Making Cordage

L

lumpymike1

Joined
Sep 3, 2004
Messages
476
Hey all,
I have a question on how to make cordage out of natural materials. In a perfect world I will always have some paracord with me, but I still haven't found a perfect world and my wife probably wouldn't let me move there even if I did.
SOOOO Any tips/advice/resources on how to make natural cordage? I live in the south west (San Diego) so I would be really intersted in materals there, but I don't want to limit any ideas either.

Thanks

Mike
 
Trying to remember the name of the books we've got.... Something about primative wilderness survival, can't remember the title or author. But in it, he talks about different cordage. My wife and I have taken yucca plant, stripped the needles and twist braided them. Alternating lengths and braiding in new strings. Then let it dry. We did this about 3 years ago and the rope is still hanging on the kitchen cupboard. Stronger than I'd have thought. I can't break it by hand. Don't know how much weight it'd hold, but it'd tie down something in a pack configuration, Indian style.
Leave the thorns on the yucca and they make a great needle and thread.
 
The best website I've ever found on primitive survival is:

http://www.primitiveways.com/

They have a great article on making cordage.

http://www.primitiveways.com/cordage.html

I have used this info to make cordage with a variety of plant fibers in Brazil. Be careful with some forms of yucca type plants the juice can be very irritating to the skin or eyes.

On one of Ray Mears episodes he makes cordage from a yucca leaving the thorn on the end attached to the fibers for use sewing stuff up. I've duplicated that with plants in Brazil and it is amazingly strong stuff. Mac
 
Lumpymike1,

What part of the world do you live in? I am a plant biologist and have worked on making simple, relatively strong cordage from a few different plants (in addition to other primitive skills). Making cordage is somewhat time consuming, but relatively easy to build strands of cord of any length you need. Briefly summarized, it involves harvesting stems of the target plant, separating out the woody pith, and wrapping/splicing the lengths of fibers together. I could post pictures and let you know good plant species to use for your part of the world (should I know of any). Just let me know if the other websites that have been posted have not given you all the information you need.
 
One more note. You'll need to learn what species are protected in your area so you don't harvest fiber from a protected plant.

Phil
 
Hi Haines,
I live in Southern California, San Diego to be exact. Any pics you could send would be great. My nighboor has some Flax that she would love to have trimmed back, so I have thought about starting on that. Happy Holidays
Thanks
Mike
 
ron hood shows how to make rope out of cat tail leaves on vol 6 of the woodsmaster series

survival.com
 
lumpymike1,

Sorry to be slow in responding (holiday with family). I have started posting pictures and directions to a website (http://www.arthurhaines.com/primitiveskills.htm). If you click on "cordage construction", you will see the page I have started building. I just need a couple of days to finish getting pictures and writing out the directions (I'll put more images of the actual method than other websites to make it easier to learn from). By midweek it should be all set!
 
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