I had the same thought, though I'm from America XD My mom loves elder berries, and our lake has a trail full of them and nettles. My first concern was if you needed older plants, because if so, it'd be great to gather when we get berries. If my mom doesn't want to help, I'm making wine while I work on my cordage.
There is also a plant that grows near the nettles that takes the sting away if you rub up against the wrong way with the nettles do you know what that is called
@@derreck9068I attended the methamphetamine symposium and participated in the the African killer spelling bee. Did anybody go bowling at the ice hockey rink?
To speed up fibre collection, traditionally in some cultures a spiked brush tool was carried around with a twill. You don’t have to beat the material and even tall grass stalks work with this method since it creates a thin fibre material. The brush can be made from wood so long as you sharpen them and dowel into pockets in the head. The back of the head is used for cracking the fibre out through rubbing it back and forth. When using the brush part you grab your bundle of fibre and wack it and pull towards you repeatedly until it becomes closer to hair, then it should be just about ready to use and you can make the decision whether to make it finer material by using a fine comb version of your previous tool. Some material will get lost refining it further but it will start to look like actual hair at a certain point.
@@wolfie1703 Sounds like a primitive version of what was used for refining flax fibres, essentially a comb/brush with sharp iron nails, these search terms should give you an idea; hackle / heckle / hatchel
They carried a hackle?! At first I thought you were describing a collection tool to reduce time and effort collecting the raw stems, or somehow scraping fiber off things as you went. I use wool combs for fiber refinement and... well, just say I wouldnt be afraid of man or bear or rabid sasquatch if I had them in hand!
I've used this method with cedar bark - you have to splice more often because the fibers are shorter, but it works well. Interesting note: anything you can make cordage from also makes wonderful tinder. Process in the same way, but instead of wrapping into cordage, just fluff it out into a "bird's nest." This will light well from a spark or bowdrill coal.
Excellent video on making cordage. Thanks for sharing. I was down in Williamsburg Va at a Native American display and an elder showed me how to do this. He captivated my learning immediately. Then he used a flint and steel and char cloth to light his pipe and these skills increased my interests in the old ways of surviving
As I'm sure you know, when an elder speaks, we must always listen!!! That, too, is the old way of things that are unfortunately disappearing. Natives survived and thrived many moons longer than the white men.
Excellent post. As an OG, I call these skills "bushcraft" as "survival" has distracting connotations. All such skills teach confidence in nature and, when you least expect, survival.
Once you learn cordage making and flint knapping, you can logic your way back to society. Tie the flint blades to sticks with cordage for tools, use those tools to make better tools and gather better resources for tools. Maybe learn to identify Tin and Copper for bronze, or just skip to Iron when you get some bricks and bellows set up. The point is, finding and making cordage is a foundational skill that, while we don't need nowadays in society, we might need if we're ever outside of it.
@@justinbuddy56 Unfortunately, the Earth server's admins moved to a hyper-realistic modpack quite a while ago, so we have to deal with these slower, more "realistic" tool-making recipes. The graphics are unmatched, sure, but sometimes it gets way too grindy for my preference.
You just answered a question I’ve had for 4 years now! I have some land that I only get to in the fall/winter months, and I always find a stalk that has fine fibers and makes amazing cordage. Never knew what the heck it was until now, it’s Dogbane. Thank you!
Okra stalks make EXCELLENT cordage. Cordage is definitely the first thing people should learn. Once you have cordage, you have a bow drill. MUCH easier than a hand drill.
It's amazing what you can make cordage out of. Was camping with my friend, he was out on a nature walk and we had been cutting firewood. I picked up some bark and realized the shredded inner bark looked good enough to twine and sure enough, cranked out a couple feet for the hell of it.
Great tip from Sally Pointer: lay your new fibres across both strands, and twist it in. This results in seamless splices with no knobby bits sticking out.
I live in Indiana and use both dogbane and milkweed but since my wife died and i have been struck with severe spinal stenosis I'm concentrateing more on teaching others than doing as much myself. To me strong cordage is invaluable so i concentrate on the three plants you mentioned. Sometimes willow is the best material available in certain areas but even fibers from cattail leaves works well enough if your stuck in swampy areas. Dont forget mulberry. The young cambium layer is pretty good. Ive even used the tassles from ears of corn. Not great but it works and you dont see many people using it. Got to get it when its at the right point or its too weak. Too late it will just crumble.
@@hedwardd The husk, yes. The "silk" tassels, no. I'm not sure what he meant but that is not accurate. Just try to twist one and you'll see. Maybe he just meant he likes to twist it up like cordage.
@@mechez774 Listen, if you need to, cardboard and other paper products work surprisingly well. Even the tape from boxes, strips of plastic bottles, plastic bags, etc BlackBerry, Willow and yucca are a few that should be really easy to identify and they make great cordage.
You can use bast fiber from certain trees. Milkweed makes good cordage, but please don't harvest it until after the monarch butterflies are done with it; they eat it as caterpillars to make themselves poisonous to predators. Around September should do.
i take the broken or chopped stems, summer thunderstorms wrekt a bunch of tall ones at the community garden and some of our volunteers are elderly or disabled so its important to keep the space between beds clear so they don't trip. At the community garden we get milkweed stalks nearly an inch across and taller than me (and I'm 5'3".) my town isn't all that aware of milkweed. they chopped a ton of common milkweed all down the main drag of town. and then in the rich half of the main drag where the tourists go they planted pollinator gardens with REALLY small plants including swamp and showy milkweed. V.V;;; which is much smaller and doesn't have anywhere near the volume. meanwhile they left most of the spots they'd chopped the milkweed from on the poor side of the town (including a massive patch that was BLOOMING!!!!!) bare of anything to replace it. guess where the only beds they replanted were? near two restaurants that tourists go to. UHUH. my town government is oblivious and dumb!
