Cordage contest

[pitdog]

Man this competition has sent me cordage crazy !!!

I decided to try my hand at Nettle cordage~

These are the stems all stripped of leaves and stingers~

My first Nettle cordage~

I used it to set up a Promontory peg deadfall trap, worked great and seemed pretty strong stuff !

I then decided to make some using the inner bark from a Cedar tree, this was tricky stuff to work with as it made my hands very sticky !!!

I made some more the same day using some small Cedar roots, I love these, probably my favourite natural cordage~

Very strong stuff, could be used for many applications !

And finally today I decided to make some using some ordinary grass~

I had to be careful with this stuff as it tended to tear if you over twisted it. It still produced some decent cordage though and was stronger than I thought it would be !

Thanks again for this contest as I've really enjoyed finding out what works and what doesn't....Probably my favourite contest to date !!!!

 

[crazyengineer]

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

you my friend have some skill with making bows (if you made it, judging by the string, you did)

i would love to be able to do that with wood, i love the snakeskin backing, though i always wanted a recurve with it

ps: you may want to check out the bowyers den, judging by your skill, they would love to have you

by the way, I'm in

 

[Rotte]

That cedar root cord looks outstanding Pit.

...and I gotta agree with crazy, that tendon bowstring is off the hook.

 

[CUTS LIKE A KRIS]

Hmmmm...... I guess I missed a great thread until today! I will gross some out, and not use a knife for my entry, but I feel that many are overlooking a great resource for cordage, abundant everywhere you find groups of people, and the strongest I've come across in my rookie twisting time. I should have time to get some done tonight.

Edit in:

I made my cord tonight. It took about an hour to twist while watching MMA and having a couple Wild Rose Wraspberry Ale's. I need no knife and only one semi-specialized tool.

Here is the first ever cord/rope I made by twisting:

Here is tonight's progression:
Starting out

Preformed:

6', one hour later

I learned using my own hair from a brush as I learned while recovering from broken legs. It is readily available for most of us, fairly weatherproof, UV and moisture resistant and very strong. I'm not good at keeping the strands the same diameter, so strength is variable, but I have used it in the field to do quick knots and binding with what I can pull loose from my ponytail. I will try a strength test with it tomorrow, I have doubled it up on itself again 3/16-1/4" thick, 2'8" long, I am guessing it will hold well over 100#.

I want to try hollyhocks later if I get the chance. Bed now.

 

[pitdog]

Not an entry !

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

Just as an update I tried making some cordage today using some dried dead leaves from the same palm. They appeared to produce a better cordage but I really struggled when it came to adding in more sections !

 

[sadiejane]

cool contest. thanks for the opportunity and challenge.
this is my first ever cordage attempt.
have a bunch of cedar that i plan on doing more in the very near future. t
his contest will motivate to do it sooner than later. a great skill to have.

this is a cottonwood i found on a hike.


gathered some of the inner bark(along with some red osier for arrow shafts)



this is my first bit of cordage from found material



about 18" of cordage. sorry, have no clue what the stregth is. but i could easily pull the original strips untwisted apart. i could not, with my bare hands, pull the cordage apart.

thanks again.

will now have to get to that cedar bark.

 

[sadiejane]

posted by by crazyengineer
"ps: you may want to check out the bowyers den, judging by your skill, they would love to have you"

can someone direct me to the bowyers den? i did a search and was not able to find.
thanks!

 

[jcl-MD]

# 3 for me!!

Wild grape vine


9-2-11 fam campout 004 by jclservices, on Flickr


9-2-11 fam campout 005 by jclservices, on Flickr


9-2-11 fam campout 002 by jclservices, on Flickr


9-2-11 fam campout 001 by jclservices, on Flickr

First test (small strand)


9-2-11 fam campout 009 by jclservices, on Flickr

Poped at


9-2-11 fam campout 010 by jclservices, on Flickr

Next (Big strand)


9-2-11 fam campout 013 by jclservices, on Flickr


9-2-11 fam campout 014 by jclservices, on Flickr


9-2-11 fam campout 015 by jclservices, on Flickr

Maxed out the scale 55lbs.



9-2-11 fam campout 016 by jclservices, on Flickr

THANKS for the FUN!!!

 

[2k3gti18t]

Wow this is just an amazing thread. Im in for later, out to look for possible fibers.

 

[scouter27]

Today, I went for a walk intent on making some cord for this contest. I had never been in this area before, but I did find what I believe to be some Japanese Knot Weed. I have never worked with this material before, but I am pretty happy with the results.

I didn't think to start taking pictures until I had already started, so...

The Gransfors Bruks mini hatchet did an alright job in breaking up the stalk into long, fibrous strands. between the steel and the rock I used though, it was a little hard on the material, resulting on a less than neat finished product. However, in the end, it worked and it was fast and that's what's most important to me.

