Cordage contest

[pitdog]

The natural cordage I use by far the most are Cedar roots. I just find these so great for virtually every application be it small roots for traps etc to thick monster roots for shelters or holding a raft together.

Anyway I decided to use some today to demonstrate how strong these are.

This is what I typically look for when harvesting the roots, a dead tree on it's side with plenty of exposed roots along it's length~

By pitdog2010 at 2011-08-15

I took the roots home today to prepare them. First of all I strip away the bark with my knife, this takes a little time but I think it's worth the effort. I then work my way along each root giving it a half twist to loosen up the fibres, you kinda feel it click as you do this~

By Pitdog2010 at 2011-08-15

This is my three lengths of roots all stripped and loosened up~

By Pitdog2010 at 2011-08-15

It's then just a case of anchoring one end and joining the roots with a basic braid, you should end up with something like this~

By pitdog2010 at 2011-08-15

I wasn't sure just how to show how strong this is so I got my kid to take a pic of me holding up 88 lbs in weight, I'm 100% confident I could have hung another 45lb on there if not two more !

By Pitdog2010 at 2011-08-15

As I mentioned before I also use thinner roots for traps such as this one I did~

By pitdog2010 at 2011-07-19

And this one~

By pitdog2010 at 2011-07-05

I'll maybe try and make some different cordage before the contest end.

I tested it out one more time, this time I had 175 lbs on and there was still no signs of it giving...only in my back....try doing that with ya nettles, LOL !

By pitdog2010 at 2011-08-15

Made some more today using a type of palm that I have growing in the garden~

By pitdog2010 at 2011-08-19

I managed to lift close to 30 lbs when I just looped it through a shackle and lifted it by hand but once I knotted it for a pic it felt like it would snap so I doubled it up~

By pitdog2010 at 2011-08-19

This time it held the weight very easily, I'm guessing I could have added another 10 lbs no problem~

By pitdog2010 at 2011-08-19

By pitdog2010 at 2011-08-19

 

[Rotte]

Excellent!

 

[RescueRiley]

Here's about 15 foot of cattail cordage I made using a reverse wrap in an attempt to catch some blue gills on the fly
here's the starting material Green cattail leaves..

(if you use them green) its sort of a one day use thing.. If you dry them out first you;ll get better cordage.. but it;s noce to know you have easy access to something that can produce passable cordage.

here's a more detailed view of the cordage

here's an imrpoptu fly made from a feather and adhered with pitch glue

almost forgot the hook made from a black locust thorn

I thought the setup looked cool but no suprise that I didn;t catch any blue gills oh well it was fun

and welcome back brother.

 

[CoyotePhysics]

I'm in. I've been away from the BladeForums for a while (bought a house) and I'm excited to see a skills contest. I've never made cord before, but before RescueRileys contests I had never built a figure-4 trap or started a fire using only natural tinder and a ferro-rod. This should be fun!

 

[schmittie]

What a cool idea Rotte. Thanks for the contest.

I have never made cordage before. Ever since I saw this thread I have been trying to come up with an idea of a natural material that is convenient for me to get. Well, since I live in town, my choices are limited. But the other night, while watering the garden, I had an idea! What about corn? Hey, looks good to me! Use what you've got, right?

So I cut a few leaves and began peeling them apart in to strands about 3/16" wide. That left me with a nice pile of natural fiber to work with.

Next step- start twisting!

In no time I had about a 20" long piece of cord. I know that this isn't very strong. I had to be very careful when twisting it so that I didn't keep breaking it in two.
Since it did seem fragile, I went ahead and made another.

Next, I twisted them together. Two is better than one, right?

Since corn leaves are fragile, I would guess the strength to be around 5 lbs. Sorry, I didn't have the heart to break it to find out. But I do have a use for it. The cord broke that holds the snuffer to one of our tiki torches. This seemed a perfect way to use my corn cordage!

I'm sure someone will come along and school me on the proper way to make durable cordage out of corn much better than what I did. But hey, I learned a lot and now I value store bought rope even more.

