Stupid wiring question

OK, trying to fix my headphones, the wiring's gone in the minijack (when you bend the the cable protection it cuts out). So I got another jack and snipped the old one off. But instead of finding nice wires to connect to, I'm confronted by these metalic looking shield-like wires with fibre inners. I can't solder to these, so:

What are these wires and

How do I join them to new the nire jack with copper wires?

 

Ok ...which head phones ?

I'm tempted to say don't try to connect the shield ...well not at first

how many wires besides the shield are you left with ? if you have three or four ...all should be well ....two could be a problem.

do you know which wires go to which headphone driver ?

the jack should have been wired so that the tip is left small ring is right and the body ground ...

eventually you will need to connect the shield to ground not easy if it doesn't have a drain wire....

the signal wires should be insulated in white and red and tend to be very thin ! if you have pairs of twisted wires one will be signal and the other ground in each pair .....if theres an uninsulated wire this will be the shield drain .....

how does that stack up with what you have ?

 

Bose headphones...
well I ended up soldering straight to what I called the shield wires, it seemed the solder iron burnt straight through the coating and soldered fine, then to the jack leads, similar colours even. All working fine now.
Thanks though