Reverse twist cordage

D

DOC-CANADA

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Apr 14, 2006
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In the next post, is my initial attempt at a reverse twist cordage tutorial. The idea is to make a tutorial that is comprehensive and easy to understand. Feel free to make any suggestions, criticisms, etc.

Doc
 
This is an introduction to reverse twist cordage.

Normally, you would take a bundle of fibres between your hands and twist the right hand away from you (the top of the ply away from you). This tightens the bundle. Keep twisting until the ply kinks as shown.
1-kinkedply1.jpg
2-kinkedply2.jpg




Take this kinked ply between the thumb and forefinger of the left hand and orient the fibre as shown, one ply above the other, loose ends towards the right hand side. In order for this to display better, instead of kinking a single strand and proceeding from there, I used 2 different colour jute cords and tied the ends together.

3-BLACK-REDPLIES.jpg



Grab the upper ply (red) between the thumb and forefinger of your right hand. Proceed to twist the upper ply away from you (the top of the ply, that is). This tightens the ply.
4-arrowindicator.jpg




Continue turning your right wrist around so that you can capture the bottom ply between the forefinger and middle finger of your right hand.

5-capturelowerply.jpg




Twist your right wrist back in the opposite direction which reverses the position of the 2 plies. The black now becomes the upper and the red, the lower.
6-twistwristback.jpg



Now slide the left thumb and forefinger to the right to secure the new junction of the red and black plies.


Release the 2 plies from your right hand and regrip the upper ply (black) between the thumb and forefinger of your right hand. Repeat the sequence.


Continue until you reach a point where you can feel one of the plies getting thinner - the black in this case.. At this point, take a small amount of new fibre (brown) and lay it on top of the ply that is getting thinner (black) allowing a bit of the new fibre to hang over the main cord

8-addinginthefibre.jpg





Regrip the red/black/brown junction with your left hand. Grip the brown fibres and the thinner black ply as a single unit with your right hand and twist away from you as in the previous actions. Come around and capture the lower ply (red) etc. The 2 plies, now, are the red and the black/brown. Continue cording. By adding in only a small amount of fibres when one of the plies starts to get a bit thinner, you maintain a constant diameter of cordage and in effect, the cord is a continuous splice, therefore, there is no real weak spot in the cord.


Below is the cord with 2 splices shown.

9-with2splices.jpg


A better picture:
10-with2splices-2.jpg


Any questions? I will be adding a 3-ply technique, shortly

Doc
 
By the addition of an extra move or two on the above technique, you can make 3 ply cordage.

Instead of 2 plies, you have 3 - red, black, brown.

1-3plies1.jpg




As before, twist the upper ply (red) away from you, continue around to capture the black ply between your forefinger and middle finger,

2-twistthered.jpg




AND the bottom ply (brown) between your middle finger and your ring finger.

3-captureall3plies.jpg




Now twist your right wrist in the other direction, the red becoming the bottom ply, the black in the middle and the brown at the top.

4-theredbecomesthebottom.jpg




Release the bottom ply (red) and twist your right wrist back the other way, allowing the black and brown to return to the original position - black on top and brown in the middle.

5-releasebottomply.jpg



Release the plies with your right hand, regrip the top ply and twist away from you.

6-andagain.jpg




Continue in the same manner until you have produced the length of cord you need. Splice as in the 2 ply method.

3 ply cordage:

7-completed3ply.jpg
 
So that's it. If you think these will help you, let me suggest you copy them and paste them to a Word document. I sized the pictures so they should fit on a Word document without bleeding off to one side or the other.

So................... comments, criticisms, suggestions..................

Doc
 
Thanks Doc,

Btw, the first pict post prints l2 pages.
 
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Btw means "by-the-way" ;)

The post with the first set of pictures prints out at 12 pages.
 
psy-ops said:
Btw means "by-the-way" ;)

The post with the first set of pictures prints out at 12 pages.
Click to expand...

LOL, I know what BTW means. I thought it said l (ell) 2, something like A2 referring to a size of paper.

My Word document is 5 pages. If you want, I can send it to you, but it will take a while to load - 6.5 MB unless we can get kgd to put it on a PDF.

Doc
 
Great tutorial! Thanks for taking the time to put that together. That´s what this forum is all about.

My technique is very different, sort of like thigh rolling but in the hand. I have never made 3-ply cordage and would like to master it as the cordage is much stronger. I have a100 meter roll of very high quality 3 ply cordage made by the Krikati indians, its my inspiration. Mac
 
Great tutorial Doc.
I use the same technique for making cordage, but I've never tried 3 strands
 
Hey guys,

Thanks for the positive comments. For those of you who are learning cordage, please let me know if there are any points that are not too clear to you, so I can revise it. For those of us that can make cordage, there may be some things that we take for granted, but pose a problem for a person trying to learn.

Re: 3 ply. I have never seen anybody else use this technique but it works, just somewhat slower. The only way I've seen other people make 3 ply is they make 2 ply and then add in the third. I don't remember exactly how they did it though. Of course, if you're thigh rolling, I think you could do all 3 at the same time, as well. I've never tried three ply that way, but it's on the list. :o

Doc
 
Thanks for the clear explanation; the pictures will really help anyone doing this IMO.
 
**Wrong topic, sorry for reviving an old thread** - 'tis what happens when you read several topics at once.
 
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