 

[CoyotePhysics]

Here is my first entry, I haven't had time to head to my favorite piece of public land, so i went to my back yard and found some wild grasses in a corner (this way if my wife asks what I've been doing I can say, "weeding the back yard.") In northern Utah similar grasses are the most abundant type of wild vegetation, so although they may not be ideal, they are very practical.

The first step was to strip of the leaves and the heads. I'm interested in the fibers making up the stalks because they are the strongest in the plant.

Next, I begin to crush them to break them down. I admit that pvc and 2x4s aren't the most "natural" tools, but you usually can find or make something equivalent in the wild. I've heard people talk about "pounding" stalks to get to the fibers, but a good piece of advice I stumbled across was to use something like a rolling pin.

What I was really trying to do with rolling the stalks out was to break up the pulpy material that binds the fibers together. Dunking the bundle in some water, or simply pouring some water on the bundle as it was rolled was a good way to flush out the pulp. This is also why I got rid of the leaf blades. Although they have fibers in them they have a higher level of pulp and they tend to stick to the roller.

Once the bundle had become relatively flexible I rolled it by hand perpendicular to the dirrection of the fibers. I would also twist the bundle lightly, not enough to start snapping anything, but enought to loosen them up a little.

I then pressed out as much moisture as I could and then began to reverse-wrap the bundle. I think the reverse wrap is the probably the most important thing to learn when it comes to making natural cordage since it allows you to make a long rope out of relatively short fibers. The most helpful resource I found was a video posted here. The fibers dried very quickly, and by the time I was splicing in my second or third smaller bundle of fibers I was moistening my fingers to help get a better grip when twisting.

I ended up with just under 6' of twine from my origional bundle. This would be good for lashing or wrappings, but not so much for holding much weight because of the variations in thickness.

I decided to wrap the twine over on itself again to create a stronger and more uniform cord. I ended up with 28".

I couldn't find my weights (even though I use them on a regular basis) so I had to improvise.

The cord held bag containing a five pound bag of corn meal, a five pound bag of rice, and a three quart jug of apple cider (about 6 lbs) when I heard a couple of snaps. I decided not to test the cord untill failure, but I would put its strength as about 12 lbs for a static load, and 5 lbs for a dynamic load. It's strong enought that I would feel confident using it to set a trap or attaching a piece of gear to a pack or belt.

Thanks for the challenge, I just did something I've never been successfull at in the past, so I feel like I've already won. (But please keep me in the drawing!)

CP

 

[Shotgun]

Very cool prize and contest.

 

[Jeremy Barnard]

Here is a picture of the type of plant i used. Yucca.

Here I'm seperating the fibers with a rock. You can see the untouched one above

Double twisting them together

Here it is finished. Came out at about 30". I could see using something like this as a bow string. I tested it and it held 40# so far. I'll do more until it breaks.

 

[pitdog]

Some great posts so far everyone, I've added to mine save including another post.

 

[Captain28]

I decided to try making twisted cordage from some sawgrass growing out back.
The only real trick to working with sawgrass is to remember that the "teeth" all face the tip...you don't want to run your arm along it the wrong way.

Anyways, I started by splitting the blades lengthwise. Then I just did a reverse twist.

Ended up with about 2.5 feet total, fashioned it into a makeshift lanyard. Not too shabby for my first attempt at twisting some cordage. Its alot stronger than I expected, I'll try to take some pics of a weight test sometime this weekend.

 

[pitdog]

I decided to try making twisted cordage from some sawgrass growing out back.
The only real trick to working with sawgrass is to remember that the "teeth" all face the tip...you don't want to run your arm along it the wrong way.

Anyways, I started by splitting the blades lengthwise. Then I just did a reverse twist.

Ended up with about 2.5 feet total, fashioned it into a makeshift lanyard. Not too shabby for my first attempt at twisting some cordage. Its alot stronger than I expected, I'll try to take some pics of a weight test sometime this weekend.

Bonus points for knife content !:thumbup:

Just noticed nearly every post has knife content eh !!!!

