inspiration

[Tantalus]

wow , is this the future of bushcraft??

:shock: Tant

 

[familne]

Certainly hope so

 

[jakunen]

Me too! (Damn no 'letch' smilie...) :rolmao:

Guess nettle will have to be taken off the This is a weed list...

 

[Wayne]

She would be more than welcome to model at the meet up

 

[ranger]

The futures looking good then!!!

ranger

 

[Keith_Beef]

Me too! (Damn no 'letch' smilie...) :rolmao:

Guess nettle will have to be taken off the This is a weed list...

:yum: What a versatile plant the nettle is.

Not only makes tasty soup, eh

(you see, Jak, there is a letch smilie).

"It is a slightly hairy fibre."

.

As for being on the weed list, why is hemp not being promoted as a fibre? As I remember it, hemp has the longest filaments, and fewer joins means stronger finished yarns.


Keith.

 

[jakunen]

Missed that one.

Hemp is a more versatile fibre, and IIRC the government is funding research into drug-free hemp for clothing and paper...

And Wayne, you're right! She would certainly enhance the meet! (Does you're missus read the forum btw?)

 

[Lurch]

Favourite quote from the article

"It is a slightly hairy fibre."

Hoof, hoof. Fnar, fnar.

I'll get me coat....

 

[Lurch]

Missed that one.

Hemp is a more versatile fibre, and IIRC the government is funding research into drug-free hemp for clothing and paper...

I vaguely remember reading an article that suggested on of the reasons cannabis is so prohibited is down to the cotton producers of the US funding a smear campaign in order to tar all hemp items with t'same brush.
Specifically it was alleged that "Reefer Madness" was backed by a representative organisation of the cotton industry.
Hemp for clothing, paper, cordage is already available and is a crop which needs minimal care in terms of fertilizer/herbices etc. The hemp used for these products contains tiny amounts of the active cannaboids (you'd need to smoke literally acres) so any such research is pointless.

 

[steve a]

As part of a project we grew a number of crops on reclaimed land, the yields, groth rate etc were monitored against local arable land. One of the crops was Hemp, this was to be used in the manufcture of paper for banknotes.This reserch was partically funded by HMG, as it was looking into the use of landfill site and reclaimed gravel pits which they were interested in at the time.

 

[eraaij]

The future of Bushcraft never looked so good!

-Emile

 

[EdS]

Just read some papers on Nettles as an alternative crop for fibre.

http://www.defra.gov.uk/farm/acu/research/reports/RDREP04.PDF

http://www.nnfcc.com/about/scope.cfm

 

[Keith_Beef]

I vaguely remember reading an article that suggested on of the reasons cannabis is so prohibited is down to the cotton producers of the US funding a smear campaign in order to tar all hemp items with t'same brush.
Specifically it was alleged that "Reefer Madness" was backed by a representative organisation of the cotton industry.
Hemp for clothing, paper, cordage is already available and is a crop which needs minimal care in terms of fertilizer/herbices etc. The hemp used for these products contains tiny amounts of the active cannaboids (you'd need to smoke literally acres) so any such research is pointless.

Hmm... that thing about the film "Reefer Madness" being funded by Cotton money is interesting.

Hemp was used for centuries in Europe as a fibre for making rope and canvas.

Apparently, the word "canvas" is a mediaeval Dutch form of the word "cannabis").

The big main road of Marseille is called the "Cannebière", which in the local dailect means "hemp field". The fibres were used to make sails and ropes for the ships that came into the port.

There are may reasons why hemp production should be encouraged in Europe.


Keith.

 

[Lurch]

Never knew that thing about the origin of canvas. Learn summat new every day and all that.
More hemp facts!
George Washington grew hemp, in fact there was a time when hemp growth was compulsory!
Hemp is still used for some ropes today.
The best purse nets (used for ferreting) are made from hemp.

 

[steve a]

In Camden there is a shop called 'the Hemp Shop' . It sells a range of clothing all made from ....hemp. The cloth produced is really very strong, and resilient, I bought a shirt from there and find the material cool in the heat,it breaths well, and unlike cotton it does not hold onto moisture.
Reccommended and should be encouraged.

 

[Ed]

The best purse nets (used for ferreting) are made from hemp.

Yep, I make my nets out of hemp.... its very strong stuff.

;-)
Ed

 

[Jazzman]

Indeed, that is a good idea, seeing as nettle fibre is probably one of the strongest you will get. plus as was said earlier it is a hugely versatile plant... go on the nettles.

 

[dataphage]

I vaguely remember reading an article that suggested on of the reasons cannabis is so prohibited is down to the cotton producers of the US funding a smear campaign in order to tar all hemp items with t'same brush.
Specifically it was alleged that "Reefer Madness" was backed by a representative organisation of the cotton industry.

Lurch this is an interesting bit of media/corporate history; Howard Hughes, the newspaper magnate whose life Citizen Kane is based on, owned large woodpulping concerns in the US which he used for the paper in his newspapers. Hemp was beggining to be used for more and more paper and cloth products as the amount of useable fibre it produces per acre and the speed at which it grows far outstrip the softgrain woods used for woodpulp and even outstrip Flax which is used to make linnen. It also makes a far stronger paper or cloth than either of the others is capapble of.

Hughes, with the support of the cotton industry, which was still using semi-slave labour at the time, and other interested parties used his newspapers to orchestrate a smear campaign against a very significant threat to both cotton & woodpulp. Associating hemp grown for fibre, which as you pointed out has almost none of the active ingredient in, with the cannabinoid species sold as "grass" (or "tea", which was the preferred nickname at the time, although strangely people that smoked it at the time were called "hopheads", weird) was the chosen method of pulling down a more efficient & greener industry. The film Reefer Madness was as I recall made with Hughes money. Also a bit strangely the dollar bill was printed on hemp paper prior to this campaign. I think this was replaced with linnen/cotton mix down the line.

I'm damned if I can remember where I read all this but I'll see if I can dig out the books to refresh my memory.

 

[Tantalus]

although strangely people that smoked it at the time were called "hopheads",

the 2 plants are distantly related

one of the tricks used to be to graft hemp onto a hop plant where it grows and looks just like hops, just dont say i told ya so

Tant

 

[steve a]

This is a bit of info on our Hemp crop, apparently the local youths thought they had hit paydirt and the local cops had to go in and sort it out.

RMC Aggregates produces hemp (Cannabis sativa) on 14 hectares of a restored sand and gravel pit in Surrey. This tough, natural material can be processed into products including canvas and rope. The latest RMC crop is destined for the lining of BMW car doors.

Teenagers find their field of dreams has gone to pot
Andrew Buncombe, Independent

To the teenagers who found it, the 35 acres must have seemed like the original field of dreams.

Deepest Surrey is hardly the place you’d expect to find a cannabis plantation, but here were thousands of plants, laid out in rows, and up to 5ft tall. There were no guard dogs, no fences and no security staff.

Word quickly spread among the teenagers in Send, near Guildford, that there was this field where you could go and help yourself to handfuls of Cannabis sativa.

But then—as is often the case with dreams—reality set in. Locals complained about the numbers of teenagers being drawn to the site, some clambering through gardens to get to the field. “I was absolutely horrified when my son took me there,” said onewoman, who asked not to be named. “Small children as young as 10 have been playing in that field. Nobody knows about it except the teenagers—all the teenage fraternity know about it.”

There was further disillusionment when the police became involved, stopping the teenagers and making them give up their pocketfuls of leaves, which they were planning to take home, dry out and smoke. “As with any theft, including crops, we will takesteps to stop people who steal other people’s property,” said a spokeswoman for Surrey Police.

And then, after all that, the dream was shattered for ever with the revelation that the stuff was not even worth smoking. The cannabis at Cricket Hill Lane was actually industrial hemp, designed to be used as lining for door panels of BMW cars.

It would have been impossible to get stoned smoking it: while illegal cannabis contains around 10 per cent of the intoxicant delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), regulations laid down by the Home Office ensure the hemp at Send contains no more than 0.3per cent.

A spokesmen for RMC Aggregates, which is growing the hemp, said: “ Hemp is a traditional crop that today has unfortunate connections. However, the harvest from Send is capable of nothing more harmful than being incorporated into car interiors.”