Cordage, anyone?

C

CanDo

Joined
Mar 10, 2006
Messages
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Hi all,

What's your experience with making cordage been? Assuming we have ample paracord with us at all times, it's not the most important thing, but otherwise.... it is a hugely important survival skill. Does anyone have stories/tips/techniques/photos? I'd like to write an article on cordage in Klippe as well as learn personally, so all input would be great.

Right now, I'm decent enough to make enough line for a couple snares if I had the right grasses available. In the fall, I played with some milkweed stalks that had gone to seed with a decent amount of success. Can't experiment right now though, as everything is dead and/or covered with snow.

Regards,
CanDo
 
I recently made a bit of cordage (12") out of some agave cactus and it was surprisingly strong, no one in my office can break it by hand. My hang up is on adding in the extra fibers to continue the strand and get a usable length. I think I know how to do it, but still need to try it out. One thing at a time.
 
CanDo said:
Hi all,

What's your experience with making cordage been? Assuming we have ample paracord with us at all times, it's not the most important thing, but otherwise.... it is a hugely important survival skill.
Regards,
CanDo
Click to expand...


I think it could be viewed as the MOST important skill. How many can make a fire with firebow? How many can make a firebow using natural cordage? Not many.

The holly grail of survival is the ability to produce fire using NOTHING but natural materials. No modern tools are to be used in the construction.

Not as easy as you think. So yes I think cordage construction is a very important skill.

Skam
 
Since I broke my legs in August I have had limited time to practice survival skills. One thing I have learned is cordage making after seeing a couple of videos on Youtube. This creeps a lot of people out but the medium I learned on was my hair! I have long hair and shed a lot so that is what I practiced on. It is incredibly light and as strong as heck! I personally use double twist technique where I hold both strands in my hands and twist them in opposite directions, then pinch the twist in my lips, and twist again. I am still not the best at splicing in new lengths but this is one medium that gives strands of a uniform length and is something useful that comes off of brushes (provided your wife will allow you to try).
Just my limited experience but I have made a rope at least 20' long now.
 
Nice, thanks for the replies. Anyone else? I would expect this to be a much more widely known skill....
 
Doc-Canada springs to mind as someone here that's very good with cordage. I've seen some pictures of various natural cordages he's made, and some nets that he's done. Very good looking stuff. Uniform throughout, clean splices, etc. I haven't seen him around in a while though(not that I've been around much myself).

I personally wouldn't call the cordage I make great, but it serves it's purpose when I find the right materials. I generally use Mojave Yucca or Date Palm leaves. The date palm averages about 15-30lbs. of tensile strength in 1/4" and 3/16" diameters. The yucca is nigh unbreakable, and I don't have any offhand numbers for tensile strength. Conservatively I'd estimate 50+lb. though for a 1/4" strand, well layed and spliced. Add a bit if treated with beeswax or some other method.

My advice would be to just dive in headlong and try various materials and techniques(hand/finger twisting, thigh rolling, etc.). Long fibers do work best though. As for making useable lengths splicing isn't that hard really and after the cord is done, a quick pass through and open flame will make it look cleaner.

I'll try to give a brief explanation on splicing. Assuming normal 2 strand S-ply cordage. I like to twist my first roll of fibers up so that the "kink" that develops is offcenter of the material. i.e. It's not a perfect V, this makes splicing easier, since running out on both sides, means splicing at the same time. Which is not only harder, it makes your cordage weaker.
Twisting as normal, work your way down the material until one side only has about 3-4 inches left. Open up and sort of untwist these last few inches.

Grab your next bundle of fibers and lay them accross so that they overlap in these last few inches. You'll probably have to thin out and remove some fibers from the new bundle to keep a uniform diameter. Then just retwist the overlapped portion to the right as if you were starting a new piece. Continue laying the strands and repeat with the opposite side when necessary.

Hopefully this helps to clarify some things a bit. If not, feel free to ask for elaboration and if I can, I'll try to better articulate it. Barring that I'd have to find free time and steal the wife's camera to better illustrate it hehe. Good luck with it, it's a wonderful skill to have and own.


Gautier
 
A buddy showed me how to make cordage, I have made numerous short pieces out of yucca and played with a few other fibers. The longest single piece was about 10' long by ~1/4". Standing on one end and pulling up with both hands I could not break it. I used some of it to make a sling.
Preparing the fibers is half the work. For the yucca I first scraped it with the back of a knife, mainly just to break the waxy skin, for some plants this step may be accomplished better by crushing. "Retting" can be done in different ways. I only soaked the yucca for an hour or two in plain water and the pulp really loosed up. You could add a tiny amount of chlorine bleach, or even better make some lye water by boiling hardwood ashes. After retting scrape it again untill the fibers are as clean you like.
Twining is pretty easy to learn, but not easy to master(I know I haven't). Laying in a few fibers every couple of twists will give the most consistency (and therefore strength).
 
I 1st learned on Yucca with Christopher Nygeres in LA using Yucca. Processing was minimal, we bent it in half and peeled of sections which were then peeled down finer as needed. Then started using the reverse twist, and I was freaking hooked on cordage. I have had some success with wild flax (grows like a weed around my place) and Pampas Grass (ditto). My son regularly does 10+ feet out of flax, but the pampas grass takes a little more time to hadle if you want sturdy cord.
 
skammer said:
I think it could be viewed as the MOST important skill. How many can make a fire with firebow? How many can make a firebow using natural cordage? Not many.

The holly grail of survival is the ability to produce fire using NOTHING but natural materials. No modern tools are to be used in the construction.

Not as easy as you think. So yes I think cordage construction is a very important skill.

Skam
Click to expand...

I agree it is in line with a few other as one of the most important skills. It also is one I know the lease about:o.

I certainly could use some education and practice.
 
I was lucky enough to learn basic cordage making from Christopher Nyerges. Seeing it in person makes it extremely easy to learn. In photos or description alone, it's harder to get. On the Hoods Woods video on weapons (I think it's volume 5 or 6?) Ron shows how to do it, and it's pretty easy to get.
 
Like some of the others, my experience with cordage has mainly been in Florida and Arizona, using cabbage palm and various agaves. Neither of which can be reliably found in the Northeast. I've also tried using cattails in AZ, but failed miserably. Up in Idaho I've had a bit of luck using fireweed, which is not particluarly easy to work with, but very abundant.

One thing that often gets overlooked in making cordage is initial preparation of the fibers (fresh vs. dried, vs. soaked, then dried, etc.), and how much that will affect the strength and flexibility of the final product. Perhaps there are good sources available on this topic, but I've not seen them.
 
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