 

[Captain28]

Bonus points for knife content !:thumbup:

Just noticed nearly every post has knife content eh !!!!

Haha! Well this is Blade Forums!

 

[Bo T]

I'm in.

If there are others out there who are cordage challenged like myself, I found useful information on Old Jimbos website and followed a link to here: http://chrismolloy.com/www/p132 . Old Jimbo has a PDF file with the same info.

I am going to make lariat braided grass cord. I'll post some pictures and analysis later.

I spent a couple of hours Friday night and Saturday morning learning how to make a lariat braid. Today (Sunday) I harvested some tall grass and and tried it out.



I found what appears to be 2 types of grass. I chose the grass on the left which seems greener.



Here is the raw material after cleaning



And here is the lariat braid tied off to the handle of the test apparatus. Does not look anything like the one I made Saturday morning.



I tested the strength of the rope by adding water to the bucket. 1 strand broke at 6 1/2 pounds and the rope broke at 8 pounds.
It might have been better to make a 2 strand rope as it probably would have been as strong and might have taken less time.
Uses: since this cord is so weak and dries out fast it is probably suitable for keeping something together while you connect something with a stronger fastener. i.e. hold one side of the top pole in place while you drill a hole and put a peg in the other side.

 

[Rotte]

Great entries so far. Good to see some guys trying this for the first time. I'm working on a wool I cord, but I also want to try out a reverse wrap cord made with cottonwood bark too. That'll have to wait until I get back from fishing...

 

[kgd]

Okay, here is my go at the contest generously being sponsored by Rotte - Great Idea for a skills contest BTW.

Today, I went to a local field and came upon some stinging nettle. Better wear gloves before harvesting!

After carting my harvest home, I then de-leafed the stems and made sure to rub the stems down with my gloves to get rid of any more needles.

Lightly pounded the stems to split and separate it into quarters.

Then peeled the outer bark. Lesson learned, it pays to take your time on this part and don't get to cocky trying to pluck out too big of pieces of pith.

Then I proceeded to reverse wrap the fibers. I made about 6' of two strand twist, then folded it in half to double it up. This was all done while wet and it would have paid to allow the fibers to dry first and then re-soak them right before twisting.

For the breakage test, I tied it to my fishing scale and pulled until it broke. The picture taken below indicates 14#, but I clocked 16 # 8Oz just before it snapped. Not the best on the weight test, but I have my ideas on how to improve the strands during processing.

 

[dipbait]

Ive been trying to come up with some new things. Collected a bunch of corn silk today , thought that I could do something with it but failed. Made a cord out of Virginia Creeper but it was just like my other vine cord only not as strong . I"ll keep plugging away and might get in another entry before the deadline.

 

[Arathol]

Since all the responses so far have been vegetation based cord, I figured I'd go in another direction.


First, the raw materials - some dried sinew from the rear legs of a deer, not unlike this one

something to pound it out with and a small anvil to hammer on. The poll of a small hatchet will work, a ball pein works better.

Pound it out and the fibers will separate and can be then stripped out

Soak the fibers in a bowl of water (or do it the traditional way and chew on them, the saliva reacts and makes a good bonding agent. It doesn't taste half bad actually) and wrap them into a cord. This one was a reverse wrap, its a bow string about 42" long and 1/8" thick, rubbed with hide glue. Its plenty strong, at least as strong as modern bowstring material, probably a lot stronger. I have not been able to break it.

This is a small snakeskin bow with a sinew string and backing, limbs wrapped with sinew

smaller bits of sinew wrapping on the end of a reed arrow, secured with hide glue, and securing the fletching

 

[kgd]

Very cool Arathol!

 

[pitdog]

Okay, here is my go at the contest generously being sponsored by Rotte - Great Idea for a skills contest BTW.

Today, I went to a local field and came upon some stinging nettle. Better wear gloves before harvesting!

I don't think they are stinging nettles Ken, definitely not like any I've seen anyway ?

 

[Captain28]

Very nice Arathol. I was hoping someone would show a sinew bowstring. :thumbup: