making nettle cordage

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Siberianfury

Native
Jan 1, 1970
1,534
6
mendip hills, somerset
Stinging Nettles (Urtica dioica) are amazing plants, rich in Vitamin C and Iron, they provide a very substansial food scource. however they also produce very strong fibres running up the stalks which have been used in the past for clothing and of course string.


mid september and october are the best months to harvist nettles for their fibres, as they have had all spring and summer to grow to a large size yet they should still be alive and unwilted by the frost.when harvesting nettles i find that the side of rides and paths to be the best place, as the large quanitiy of avalible light allows the nettles to grow very large very quickly, larger plants mean longer fibres which makes cordage making alot easier.

Rather than clearing out a large clump of nettles it is more economical to walk along the ride and pick only the best examples of nettles, these will be tall nettles with thick stalks. the ones to avoid are the thin soft nettles and the dry ones that have started to wilt and die.

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now there is a method of picking and processing stinging nettles with bare hands without getting stung, for this you will need to grab the plant firmly at the base with one hand and with the other strip the laves off in the direction of the plants growth. despite this method, im going to wear some thick gardening gloves to reduce the chance of being stung even more.

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I am going to be making two metres of nettle cordage so im going to collect roughly ten nettles, a good rule of thumb is to harvist more nettles than you think you will need.

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Now i Have collected my nettles the next job is to strip them of thieir leaves, i do this by grasping the base of the nettle firmly with one hand, then i firmly brush the other hand up the nettle in the direction of the plants growth, this will strip the nettle of its leaves and leave me with a clean stalk to work with.

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now that the nettles are striped of their leaves that brings me onto the next process, splitting the stem of the nettle.
the best way to do this is with the butt of a knife against a hard surface. I hold the stem of the nettle against the block, and with the butt of my knife i push down on the nettle firmly, working my way up the stem from the base.

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The next process is removing the pith from the nettle. To do this i run my finger down the splits in the stem, graduably opening the stem out.

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Then i hold the stem with the pith facing up and break it in such a way that the pith snaps but the fibres on the outside of the stem remain intact. Then i peel away the pith with my fingers and disgard it. as its the fibres i need for the cordage.

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now that i have my fibres separated from the stem i will peel them away from each other carefully, creating gradualy thinner fibres yet trying my hardest to keep them as long as possible.

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now i have my fibres ready i will hang them up to dry over night, because if i where to bind them into cordage whilst they are too wet they are liable to separate and break.

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i will continue this once my fibres have dryed :)


After a Night of drying, the nettle fibres appear thinner, this is a good chance to suss out which fibres you wish to use for your cordage. I went for resonably thin fibres to create a fine string.

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I start by wetting the fibres slightly with a tiny bit of saliva, just to help the flexibility. then to produce the cordage i find the center of the fibre, fold it in half, and twist each half in the same direction, this forces the fibres to tightly twist together, making the cord much stronger and more durable.

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there are many different ways of doing this, many people find the best way is to roll the fibres on their legs, however i find it easier just rolling the fibres with my fingertips.

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every so often you will find that you will need to add a new fibre to extend the length of the cordage, the way i do this is to wrap the new fibre around the shortest existing fibre and carry on twisting as normal.

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When the cord gets so long that it trails on the floor, the best thing to do is to wrap the end around a twig, this keeps it neat, keeps tension and allows it to twist when needed which prevents it from unbinding.


the Cordage is finaly finished, all two metres on it. ready to be used for primitive fishing, repairing or binding.

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Last edited:

outdoorpaddy

Nomad
Mar 21, 2011
311
3
Northern Ireland
Great tutorial so far. On the w'lore fundamental course we had to pick and process 15 nettles about five foot high and seeing as I left my gloves in my tent I felt a right pillock screaming my head off after the third or forth nettle lol. Gloves are DEFINITELY a good idea.
As ever, clear and concise tutorial, great work

outdoorpaddy
 

Thenihilist

Nomad
Oct 3, 2011
301
0
Fife, Scotland
Nettles good because of it's strengh but unless i wan't it for making snares or long term lashings it's a hassle.

Would be good if you could carve a swivel to show folks how to make decent lenghs quickly instead of laying by hand as guides are everywhere showing how to lay by hand but not many folks do it with a swivel.

Good tutorial so far though.