There's a variety of yucca, possibly Adam's Needle, that grows in Oregon that I am certain would do very well in southern Idaho. It is hardy to zone 4. If you're looking for plentiful material that grows wild, yucca is probably not the thing in northern areas since even though some varieties are very cold hardy they're mostly limited to curated landscapes. A similar landscaping plant, the New Zealand flax, also produces extremely strong, long fibers that make superior cordage. The flax processes down somewhat thicker than yucca and can be difficult to work with when dry. On an unrelated note, I have found that the inner bark of cedar makes an extremely soft twine that, once it has been thoroughly worked to remove fine splinters, is very comfortable against the skin. Another excellent skin-contact fiber source is day lily. The dead leaves, when collected early in the morning when they are still damp with dew, are easy to twine and produce, flat out, the most comfortable skin-contact twine I've ever encountered. On a very unrelated note, i never start with the "halfway" technique of starting my twine at the center of a bundle of fibers. I _always_ start with two bundles so that I can double the loose, starting end back over and splice it in to make an integrated loop at the beginning end of a piece of cordage. Ima keep rolling with the unrelated. I also make narrow rope using three strands of twine. Keeping the position of each strand relative to the others is critical for making three strand rope by hand. The method is exactly the same as the reverse twist but instead of a pattern of A, B, A, B, A, B the pattern is A, B, C, A, B, C. I've also tried four strand, but the resulting rope is too loosely wound at that point. You can continue doing three strand twining with each finished rope, so three strands of twine become one thin rope, three thin ropes become one thick rope, three thick ropes become one cable, etc. It takes a BOATLOAD of fibers to make any rope of decent length. Three ten foot sections of twine make a three foot section of thin rope and three ten foot sections of thin rope make a three foot section of thick rope, so figure that for every nine hundred feet of twine you'll end up with about ten feet of thick rope. You'd better _really_ need a thick rope to dedicate that much work and materials. Final unrelated. If you're clever, you can use twining techniques to make a knotless net. It seems hard at first but once you get the hang of it you can crank out a lot of net. Again though, it really uses up a lot of material, so you'd better actually need a net.
The labor aspect is why I always cringe when some movie set in the olden days shows folks CUTTING rope. Er, no. rope was labor-expensive even when you use a mechanical twister. (Which in miniature might be a good addition to a wilderness kit, actually.)
Some kind of oily substance was always used, while making the cord, for elasticity and durability. An outer layer of wax or tar if available, can make it good for underwater usage as well.
Elm bark, hickory, juniper, thistle, ash bark, I've even used oak bark. Wild grapevine, elm roots, pine roots, and honeysuckle don't need processing to work either, there are others as well.
How exactly do you use wild grape? We have the nasty stuff here, it kills trees. Wild cucumber likewise, and very strong when green. Hops have an insanely strong vine, might want to try them too.
@@Reziac just pull it from the trees, you can even braid it. I've used it more for baskets than cordage but it does work, it's flexible enough to take to weaving well. I've never tried reverse wrapping it but it would be interesting to test. I think homemade baskets or other weaving projects would be a useful way to gauge if you want to use it for other things. There was a place called Seahenge where a massive oak trunk with roots was dragged from miles away using honeysuckle ropes.
I really enjoy the longer videos rather than the short kind of the reels. I hope that you keep at it, but i anderstand if you don't. Anyway, thanks and good luck!
We are really lucky here in New Zealand we have a few plants that give extremely strong fiber. Harakeke (Phormium tenax ) was a major export for extremely strong rope and Tī kōuka (Cordyline australis) which while a shorter leaf gives an extremely strong fiber and was the primary line for fishing. I have fished with it and landed fish of more than 12 pounds. Tī kōuka is found as an ornamental in the American upper mid west coast known there as Cornish palm. It was a food resource for my people in areas where other staples would not grow, it can be felled and the pulpy center can be eaten, it was called "millionaire's cabbage" in my childhood because it costs the life of the plant.
@preachta Spiny headed matt rush lomandra longifolia. It was the primary source of fibers for cordage and weaving for the first nation people's. There are channels on TH-cam that show it and how to use it.
This video popped up cause I was googling this yesterday and for once, it did NOT annoy me, lol. He gets right to the point and keeps it engaging with a variety of topics covered on channel, easy sub from me! Thanks:)
well im sure at least boiling makes them more pliable for when you twist them by softening and relaxing the fibers meaning there won't be any microtears from twisting and after it dries it shrinks back up so its nice and tight. i can't speak for the ashes but who knows maybe some chemical stuff happens. you are impregnating it with carbon and other chemicals after all. i guess for the ashes the only real way to find out is to run some tests.
These instructions are very clear and anyone who has never tried this will have success following the video. I'm forever making cordage from what ever comes to hand. I'd like to try plastic from a soda bottle cut as thin as capellini or angel's hair pasta just to see how it works and horse tail hair cordage to create a viable fishing line that is less obvious than plant fiber.
Absolutely repetition is key. You are such a talented young man. Along with rabbits and your tanning skills are amazing! I can wait until I can afford some of your deer! Truly a dream for me. And less years ahead than behind.. my times running out.. but many others were just born so please don't give up!
Thanks for not leaving the desert out. A lot of outdoor survival videos I've seen are based on where the person's at, which is usually some kind of dense forest. Not very helpful if you live in southern Arizona.
