Hike and yucca use

Yucca grows like wildfire in just about every where I've been in Southern California. It is a really useful plant from food source, super strong cordage, soap, and here as a quick needle and thread.

Scraping the waxy outer coating off the leaves makes the fibers easier to pull apart. This coating also has a lot of saponin in it and makes a lot of soapy lather.


A little more scraping and pounding with the back of my knife. This is the main reason I like a square spine on a blade. It gets a little firesteel use to, but scraping wood and plants is a lot more common for me.


Then it can be easily peeled down. I just kept peeling until I had a relatively thin strand still attached to the point. These suckers are crazy needle sharp too!


I whittled down a little bit to thin out the "needle" portion. If your careful, you could easily use this to sew a button back on and this stuff holds like iron.


I tested it out on heavier material and it worked no problem


And it's not a hike for me without doing a little rock scrambling

 

I have seen some really amazing quivers that were made by native tribes over a hundred years ago and they are still in good shape. The stalks can also be used as water carriers too. it's really a tough plant with tons of uses! :thumbup:

 

The knife is one I had made by James Sanders, here is a quick review and more pics from a few months back http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=773813&highlight=james+sanders
Really handy knife that I use quite a bit :thumbup: