I recently ordered new brake cables without giving any thought to the type of ends on the new cable. New cables are Shimano, existing brake levers are Mountain.
Can I make them work? I expect the cables to be delivered today.

Shimano isn't descriptive enough, it's just a brand name.

Essentially there's mountain brake cables and road brake cables. You can't really substitute one for the other. If you ordered the wront ones, you're out of luck. On the plus side, you have a 50% chance they'll be what you need.

Thanks for the reply.
My brake levers are mountain, (barrel) style ends. From the description online of what I ordered was "single ended Shimano/Sram"

All "single-ended" means is that you ordered either mountain or road cables. In contrast, some cables come with mountain barrel on one end and road-type on the other and you just cut off whichever you don't need. These would be called universal brake cables. For single ended like these -- https://www.bikebling.com/Jagwire-Sli...re-3500mtn.htm -- you need to specify mountain or road.

I think I am getting myself confused. I had seen a picture online of what was called a "Shimano cable end" it was the pear shaped road end. I ordered Jagwire Ripcord cables there was no choice on end type but the Jagwire site list the Ripcord as a "Mountain" cable. I should be good to go.

Thanks for the help

All you do is wait til the cable is delivered today and see what you have, why make a problem when you may not have a problem.

You still have 50/50 chances of getting the right cable, but the wrong one won't work.

Forget about brand. Think of cables as mtb/cruiser for upright bars, which usually have a barrel end with the wire leaving out the side. Or road, for drop bar levers which are usually an egg shapped end, with the wire exiting out the end.

There are variations, but at least egg vs barrel will get you to the right ballpark.

New cables arrived and are exactly what I needed, a lot of worrying based off of an internet pic for nothing.
Now to get my frame back from being refinished and get this thing back together.

Thanks all

If the cables you ordered said Mountain and you have straight handlebars, they are the right ones. Road cables are meant for the turned down handlebars. They are all standard between the two. It doesn't matter if you have SRAM or Shimano brakes on straight handlebars, they are interchangeable.