I had only ever seen the leg rolling method in an illustration. Couldn't figure it out from that. After seeing you do it, I gave it a try and did it! Thank you! Now I don't have to do the slow method for 10s of feet of cordage that don't need to be THAT strong. Blessings 🙏
Amazing. I was just thinking about cordage. When things go south, it will be important to have. Was wondering where people of old got theirs. Thank you so much!
If things ever go south far enough that there's a shortage of cordage, twine, rope, etc, it's going _all the way down._ I'm talking, *_I Am Legend_* level SHTF.
you can also take dogbane, nettle or milkweed and a pet detangling comb and brush it very very fine, then make your own drop spindle and make yarn out of it. I tend to have a very bad reaction to stinging nettle. But one youtuber who does experimental archeology, Sally Pointer, told me she's immune to it. Nettle stings contain histamine and acetylcholine, and the barbs are like the hairs on a tarantula; they stick and they irritate. To get rid of them, you need something sticky like tape and then you need as much cortisone ointment and benedryl as you can tolerate. If its not available, jewelweed and bitter dock can also bring some relief. Haven't tested comfrey on it though, my comfrey took a hit this year when the landlady "renovated" my garden (aka I got shiny new raised beds to replace all my giant shrub pots). So experimental archeology, think of it as bushcraft's nerdy little brother. Experimental archeologists try to figure out how people made the things they did in the distant past. Sally Pointer (I'm a huge fan of her work) once made an entire bronze age period accurate dress out of nettles, another time she made a primitive "warp weighted" loom. All bushcraft is regional, so you probably won't have the same plants in your area as Sally. But the techniques hold true. Normally I don't use trees. I just don't have the muscle to select a tree, fell it, peel it and process it. But I also live in a city, people don't like it when you cut trees period, let alone ones that aren't yours. Even if its in an abandoned lot. But this year we got a whole bunch of thunderstorms, and a whole trunk of willow went down in an empty lot! a tillia cordata linden tree also lost a trunk out of a clump of two or three. So I got some pretty good sized pieces of wood out of it. I'm going to scrape all the bark off then turn them into tomato stakes. The option I use more commonly is fallen sticks and branches, partly decomposed. The bark comes off easily and is ready to be worked. Bark cordage typically requires that you boil it or soak it in rainwater or a pond for a couple of months. This process is called rhetting. Sometimes cars will come by and crush the linden branches. If they can be safely retrieved, these branches need much less processing to get usable fiber. Fallen linden branches in my area (New England) also occasionally develop teal streaks in the wood. That's the result of a fungus, and it looks very pretty. With willow the rhetting procedure is different. You need a mixture of wood ash and water to process it. My hypothesis is that it has to do with the tannic acid and salycilic acid (tannin and asprin respectively) that's in the bark. I think the bacteria that do the rhetting for you don't like the acidic water created from soaking the willow. Regardless of which you use, you know either bark is ready when you rub the strips between your thumb and forefinger and start getting either fibers rolling off or whole sheets of fiber flaking off like strong damp paper. While linden bark gets very slimy, willow bark is much less so and smells spicy when processed. The Ainu people of Hokkaido Japan have preserved the art of turning tree bark into clothing. They even have special ceremonies when they harvest the tree. That includes thanking the tree "for your clothes." Tourists in the right place at the right time can join the bark harvest. So if you're ever visiting Hokkaido, make sure you pay the Ainu a visit. You might be able to learn another country's bushcraft ;)
Our family of 7 recently found your channel, and we absolutely love it!!! I homeschool my kids, and we watch your videos together. Can you do some plant identification? We're a very outdoors family, and survival is a common topic as we're a medically retired military family.
RIGHT ON ! Excellent- exact- info / demo. ! THANKS ! As a USN SERE - POW Inst . I was spoiled by 550 cord , etc. Thanks to our Negrito Troopers at the P.I. jungle school JEST, 1968 I moved into many useful primitive skills - teaching all types of students. Making CORDAGE is a " must have techniques ! " You are an excellent Inst. Mtn Mel -Ret 59- 82 USN, still learning- sharing- teaching .😊
I’ve been using tulip tree inner bark but it’s a bit difficult to get even strands. I recently tried dried daffodil leaves. Produces a pretty cordage. Will be trying dried dandelion stems next. Thanks for the tip on fast twisting! Good video. New sub.
Try using dead day lily leaves picked in the morning when they're still damp with dew. The cordage isn't particularly strong but it's _extremely_ comfortable against your skin, even after it dries out.
i have been thinking about melting tallow and resin together to make a salve, could probably be nice to use on cordage to. pine tar would be nice as well.
I think most plant or tree that are a Monocotyledons are a choice for cordage. You will notice them with Fibers straight along its trunk, not those with rings around w/c Dicotyledons. one good example bamboo and Coconut, abaca, palm trees
cordage is definitely important and a time consuming and difficult process so having it on hand is important. and being able to replace it is a must thanks for the vid!
invasive bittersweet is one of my favorite fiber and basketry plants. i can harvest as much as i want, and if its the right time of year the vines are PERFECT for weaving with. the fibers in the bast are so fine and silky too, also very strong. it takes a bit of processing but retting is an option. and the big vines that require a saw to cut through would provide so much fiber
I just made my first foot of cordage out of some nettle, using this video. It sure looks bad, and I don't know how to secure the end, but it did begin to feel more natural as I went. Kudos.
It's nice to see someone in my neighborhood (MT) doing these videos. Most bushcraft/survival vloggers are on the East Coast or overseas. New subscriber.
A method I use to judge a fibers suitability for cordage is to just wrap a small sample tightly around a stick or my finger. If it doesn't flex enough to wrap properly, or snaps under the combination of tension and flexion, it's usually unsuitable. If it survives, the test also gives you a sense at how it acts under the conditions cord is used in
I was watching someone makes pots from mud before this... Now rope from weeds. The universe is trying to tell me something! :) Very interesting, thanks for sharing.
