Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Primitive living can be greatly enhanced with cordage, which is just a fancy term for string,
twine, and rope. Cordage is handy for thatching your roof, lashing together branches for your
shelter, stringing a bow, sewing your garments, making nets for fish, snaring animals, and so
on. Many indigenous societies have been literally held together with string. You can make
cordage from a variety of materials, including hair, fur, hides, narrow strips of cloth, and a mul-
titude of plant fibers.
Recommended Plant Fibers
For many thousands of years, native peoples have gathered and spun plant fibers from thou-
sands of different plants. Their cords have made ropes strong enough to hold elephants and
carry suspension bridges across hundred-foot-wide gorges in the Himalayas. Archaeologists
have discovered 10,000-year-old fishing nets that are still intact. Any strong flexible plant can
make cordage. The following list is for starters, but use the “fiber test” to ensure that the plants
you are working with are adequate for cordage. Some of the plants on the list can work well
only at certain times of the year or under certain conditions. Common plant fiber sources are
listed below.
•
Leaf fibers
: Yucca, cattail, reeds, iris, agave, and palmetto.
•
Dry outer bark:
Bulrush, sage, willow, and cattail.
•
Wet inner bark:
Aspen, cottonwood, sage, juniper, willow, cedar, mesquite, walnut,
cherry, slippery elm, and hawthorn.
•
Bast fibers:
Soft fibers located between the outer bark and a woody stem on many
common weeds, such as dogbane, milkweed, hemp, stinging nettle, evening prim-
rose, flax, fireweed, hollyhock, and wild licorice. Dogbane is commonly acknow-
ledged as one of the best fibers for cordage.
•
Roots:
Spruces, poplar, and lupines.
•
Whole plants:
Rushes, cattail, sedge, and various grasses (most grasses are weak
when dry).
Fiber Test
• Tie a knot in a small bundle of fibers to check for flexibility. If it breaks, the fibers
are too brittle.
• Spin a small length of twine. Pull on the twine to check for strength. Good fibers for
cordage grip together when spun tightly, but fibers that are too slippery and smooth
will not hold together.
