Survival Guide: Make YARDS of natural cordage in MINUTES
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- Опубликовано: 5 июн 2024
- Cordage making is a core skill that humans have depended on for millenia. In our modern world of manufactured convenience, comparitively very few people still know how to do this ancient craft. Practicing this not only hones a usefull survival skill, but also rewilds us, brings us closer to the land and changes our perspective. Suddenly, you will see useful materials and plants where you have never seen them before. At least, that's been my experience. I hope this video help you! Comment with what you'd like to see next!
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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?
Holy shit. This was a masterclass in plant fibers and natural cordage. Color me impressed
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.
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.
You certainly have a knack for explaining things.
Well that's the point
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
Wherabouts? I would love to be taught this craft. Main issue for me is really the plant identification
Such clear and effective instruction! Thank you! I love the clearly shot closeups of the finger work and splicing in new fibers.
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
ive used this technique to make bowstring before (with standardised length artificial fibres) so its been great to learn how to chain together fibres!
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!
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.
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 RUclips wants the game to be played favors a mix of both
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.
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.
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.
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!!!
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.
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.
I’ve wondered where the heck ropes and cordage came from in survival applications for years, thanks so much for this!
I'm glad I found this channel. Good info, well presented.
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.
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.
I love all the quick explanations you do!
Ah was waiting for this one
Excellent video!
Awesome video! Thank you for going into so much Detail in this! You Rock!
Keep these videos coming.✌
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.
thank you. learnt something valuable today.
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.
So happy I found your channel. Great information, very concise and helpful. Thank you!
good and practical, and based on working experience. Nice work.
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
Thank You Seth. Best to you
Love the detail in the video. Thank you.
Awesome video, thank you!
That was interesting. Thanks!
amazing video like always thank man I’ve learned a lot from u ❤❤
I'd always wondered how it was made. Such a great invention.
My goodness this is the best cordage video ive seen and I've seen alot good job on good information.
Great presentation .. Very valuable skill indeed.
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!
Great instruction
You're a really cool guy Seth
Great video, thanks for sharing your knowledge. have a great day :)
Great tutorial ❤
Great video, bet I've ever seen on cordage 🙌. Thank you
Legend.
Awesome video, brilliant knowledge, perfectly explained, thank you!
That was easy to watch 🤜🤛 thanks pal
Thanks, I have wondered about that.
Terrific vid, you're a great teacher. Subscribing.
Great video, thanks. Subscribed.
Thank you
This is a very useful abd interesting video.
Good enough for me to subscribe.
That net looked great.
Graet show man. Liked and subscribed. Peace ✌️
wow what a neat world we live in, I wanna make some cordage.
Great 👍
Would do a video making cordage from sinew?
That would be excellent 👍
Traditional cordage often utilized the rhetting process, soaking cordage in icy cold winter waters. The process is actually a fermentation of sorts that allows microorganisms to eat away at the woody tissues surrounding the fibres/fibers.
Thanks!
I am restoring an Austin Champ, which is one of the vehicles this engine is fitted to. Great video.
Great tutorial with clear footage. Well done. you have a teachers spirit. Subscribing as a thanks and to see more from ya.
Interesting channel. I will practice in nature or in forest. Hemp is very traditional. Long nettles too. Middle-aged techniques in Europe. Will try to practice. To late for me to live like Amerindian or coureur des bois. Nice look with hat. Look sympathetic. Thanks for posting.
You can also use cordage to plat into a sling with which to hunt small animals
awesome. ty.
Great video. Would love to learn about buscraft hooks and traditional native lures.
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.
Nice 👍hello from Washington
In the NW ceder bark is the go to😊
Ah finally, the Guide to Plant Fiber Cordage
I use the hair from my hairbrush. Been doing it for years and have tons of cordage
Hi, can u make a video about how u got started (the whole story).
How to get started.
pros and cons.
there is a great trick to building cordage, beat the stalk with a rock and it should break down, if there are strands that remain, that's cordage material if kept long enough. then test the tensile strength
Artemisia works well too
❤
try bitter sweet vine, works great.
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 feel like my dad saying this but...hemp!! 👑
We have vines we used to swing from trees on as kids that would be perfect. The vines were already 20+ feet long tons of those fibers. I think they were dead poison oak vines that had been there for some time.
That's a really well put together intro into this valuable skill , thanks so much, can't wait to try it. Here in UK it's gonna be stingy nettles...any tips on how to not get stung to death ? Apart from gloves? Cheers mate. 👍
Use a rock with a rough edge to scrape them away, or the back of a knife.
Great video on how to. Where would you recommend finding good materials to ise in our area without trial/error?
Names of plants too?
Where do you buy those flannel shirts they’re awesome
👍
(I haven't finished the video while writing this) You may have already but you mentioned making it thicker for what would be rope, not thread; can you make a video for that
The pain those plants must feel when you harvest and brutally snap n beat the crap out of it.... 😮 The horror.. all jks aside thanks for the video I needed a refresher
I tried to make rope from fresh nettles quite a few times but have had difficulty getting long fibers. Would you recommand using dry nettles instead? It looks too "snappy" to be able to get some fibers from it. Will try your technique.
So did you make that hat from cordage? If so, that is a brilliant way to EDC alot of cordage!!....
Hey Seth
You are so young and yet you seem to have a lot of Bushcraft knowledge. Did you learn it from your father or your grandfather where were you mentored by one of the Sioux or nez Perce or any other native in your area
Any idea how well would Canada thistle work to make cordage? It seems somewhat similar to dog bane
if i retwist the cordage again with the same technique, does it make it even stronger? Like does rebraiding strands of braided cordage compund the strength?
I have a question. I have seen a lot if videos on making two stranded cordage but no one seems to make videos on three stranded cordage/rope. Seems to me that three stranded cordage would be stronger and more stable to use.
Anyone had much success with fireweed? I've always used stinging nettle, but am tempted to give fireweed a go for it's long fibres.
I'm wandering...could I do three instead of two...with reverse twist?
Can cordage be made from live or fresh fibers not dried ones? Thanks
Some plants can be used either way, but in general I think dry is easier.
amazing video, after watching i attempted to make cortege, i failed and gave up.
This isn't the first cordage video I've seen and I heard something on another one that I never really tested because I don't find myself actually ever having to make any. Maybe I can get your input on this....when you first start twisting, don't start on the middle that way when you're splicing on more material the weak points are staggered rather than both splices being in the same spot. Does that make sense?
That's what I do too so the splices are staggered.
What types of plants could be used in Missouri?
S.e. Missouri, we have yucca, dogbane, some places stinging nettle. Someone in the comments mentioned day lily leaves, we certainly have plenty of that. Very interesting video.
How do you make cordage from nettles without getting stung?
Can you make cordage from green dogbane