There are two tests you can do with unknown plants to get a general idea if they're good for this. The bend test to see if fibers splinter off (less splintering is better), and the yank test to see if the fibers break when given a quick jerk. The only thing that's a kind of a real unknown is breakdown, because some materials don't survive weathering or get eaten rather quickly by environmental mold and bacteria after being extracted from whatever plant they came from.
Thanks for this! very useful - I'm surprised I've never thought of the value of making rope and lines. This is super for making shelters and clothing repairs out in the field. Great job!
We've got 2 cordyline Australis in our garden the leaves are so strong/tough, don't get them tangled up in the mower,lol, I've often thought they would make amazing strong cordage.
Could you make a video on how to make a net in nature and a other short with a list of tree that have alot of tanins and plant good for cortage depending on region i would really like it please day 1
I *just* learned how to identify the dogbanes (and you're right, it's everywhere) so I think I'll definitely be trying this! Side questions: - Does spreading dogbane not work, or is hemp dogbane simply better suited? - Would picking and drying live plants also work, as an alternative of waiting until autumn?
I hope milkweed is the last choice as it's so important for butterflies. I've made cordage also out of bramble branches with good success. Thanks for your video!
If you have the luxury of time and resources.... Rotting the pith put works wonders. Keep it soaked for something like a week. Dry to fluff out the fibers, then keep in a damp cloth while working it. Its how flax was turned to luxurious linens, but works well on foraged fiber too for more robust enduring cordage.
Great video as usual! You probably know this, but always work dogbane outdoors because inhaling the dust can cause serious cardiac issues. And NEVER burn and inhale the smoke. However, I've heard that you can smudge a shelter w it to rid it of pests. I've not tried this and don't recommend it, but it's a good thing to know. I'm not sure how long you'd have to wait after doing so to return to the shelter though.
I learned how to roll fiber along my thigh before I actually figured out the technicals of how to roll it with my fingers. Definitely important to know both though. Good video. Thanks!
Wondering about using wild cucumber and wild grape -- the vines can be very strong in the green state. Likewise hops -- a thin piece of the vine can be too strong to break.
It will be much stronger if you make 3 cords from 2 strands each (as shown here), then twist those 3 cords together (twisting the opposite way) into a larger cord or rope. I don't know exactly why this is but it is. If you look at manilla rope, it's usually 3 strands. This info is from The Ashley Book of Knots, the world's foremost authority on knots and secondarily, rope.
Long winter days and evenings in the paleolithic were probably spent inside in front of a fire just twisting cordage from material harvested in the fall.
Holy shit. This was a masterclass in plant fibers and natural cordage. Color me impressed
Masterclass is an exaggeration. This is a very basic demonstration
I live in the U.K. and Nettles are abundant. Stems for cordage, leaves for tea and cooking = minimal waste.
I had the same thought, though I'm from America XD
My mom loves elder berries, and our lake has a trail full of them and nettles. My first concern was if you needed older plants, because if so, it'd be great to gather when we get berries. If my mom doesn't want to help, I'm making wine while I work on my cordage.
There is also a plant that grows near the nettles that takes the sting away if you rub up against the wrong way with the nettles do you know what that is called
@@kenthatfield4287 It's called plantains or fleaworts.
You can eat the roots also, and they're supposedly very nutritious
@@mattjohnson9727 Going to make an assumption here and that you're not referring to actual dogbane, but of plantains or fleaworts, yeah?
Basket weaving is another primal skill that's well worth knowing....
i took underwater basket weaving in college
@@derreck9068I attended the methamphetamine symposium and participated in the the African killer spelling bee. Did anybody go bowling at the ice hockey rink?
Especially when they're coming to take you away, ha ha!!
You certainly have a knack for explaining things.
Well that's the point
To speed up fibre collection, traditionally in some cultures a spiked brush tool was carried around with a twill. You don’t have to beat the material and even tall grass stalks work with this method since it creates a thin fibre material. The brush can be made from wood so long as you sharpen them and dowel into pockets in the head. The back of the head is used for cracking the fibre out through rubbing it back and forth. When using the brush part you grab your bundle of fibre and wack it and pull towards you repeatedly until it becomes closer to hair, then it should be just about ready to use and you can make the decision whether to make it finer material by using a fine comb version of your previous tool. Some material will get lost refining it further but it will start to look like actual hair at a certain point.
what is this tool called? how could i make it?
@@wolfie1703 Sounds like a primitive version of what was used for refining flax fibres, essentially a comb/brush with sharp iron nails, these search terms should give you an idea; hackle / heckle / hatchel
@@oddstr13 Thank you so much!
They carried a hackle?! At first I thought you were describing a collection tool to reduce time and effort collecting the raw stems, or somehow scraping fiber off things as you went.
I use wool combs for fiber refinement and... well, just say I wouldnt be afraid of man or bear or rabid sasquatch if I had them in hand!
I've used this method with cedar bark - you have to splice more often because the fibers are shorter, but it works well. Interesting note: anything you can make cordage from also makes wonderful tinder. Process in the same way, but instead of wrapping into cordage, just fluff it out into a "bird's nest." This will light well from a spark or bowdrill coal.
Excellent video on making cordage. Thanks for sharing. I was down in Williamsburg Va at a Native American display and an elder showed me how to do this. He captivated my learning immediately. Then he used a flint and steel and char cloth to light his pipe and these skills increased my interests in the old ways of surviving
As I'm sure you know, when an elder speaks, we must always listen!!! That, too, is the old way of things that are unfortunately disappearing. Natives survived and thrived many moons longer than the white men.
