Insulated copper wire grades: #1 vs #2.

What insulated copper wire looks like when we buy it

These are real loads Sonny bought — not stock photos. Insulated wire comes in as cable coils, cutoffs, and gaylords — bought on copper recovery, never stripped by the seller.

What "recovery" means

Insulated wire isn't priced on what it weighs — it's priced on how much copper is inside the jacket. "Recovery" is simply that percentage: a wire with 70% recovery is 70% copper and 30% insulation by weight. Thick copper under a thin jacket recovers high; fine strands buried in heavy jacketing recover low. The buyer pays for the copper, not the plastic. See how copper scrap pricing works for the full picture.

#1 insulated: Druid

The trade code name for #1 insulated copper wire is Druid: No. 1 bare copper wire (the Barley standard — bare, uncoated, unalloyed), not smaller than 16 B&S gauge unless buyer and seller agree, with various types of insulation. Yard shorthand puts #1 insulated at about 75%+ recovery — ISRI itself sets no fixed percentage; it's bought on sample or recovery. Typical Druid: heavy THHN and building wire, Romex and branch-circuit cable, service-entrance cable, thick feeder cable stripped from panels and switchgear.

#2 insulated: Droid

The code name for #2 insulated copper wire is Droid: No. 2 copper wire (the Birch standard) with various types of insulation, sold on a sample or recovery basis — jelly-wire acceptance is by agreement. (Note: Maize is not #2 insulated — that's the code for nickel-silver clippings. Droid is the current code.) Yard shorthand puts #2 insulated at about 50–69% recovery. Typical Droid: appliance and extension cords, low-voltage and thermostat wire, thin-jacketed small wire, and heavily jacketed or double-insulated cable where the jacket outweighs the copper inside.

Bought on recovery or sample

Nobody guesses at insulated wire — the buyer cuts a sample, weighs the copper out of it, or works from known recovery figures for common cable types. Big feeders test high: copper is the bulk of the weight (a 500 kcmil conductor runs roughly 95% copper by weight even in XHHW-2 insulation). That's also why photos work so well: send the wire as-is, name the cable type if you know it, and the grade gets set from there.

Never strip your wire

Stripping is slow, dangerous work — knives slip, and hours of stripping buy you nothing, because insulated wire is priced on its recovery either way. The grade was set the day the cable was manufactured: stripping doesn't turn Droid into Druid, it just costs you an afternoon and maybe a fingertip. Send it as-is, get graded honestly. For the full case against the stripper, see should I strip copper wire.

Keep reading the copper dictionary.

Copper Wire Dictionary — the full hub of grade-by-grade guides. Copper Grades Explained — the whole ladder in one place. Should I Strip Copper Wire — why the answer is no. Bare Bright Copper — what the copper inside is graded against once stripped.

Spin it: the copper inside the jacket.

Insulated wire sells on what's inside the jacket — not the jacket. Spin a cross-section with the insulation pulled back and see the copper the grade is really about.

Insulated wire questions, answered.