc ... jwPD3pnIBw

phil