Excellent post. As an OG, I call these skills "bushcraft" as "survival" has distracting connotations. All such skills teach confidence in nature and, when you least expect, survival.
Nice way of thinking about it.
Such clear and effective instruction! Thank you! I love the clearly shot closeups of the finger work and splicing in new fibers.
ive used this technique to make bowstring before (with standardised length artificial fibres) so its been great to learn how to chain together fibres!
Once you learn cordage making and flint knapping, you can logic your way back to society. Tie the flint blades to sticks with cordage for tools, use those tools to make better tools and gather better resources for tools. Maybe learn to identify Tin and Copper for bronze, or just skip to Iron when you get some bricks and bellows set up. The point is, finding and making cordage is a foundational skill that, while we don't need nowadays in society, we might need if we're ever outside of it.
Much easier than that. Just get two sticks and 3 oak planks to make a wooden pickaxe, use it to get 3 cobblestone and boom, stone pickaxe.
@@justinbuddy56 Unfortunately, the Earth server's admins moved to a hyper-realistic modpack quite a while ago, so we have to deal with these slower, more "realistic" tool-making recipes. The graphics are unmatched, sure, but sometimes it gets way too grindy for my preference.
@@justsomejerseydevilwithint4606 😶🌫
Look at what you did.😄 Now, we're gonna get Zelda, Cabela hunting games, etc...
You just answered a question I’ve had for 4 years now! I have some land that I only get to in the fall/winter months, and I always find a stalk that has fine fibers and makes amazing cordage. Never knew what the heck it was until now, it’s Dogbane. Thank you!
Okra stalks make EXCELLENT cordage. Cordage is definitely the first thing people should learn. Once you have cordage, you have a bow drill. MUCH easier than a hand drill.
Groundhogs just murdered my okra...thanks for the tip now I can do something with the long stems still growing
I’ve wondered where the heck ropes and cordage came from in survival applications for years, thanks so much for this!
It's amazing what you can make cordage out of. Was camping with my friend, he was out on a nature walk and we had been cutting firewood. I picked up some bark and realized the shredded inner bark looked good enough to twine and sure enough, cranked out a couple feet for the hell of it.
Great tip from Sally Pointer: lay your new fibres across both strands, and twist it in. This results in seamless splices with no knobby bits sticking out.
I was just thinking of Sally Pointer and her cordage videos!
I live in Indiana and use both dogbane and milkweed but since my wife died and i have been struck with severe spinal stenosis I'm concentrateing more on teaching others than doing as much myself. To me strong cordage is invaluable so i concentrate on the three plants you mentioned. Sometimes willow is the best material available in certain areas but even fibers from cattail leaves works well enough if your stuck in swampy areas. Dont forget mulberry. The young cambium layer is pretty good. Ive even used the tassles from ears of corn. Not great but it works and you dont see many people using it. Got to get it when its at the right point or its too weak. Too late it will just crumble.
I find that sunflower stalks are also very time-sensitive. Too early and the fibers are weak. Too late and they're brittle.
That’s nuts. I would never imagine you could make cordage from corn husk
@@hedwardd
The husk, yes. The "silk" tassels, no.
I'm not sure what he meant but that is not accurate. Just try to twist one and you'll see.
Maybe he just meant he likes to twist it up like cordage.
@@mechez774
Listen, if you need to, cardboard and other paper products work surprisingly well.
Even the tape from boxes, strips of plastic bottles, plastic bags, etc
BlackBerry, Willow and yucca are a few that should be really easy to identify and they make great cordage.
Okra makes a pretty good cordage as well and many grow it in their gardens
You can use bast fiber from certain trees. Milkweed makes good cordage, but please don't harvest it until after the monarch butterflies are done with it; they eat it as caterpillars to make themselves poisonous to predators. Around September should do.
herbicides have about eradicated it around here. been working to get it going in my butterfly bee and hummingbird patch.
Milk weed is very strong, would make great line for fishing. Indians made sandals out of Sagebrush cordage.
i take the broken or chopped stems, summer thunderstorms wrekt a bunch of tall ones at the community garden and some of our volunteers are elderly or disabled so its important to keep the space between beds clear so they don't trip. At the community garden we get milkweed stalks nearly an inch across and taller than me (and I'm 5'3".) my town isn't all that aware of milkweed. they chopped a ton of common milkweed all down the main drag of town. and then in the rich half of the main drag where the tourists go they planted pollinator gardens with REALLY small plants including swamp and showy milkweed. V.V;;; which is much smaller and doesn't have anywhere near the volume. meanwhile they left most of the spots they'd chopped the milkweed from on the poor side of the town (including a massive patch that was BLOOMING!!!!!) bare of anything to replace it. guess where the only beds they replanted were? near two restaurants that tourists go to. UHUH. my town government is oblivious and dumb!
There's a variety of yucca, possibly Adam's Needle, that grows in Oregon that I am certain would do very well in southern Idaho. It is hardy to zone 4. If you're looking for plentiful material that grows wild, yucca is probably not the thing in northern areas since even though some varieties are very cold hardy they're mostly limited to curated landscapes. A similar landscaping plant, the New Zealand flax, also produces extremely strong, long fibers that make superior cordage. The flax processes down somewhat thicker than yucca and can be difficult to work with when dry.
On an unrelated note, I have found that the inner bark of cedar makes an extremely soft twine that, once it has been thoroughly worked to remove fine splinters, is very comfortable against the skin. Another excellent skin-contact fiber source is day lily. The dead leaves, when collected early in the morning when they are still damp with dew, are easy to twine and produce, flat out, the most comfortable skin-contact twine I've ever encountered.
