I'm rewiring a couple of brass wall sconces for my powder room. Each sconce has two metal arms terminating in candelabra sockets.

The first one went OK with a little wax on the wire to ease it through, but when I started rewiring the second sconce, I found that I couldn't get the new wire (lamp cord) through the narrow arm. There appeared to be a blockage inside, and a closer inspection revealed a small patch of what looked like a brazed repair on the arm where a hole was made and then closed up. The old wire was hard to get out, which should have tipped me off to the problem. I'm thinking this was because the original assembler or previous re-wirer had the same problem.

I thought I could open up and then patch the hole and touch it up with metallic paint or something after wiring. I used a dremel tool to remove the patch and what appeared to be a blob of excess brass under it, but I still can't get the wire through. There appears to be another narrow spot further along the arm, which is about 7 inches or so long and "S" shaped. The second arm on this sconce has a similar patch on it, but I haven't removed the old (still working) wire yet.

I'm now sorry I ever started rewiring, as they worked OK before, but I'm redecorating in there and thought replacing the old wire would be safer.

Is there another type of wire that is narrower that can be used to wire these? Any suggestions on how to get this fixed would be appreciated.

Thanks

Jo