I then folded it in the middle did a reverse twist to make the final cord.

Then, I wanted to see how it would handle being tied in a knot.

It was not all that flexible, but it did hold well enough here that it could be used for shelter building. As for strength, when tying it off, I pulled as hard as I could on the knot with no outright breaking. It's pretty strong, stronger than I expected even.

It wasn't all that time consuming to make either, but a little messy, as the stalks are filled with sap. No allergic reaction so far, but I don't react to poison ivy either. It was imported as an ornamental plant, so it's probably fairly safe though.

I have two more ideas for cordage, and will hopefully get to try them later this week.

 

[kgd]

Keep the entry's coming guys. This really is a great thread. I've already finished my entries but I did try both cattail and milkweed this weekend. The cattail made a tighter and prettier weave but did not have that much strength. The milkweed just simply impressed the hell out of me. I used only one plant, and weaved its outer bark into a two strand reverse twist. Doubled it on itself and twisted the two pieces together. I tied a bowline at each end and simply could not break it on my own strength. I was at my buddies cottage and we were drinking and it soon became a game of how can break the milkweed string. Nobody could! Milkweed is my GOTO cordage plant from now on!

Again thanks to Rotte for the inspiration and I love seeing all the new ideas. JCL-MD, where from the vine did you harvest the fibers? Joe and I usually use the outerbark as our tinder but it is usually dry and a bit brittle. I would love to hear more about how you processed the fibers and from what part of the vine you took them from.

Thanks.

 

[scouter27]

Again thanks to Rotte for the inspiration and I love seeing all the new ideas. JCL-MD, where from the vine did you harvest the fibers? Joe and I usually use the outerbark as our tinder but it is usually dry and a bit brittle. I would love to hear more about how you processed the fibers and from what part of the vine you took them from.

Thanks.

The outer bark of wild grape vine makes excellent cordage. It's my standard material, actually, because it's so easy to harvest and work with for me. It's also what I learned to make cordage with though.

 

[jcl-MD]

Ken
My 5 yr old was playing on the vine for about 30 mins before I pulled off the what I would call inned bark.
The outter bark above CB reach was the dark brown flakey bark,and where he was playing was a pale redish color.
As or processing I just pulled off a strip about a 3' section and twisted it into cordage.
I hope this makes sense.
THANKS!

 

[pitdog]

Not an entry !

Maybe someone can help me out here, I was making some more Palm leaf cordage yeterday and found that the cordage kept getting thicker as I added strands in, any idea why this happens as I can't remember it doing so with the Cedar roots or nettles ?

You can see the thickness difference in this pic. I took these pics today and the cordage seems to have shrank a little and loosened up as it's dried. It still appeared to be very strong though and I was unable to snap it.

 

[pitdog]

After my frustration with the palm cordage the other day I decided to go back to what worked best for me....Cedar root cordage. When I made some today I did it slightly differently in that I split a section of root into quarters lengthwise, that is I first split it in half and then split the two halves in half. I then twisted up two lengths together at a time.

Now onto the reason I needed the cordage~

Made sure my notches were a nice tight fit~

And after using my cordage here is the finished Apache throwing star~

The cordage allowed me to cinch it up real tight~

I then coloured the wood a little with some Oregon grape juice, Maisy approved of this and gave it her lick of approval !

As I already have 3 entries in I'll add this here~

When I took the dogs today I came upon some rushes, maybe Cattail stalks and decided to twist these up and make some cordage as I hiked. Eventually I ran out of stalks and there were no new ones to be seen. I thought to myself why not mix different plants, so I grabbed some tall grass type rush's and started twisting them in with the Cattails.

Anyway what I ended up with was around 3 feet of tough if not very pretty cordage~

Good enough for an improvised dog leash~

And plenty strong enough for lashing a shelter together etc~

 

[Nobody]

Wow, some really nice and educational stuff here. I'm in! I hope to get outdoors this weekend some and I'll tinker with some cordage.

 

[rainsparrow]

Awesome, great excuse to get out outdoors and check out some new ideas for cordage. I'm In!

 

[sadiejane]

morning all. well, back to the drawing board. the eastern red cedar bark didnt work as well as i expected. still have it soaking, but seems it will need a beating(or chewing...) to get it to cordage making consistency. in the meantime, looking around the area for other things to make cordage with.

 

[kgd]

Hi folks,

Was hanging with Iz Turley and company this weekend in Indiana. Iz had pulled some fibers from a dead piece of Tulip Popular (we don't have them around my parts) and braided it into a really strong piece of cordage. Iz commented that there aren't too many materials from dead trees that can be made into cordage and I have to concur. So if you have tulip popular around you give it a go. Terry Barney also was able to strip the bark readily from live trees (designated to be cut down) and it has some great uses.

 

[machine26]

Awesome thread, Im in. Hopefully get outside by this weekend, need to practice this stuff.