On a very unrelated note, i never start with the "halfway" technique of starting my twine at the center of a bundle of fibers. I _always_ start with two bundles so that I can double the loose, starting end back over and splice it in to make an integrated loop at the beginning end of a piece of cordage.
Ima keep rolling with the unrelated. I also make narrow rope using three strands of twine. Keeping the position of each strand relative to the others is critical for making three strand rope by hand. The method is exactly the same as the reverse twist but instead of a pattern of A, B, A, B, A, B the pattern is A, B, C, A, B, C. I've also tried four strand, but the resulting rope is too loosely wound at that point. You can continue doing three strand twining with each finished rope, so three strands of twine become one thin rope, three thin ropes become one thick rope, three thick ropes become one cable, etc. It takes a BOATLOAD of fibers to make any rope of decent length. Three ten foot sections of twine make a three foot section of thin rope and three ten foot sections of thin rope make a three foot section of thick rope, so figure that for every nine hundred feet of twine you'll end up with about ten feet of thick rope. You'd better _really_ need a thick rope to dedicate that much work and materials.
Final unrelated. If you're clever, you can use twining techniques to make a knotless net. It seems hard at first but once you get the hang of it you can crank out a lot of net. Again though, it really uses up a lot of material, so you'd better actually need a net.
The labor aspect is why I always cringe when some movie set in the olden days shows folks CUTTING rope. Er, no. rope was labor-expensive even when you use a mechanical twister. (Which in miniature might be a good addition to a wilderness kit, actually.)
Some kind of oily substance was always used, while making the cord, for elasticity and durability. An outer layer of wax or tar if available, can make it good for underwater usage as well.
Elm bark, hickory, juniper, thistle, ash bark, I've even used oak bark. Wild grapevine, elm roots, pine roots, and honeysuckle don't need processing to work either, there are others as well.
How exactly do you use wild grape? We have the nasty stuff here, it kills trees. Wild cucumber likewise, and very strong when green. Hops have an insanely strong vine, might want to try them too.
@@Reziac just pull it from the trees, you can even braid it. I've used it more for baskets than cordage but it does work, it's flexible enough to take to weaving well. I've never tried reverse wrapping it but it would be interesting to test. I think homemade baskets or other weaving projects would be a useful way to gauge if you want to use it for other things. There was a place called Seahenge where a massive oak trunk with roots was dragged from miles away using honeysuckle ropes.
I really enjoy the longer videos rather than the short kind of the reels. I hope that you keep at it, but i anderstand if you don't. Anyway, thanks and good luck!
More longer videos is what I want, but the way TH-cam wants the game to be played favors a mix of both
Just incredible knowledge. Thank you for sharing!
We are really lucky here in New Zealand we have a few plants that give extremely strong fiber.
Harakeke (Phormium tenax ) was a major export for extremely strong rope and Tī kōuka (Cordyline australis) which while a shorter leaf gives an extremely strong fiber and was the primary line for fishing.
I have fished with it and landed fish of more than 12 pounds.
Tī kōuka is found as an ornamental in the American upper mid west coast known there as Cornish palm.
It was a food resource for my people in areas where other staples would not grow, it can be felled and the pulpy center can be eaten, it was called "millionaire's cabbage" in my childhood because it costs the life of the plant.
dead cabbage tree leaves are also good for starting fires with the ol flint if you scrape it fine with a knife
What would make good cordage in Australia. I'm in SE Victoria, Dandenong Ranges.
@preachta
Spiny headed matt rush lomandra longifolia.
It was the primary source of fibers for cordage and weaving for the first nation people's.
There are channels on TH-cam that show it and how to use it.
This video popped up cause I was googling this yesterday and for once, it did NOT annoy me, lol. He gets right to the point and keeps it engaging with a variety of topics covered on channel, easy sub from me! Thanks:)
Boiling the fibers with ashes will make a long lasting cordage. (Ray Mears tip)
How?
@@liawatson5789 witchcraft.
well im sure at least boiling makes them more pliable for when you twist them by softening and relaxing the fibers meaning there won't be any microtears from twisting and after it dries it shrinks back up so its nice and tight. i can't speak for the ashes but who knows maybe some chemical stuff happens. you are impregnating it with carbon and other chemicals after all. i guess for the ashes the only real way to find out is to run some tests.
@@rays5163 maybe the potash (potassium hydroxide) inside the ash when reacting with water softens the fibers and makes them more maleable.
@@AaronC.
Maybe?
It's Ray Mears dude, there is no maybe involved.
Ray has forgotten more bushcraft than this guy knows.
These instructions are very clear and anyone who has never tried this will have
success following the video. I'm forever making cordage from what ever comes
to hand. I'd like to try plastic from a soda bottle cut as thin as capellini or angel's
hair pasta just to see how it works and horse tail hair cordage to create a viable
fishing line that is less obvious than plant fiber.
Absolutely repetition is key. You are such a talented young man. Along with rabbits and your tanning skills are amazing! I can wait until I can afford some of your deer! Truly a dream for me. And less years ahead than behind.. my times running out.. but many others were just born so please don't give up!
Thanks for not leaving the desert out. A lot of outdoor survival videos I've seen are based on where the person's at, which is usually some kind of dense forest. Not very helpful if you live in southern Arizona.
I had only ever seen the leg rolling method in an illustration. Couldn't figure it out from that. After seeing you do it, I gave it a try and did it! Thank you! Now I don't have to do the slow method for 10s of feet of cordage that don't need to be THAT strong. Blessings 🙏
Amazing. I was just thinking about cordage. When things go south, it will be important to have. Was wondering where people of old got theirs. Thank you so much!
