LF,

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions. About 50 years ago I was 
thoroughly trained in workshop practice by Standard Telephones & Cables. One of 
my mentors was G3HJL.  He made sure I learned the “scrape it off” method of 
dealing with enamelled wire.

My original posting came about because I noticed that a recently acquired reel 
of enamelled copper wire seemed to have a coating which was of lighter colour 
and more shiny than I was  familiar with.  I tried soldering it with my normal 
temperature controlled iron (Maplin BP53) but this was not very successful. I 
do have an instant heat iron which is labelled 150 W (I don't believe it – I 
think it is probably 50 W) so I will try that.

73
John F5VLF
PS Victor: what do the words "posijn" and "povin" mean please?  My (small) 
Dutch-English dictionary does not contain them