If you have not got an abundance of nettles then, thistles, rosebay willowherb and greater reedmace will make an almost identical cord to nettles.
 

Mick w.

Nomad
Aug 20, 2011
261
0
west yorkshire, uk
This is going to be my next 'project'. Saw uncle Ray doing a similar thing on youtube t'other night. Awaiting part two of this thread with anticipation...
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,937
4,570
S. Lanarkshire
Do you find willowherb strong?
I find it snappy and not very sound.

Reedmace I only use for basketry or for string from the fine withered leaves I remove from the soft stems.

Learn to make nettle on your leg, it makes strong cordage, especially plied, but the swivel's a footer until you have the original string made up, and you have to break out the fibres first for that if you want something 'tight' and hard wearing.
Good for making grass ropes though.
The most beautiful nettle cordage I've seen was hand twisted and laid, and I know of someone who makes truly excellent fishing lines from it and it's plaited along all 20 or 30 metres of the stuff :D

cheers,
Toddy
 

Thenihilist

Nomad
Oct 3, 2011
301
0
Fife, Scotland
Do you find willowherb strong?
I find it snappy and not very sound.

Reedmace I only use for basketry or for string from the fine withered leaves I remove from the soft stems.

Learn to make nettle on your leg, it makes strong cordage, especially plied, but the swivel's a footer until you have the original string made up, and you have to break out the fibres first for that if you want something 'tight' and hard wearing.
Good for making grass ropes though.
The most beautiful nettle cordage I've seen was hand twisted and laid, and I know of someone who makes truly excellent fishing lines from it and it's plaited along all 20 or 30 metres of the stuff :D

cheers,
Toddy

It depends on the application i wan't it for, but it isn't as strong as nettle but it is more than adequate for general lashings using the swivel method, for fishing lines and things where an accurate twist is desirable then hand rolling is the best way to ensure accuracy and strength.
 

Thenihilist

Nomad
Oct 3, 2011
301
0
Fife, Scotland
There are so many binding materials in the woods that cordage is only needed for specialised applications. For shelter building etc i generally use nettle, bramble, willowherb etc whole for holding up ridgepoles etc

I was taught to use willow for fishing lines as it won't deteriorate in the water as fast as nettle.
 

Mick w.

Nomad
Aug 20, 2011
261
0
west yorkshire, uk
Well, I went out last night in the lashing down rain, got soaked, got stung, but got my nettles! Took 'em home, squished them, all's well so far and I'm chuffed up to that point. Splitting them into fibres wasn't too bad, although not as neat and straight as I expected. But trying to get the pith out messed the whole job up, the fibres just split and tore into useless thin lengths.
Maybe a bit more practice needed, or different nettles? The ones I picked were the bigger ones, with purply stems, almost but not quite woody. Would green stems have been better?
 

Thenihilist

Nomad
Oct 3, 2011
301
0
Fife, Scotland
Jeeso chief this string laugh isn't easy, i've made tonnes of paracord thickness up to 1/2 inch thick stuff from natural materials but it's bloody hard making it very thin.

First time my strands were different diameters so one just wrapped around the other so i had to undo the lot and start again and got it, it's really fiddly.

Would need to thicken it up for fishing line but it'll be good for repairs.
 

Tony

White bear (Admin)
Admin
Apr 16, 2003
24,131
1
1,879
53
Wales
www.bushcraftuk.com
Jeeso chief this string laugh isn't easy, i've made tonnes of paracord thickness up to 1/2 inch thick stuff from natural materials but it's bloody hard making it very thin.

First time my strands were different diameters so one just wrapped around the other so i had to undo the lot and start again and got it, it's really fiddly.

Would need to thicken it up for fishing line but it'll be good for repairs.

It's good to be able to do thin for fishing, if you have a bit of thin on the end (a tapered line) you'll only lose that end if it snaps rather than it snapping half way down the line and you losing loads of hard work, it doesn't have to be much thinner than the main line, tapering it down in size is good, I tend to taper the last couple of feet.
When it does snap it's easy enough to recreate the end, that's one of the beauties of natural cordage....:D
 

salad

Full Member
Sep 24, 2008
1,779
133
51
In the Mountains
Nice one Josh, well put together mate.

But where are your Jeans bud ????? you have turned to the dark side an gone and got yer self some nice bushcrafty trousers :)
 

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