If things ever go south far enough that there's a shortage of cordage, twine, rope, etc, it's going _all the way down._ I'm talking, *_I Am Legend_* level SHTF.
you can also take dogbane, nettle or milkweed and a pet detangling comb and brush it very very fine, then make your own drop spindle and make yarn out of it. I tend to have a very bad reaction to stinging nettle. But one youtuber who does experimental archeology, Sally Pointer, told me she's immune to it. Nettle stings contain histamine and acetylcholine, and the barbs are like the hairs on a tarantula; they stick and they irritate. To get rid of them, you need something sticky like tape and then you need as much cortisone ointment and benedryl as you can tolerate. If its not available, jewelweed and bitter dock can also bring some relief. Haven't tested comfrey on it though, my comfrey took a hit this year when the landlady "renovated" my garden (aka I got shiny new raised beds to replace all my giant shrub pots).
So experimental archeology, think of it as bushcraft's nerdy little brother. Experimental archeologists try to figure out how people made the things they did in the distant past. Sally Pointer (I'm a huge fan of her work) once made an entire bronze age period accurate dress out of nettles, another time she made a primitive "warp weighted" loom. All bushcraft is regional, so you probably won't have the same plants in your area as Sally. But the techniques hold true.
Normally I don't use trees. I just don't have the muscle to select a tree, fell it, peel it and process it. But I also live in a city, people don't like it when you cut trees period, let alone ones that aren't yours. Even if its in an abandoned lot. But this year we got a whole bunch of thunderstorms, and a whole trunk of willow went down in an empty lot! a tillia cordata linden tree also lost a trunk out of a clump of two or three. So I got some pretty good sized pieces of wood out of it. I'm going to scrape all the bark off then turn them into tomato stakes. The option I use more commonly is fallen sticks and branches, partly decomposed. The bark comes off easily and is ready to be worked. Bark cordage typically requires that you boil it or soak it in rainwater or a pond for a couple of months. This process is called rhetting. Sometimes cars will come by and crush the linden branches. If they can be safely retrieved, these branches need much less processing to get usable fiber. Fallen linden branches in my area (New England) also occasionally develop teal streaks in the wood. That's the result of a fungus, and it looks very pretty.
With willow the rhetting procedure is different. You need a mixture of wood ash and water to process it. My hypothesis is that it has to do with the tannic acid and salycilic acid (tannin and asprin respectively) that's in the bark. I think the bacteria that do the rhetting for you don't like the acidic water created from soaking the willow. Regardless of which you use, you know either bark is ready when you rub the strips between your thumb and forefinger and start getting either fibers rolling off or whole sheets of fiber flaking off like strong damp paper. While linden bark gets very slimy, willow bark is much less so and smells spicy when processed.
The Ainu people of Hokkaido Japan have preserved the art of turning tree bark into clothing. They even have special ceremonies when they harvest the tree. That includes thanking the tree "for your clothes." Tourists in the right place at the right time can join the bark harvest. So if you're ever visiting Hokkaido, make sure you pay the Ainu a visit. You might be able to learn another country's bushcraft ;)
Our family of 7 recently found your channel, and we absolutely love it!!! I homeschool my kids, and we watch your videos together. Can you do some plant identification? We're a very outdoors family, and survival is a common topic as we're a medically retired military family.
Awesome! Thanks for your support! I can definitely do some survival related foraging videos
@sagesmokesurvival awesome thank you!!! Also, look for The Foxfire books. The oldest edition you can find. It's packed full of great information!!!
@@fallenangelwi25
There are digital copies on the Internet Archives site.
@@fallenangelwi25 @sagesmokesurvival Yes, the Foxfire books hold so much useful knowledge!
Awesome video! Southern Idaho is so beautiful and full of amazing places!
RIGHT ON ! Excellent- exact- info / demo. ! THANKS ! As a USN SERE - POW Inst . I was spoiled by 550 cord , etc. Thanks to our Negrito Troopers at the P.I. jungle school JEST, 1968 I moved into many useful primitive skills - teaching all types of students. Making CORDAGE is a " must have techniques ! " You are an excellent Inst. Mtn Mel -Ret 59- 82 USN, still learning- sharing- teaching .😊
I’ve been using tulip tree inner bark but it’s a bit difficult to get even strands. I recently tried dried daffodil leaves. Produces a pretty cordage. Will be trying dried dandelion stems next. Thanks for the tip on fast twisting! Good video. New sub.
Try using dead day lily leaves picked in the morning when they're still damp with dew. The cordage isn't particularly strong but it's _extremely_ comfortable against your skin, even after it dries out.
Could you use rendered animal fat to water proof the cordage and make it more pliable?
i have been thinking about melting tallow and resin together to make a salve, could probably be nice to use on cordage to. pine tar would be nice as well.
Yes you can!
@kringsja9913 pine tar is some awesome stuff. Ask any duckhunter: tarred decoy line was the standard for years.
@@notreallymyname3736 yeah i love tarred bank line, super grippy, and stays fresh
Beeswax as well for waterproofing
I think most plant or tree that are a Monocotyledons are a choice for cordage. You will notice them with Fibers straight along its trunk, not those with rings around w/c Dicotyledons.
one good example bamboo and Coconut, abaca, palm trees
Writing is the greatest invention humankind has ever made. Followed closely by string. Followed then closely by the wheel.
cordage is definitely important and a time consuming and difficult process so having it on hand is important. and being able to replace it is a must thanks for the vid!
invasive bittersweet is one of my favorite fiber and basketry plants. i can harvest as much as i want, and if its the right time of year the vines are PERFECT for weaving with. the fibers in the bast are so fine and silky too, also very strong. it takes a bit of processing but retting is an option. and the big vines that require a saw to cut through would provide so much fiber
I have used the bark of young elm trees before. I don't really know hoe good of cordage it makes I just did it to try it out. Great video!
