I was confused reading the comments in the email sent to me (no pix). What are illustrated in @
SamSpade1941's post aren't cable ends but ferrules (housing ferrules, I suppose to be totally pedantic). Those are, specifically, step down ferrules. When the talk was of "cable ends" I was envisioning the little aluminum caps which are crimped onto the end of the cables to keep them from fraying. I couldn't understand how lack of that allowed the cable to slice through the housing.