My first attempt at some cordage

[TomBartlett]

A couple of weeks ago I gathered some bark and left it to dry. With a sleepy Sunday to hand, I thought I'd try turning it into string.

Here's the bark soaking:

Here it is, all wet and bendy:

I stuck my knife into a handy piece of wood to help cut the bark into strips:

While it was fun doing it that way, I found it a lot quicker and easier to just tear the bark into strips:

Pretty soon I had lots of strips ready for rolling:

Here me rolling it into cordage, amazing how quickly it goes:

Before I knew it I had about a metre done:

Here's a close-up of a little bit that I doubled up:

Here the final fruits of my labours:

I was surprised by the ease of it. I found putting new strips in a little fiddly. The metre piece isn't very neat. It's got some fat bits and thin bits. There are places where one strand looks like it's wrapping round the other, rather than both of them twisting together, but hopefully I'll do a better job of it next time!
A very nice way to spend my morning.

 

[JonathanD]

Your getting there. To stop one strand turning around the other, you need to twist the straighter strand more. Twist them both very tightly and let the main woven part twist naturally with minimum encouragement and you should get something more even, where even thick and thin strands will blend in together more naturally like this...

The key is very tight twists.


.

 

[TomBartlett]

Thanks for the advice! I'll definitely be giving it another go soon.

 

[JonathanD]

Thanks for the advice! I'll definitely be giving it another go soon.

You are doing more than well as it it is, you should have it cracked next go.

 

[drewdunnrespect]

nicely done tom i think i might have go at this

 

[Mesquite]

What bark were you using?

 

[bushcraftbob]

Good work i find cordage making very satisfying. its amazing how we take cordage for granted these days! I've made nettle and willow cord but completely failed with Lime cordage - will have to have a crack again some time.

 

[Outdoor_Guy]

Thank you for sharing this.. It's very interesting to me.. These sort of skills always fascinate me!

 

[vizsla]

good work mate, just a quick tip if u didnt do it, try removing the green outer bark from the inner as u will find it courses the bark to go dry and rot quicker, hope that helps cheers...