I just made my first foot of cordage out of some nettle, using this video. It sure looks bad, and I don't know how to secure the end, but it did begin to feel more natural as I went. Kudos.
It's amazing! I just understood it and it works so well! Thank you for this great tutorial😁
Thank you, I was scratching my head on this process!
It's nice to see someone in my neighborhood (MT) doing these videos. Most bushcraft/survival vloggers are on the East Coast or overseas. New subscriber.
A method I use to judge a fibers suitability for cordage is to just wrap a small sample tightly around a stick or my finger. If it doesn't flex enough to wrap properly, or snaps under the combination of tension and flexion, it's usually unsuitable. If it survives, the test also gives you a sense at how it acts under the conditions cord is used in
I was watching someone makes pots from mud before this... Now rope from weeds. The universe is trying to tell me something! :) Very interesting, thanks for sharing.
Beauty-your videos are quick -to the point and well done!
Great video!
Became randomly curious about this, great lesson! I’m interested trying this and learning basic survival skills
There are two tests you can do with unknown plants to get a general idea if they're good for this. The bend test to see if fibers splinter off (less splintering is better), and the yank test to see if the fibers break when given a quick jerk. The only thing that's a kind of a real unknown is breakdown, because some materials don't survive weathering or get eaten rather quickly by environmental mold and bacteria after being extracted from whatever plant they came from.
Wow. Thank you!
Thanks for this! very useful - I'm surprised I've never thought of the value of making rope and lines. This is super for making shelters and clothing repairs out in the field. Great job!
Extremely helpful to see the winding technique. Dogbane is abundant in Tennessee. Awesome to see so much bush-indigo towards the end of the video!
We've got 2 cordyline Australis in our garden the leaves are so strong/tough, don't get them tangled up in the mower,lol, I've often thought they would make amazing strong cordage.
I love all the quick explanations you do!
Absolutely the Better of survival skills videos!
Could you make a video on how to make a net in nature and a other short with a list of tree that have alot of tanins and plant good for cortage depending on region i would really like it please day 1
Yes please
Ah! Thank you for showing how you peel a little from both directions so you lose less fibers! I was getting so frustrated by how i kept losing fibers.
I *just* learned how to identify the dogbanes (and you're right, it's everywhere) so I think I'll definitely be trying this!
Side questions:
- Does spreading dogbane not work, or is hemp dogbane simply better suited?
- Would picking and drying live plants also work, as an alternative of waiting until autumn?
Best TH-cam video I have seen in a while.
Clear and concise thanks!
Glad to have found your channel.
Awesome video! Thank you for going into so much Detail in this! You Rock!
My goodness this is the best cordage video ive seen and I've seen alot good job on good information.
thank you. learnt something valuable today.
I hope milkweed is the last choice as it's so important for butterflies. I've made cordage also out of bramble branches with good success. Thanks for your video!
If you have the luxury of time and resources.... Rotting the pith put works wonders. Keep it soaked for something like a week. Dry to fluff out the fibers, then keep in a damp cloth while working it. Its how flax was turned to luxurious linens, but works well on foraged fiber too for more robust enduring cordage.
So happy I found your channel. Great information, very concise and helpful. Thank you!
I never knew that I wanted to know this! Now I’m going to lose days trying this out! 😂
Great video as usual! You probably know this, but always work dogbane outdoors because inhaling the dust can cause serious cardiac issues. And NEVER burn and inhale the smoke. However, I've heard that you can smudge a shelter w it to rid it of pests. I've not tried this and don't recommend it, but it's a good thing to know. I'm not sure how long you'd have to wait after doing so to return to the shelter though.
Thank you! 🙏 🌄
Excellent! Thank you so much!
Finally!! Something I can ACTUALLY use!!
I will try this with nettle stalks, possibly willow too. 👍
I learned how to roll fiber along my thigh before I actually figured out the technicals of how to roll it with my fingers. Definitely important to know both though. Good video. Thanks!
Ah was waiting for this one
I have a new favorite video about making rope!
I'm glad I found this channel. Good info, well presented.
Great lesson.
Excellent. Thank you.
Super cool! And he looks and sounds like Louis CK on parks and rec😊
Amazing the things you didn't know, that you wish you knew. ❤. Thank you Following
amazing video like always thank man I’ve learned a lot from u ❤❤
Traditionally, NW indigenous people used inner bark of cedar for making rope and the fabric of capes.
Great video, thanks for sharing your knowledge. have a great day :)
Great video, bet I've ever seen on cordage 🙌. Thank you
Wondering about using wild cucumber and wild grape -- the vines can be very strong in the green state. Likewise hops -- a thin piece of the vine can be too strong to break.
Legend.
Awesome video, brilliant knowledge, perfectly explained, thank you!
Your videos are fantastic
Wonderful video. Thank you!
Thanks for the Education. I will try this, this fall!!
Great video mate 👍👍👍
I'd always wondered how it was made. Such a great invention.
It will be much stronger if you make 3 cords from 2 strands each (as shown here), then twist those 3 cords together (twisting the opposite way) into a larger cord or rope. I don't know exactly why this is but it is. If you look at manilla rope, it's usually 3 strands. This info is from The Ashley Book of Knots, the world's foremost authority on knots and secondarily, rope.
Love the detail in the video. Thank you.
Thank You Seth. Best to you
I am restoring an Austin Champ, which is one of the vehicles this engine is fitted to. Great video.
That was easy to watch 🤜🤛 thanks pal
good and practical, and based on working experience. Nice work.
Long winter days and evenings in the paleolithic were probably spent inside in front of a fire just twisting cordage from material harvested in the fall.