Rosebay Willowherb cordage

[gregorach]

Digging up this thread again....

I had a shot at making rosebay cordage yesterday, and had fairly reasonable success. Rather than using a wilted stem as Toddy suggests, I used a fresh flowering green one. I removed the leaves, bashed the stem to break up the woody insides a bit, split it lengthwise using my thumbnail (didn't do a great job of this stage, but I reckon with practice it would be easy), then flattened the stem and removed the pith (thumbnail again). The woody inner then separates from the outer skin quite easily, just by bending it backwards over the edge of something. I managed to get maybe 18-24 inches of continuous length, and it would've been more if I'd made a better job of splitting the stem in the first place. Twisted it green - it's quite sticky, which makes it twist nicely. The dried cordage seems fairly strong, apart from my bad splicing.

I reckon it's got potential with a bit of practice. Maybe using it young and green is the trick...

 

[Cyclingrelf]

Digging up this thread again....

I had a shot at making rosebay cordage yesterday, and had fairly reasonable success. Rather than using a wilted stem as Toddy suggests, I used a fresh flowering green one. I removed the leaves, bashed the stem to break up the woody insides a bit, split it lengthwise using my thumbnail (didn't do a great job of this stage, but I reckon with practice it would be easy), then flattened the stem and removed the pith (thumbnail again). The woody inner then separates from the outer skin quite easily, just by bending it backwards over the edge of something. I managed to get maybe 18-24 inches of continuous length, and it would've been more if I'd made a better job of splitting the stem in the first place. Twisted it green - it's quite sticky, which makes it twist nicely. The dried cordage seems fairly strong, apart from my bad splicing.

I reckon it's got potential with a bit of practice. Maybe using it young and green is the trick...

Hey - thanks for digging this up again. I did the same as you pretty much - keep meaning to put photos up...I made nettle string at the same time for comparison. Nettle still seems to have the edge for strength, but the Rosebay Willowherb is certainly very serviceable. I made about 4 metres of it, I think. I'll put up those photos this evening!

 

[Toddy]

Nicely done folks Did it ply up again to make good rope? Some not so good strings, like daffodil, make excellent handling ropes.

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[gregorach]

I didn't try it, but it seems quite promising. What I've got at the moment is more like a heavy sewing thread - about 1mm diameter, maybe less. Quite springy though.

 

[Cyclingrelf]

Hi Toddy - I haven't tried to make rope, but here's some photos of what I did:

Picked some Rosebay Willowherb:

Stripped the leaves off (tried not to pull too much of the outer skin off the stem whilst doing this!)

Very lightly crushed the stems (they don't need much)

Split the stem using a thumbnail (makes it easier to remove the outer skin)

Peel the outer skin off the stem

Hang the skins up to dry

Dry and ready to go!

Completed string

 

[Moonraker]

Great illustrated guide Cyclingrelf.

Wish we had more guides informed by personal experience and supplemented by good photos like this.

On usability I read this earlier:

Thin willowherb cordage if made from the right part (dead looking brown fibers) will hold over 8lb of static weight.......cool for stream fishing!

source: Tracker Trail forums

 

[Toddy]

Excellent post Cyclingrelf, :You_Rock_
How dry did you let it get before you twined it? Did yours shink much as it dried out fully?

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[Abbe Osram]

Great work, great pictures. Thanks a lot!
cheers
Abbe

 

[Cyclingrelf]

How dry did you let it get before you twined it? Did yours shink much as it dried out fully?

Hi Toddy,

I think I left it overnight, and it was pretty sunny...so couldn't have been much drier. I did forget to say that I split the outer skin into about 4 strands each after removing from the plant, before drying. This tends to give strands with tapered ends and variety of thickness, so you can work them in to the string more easily and mix and match them to get an even thickness of string.

I should have taken photos of the string making as well, shouldn't I? Oh well...I wet my fingers when I'm rolling the strands on my leg (so they're a little bit 'stickier' and easier to roll). This means the Willowherb is dampened again slightly as I work. But it's only slightly damp as I work it, so the string didn't noticeably shrink at all once complete.

Thanks everyone for the nice comments!

 

[gregorach]

I twisted mine totally green, and didn't notice any appreciable shrinkage.

Any idea of breaking strain? My ~1mm string seems to have a breaking strain of about 3-4 lbs.

 

[leon-b]

thanks cyclingrelf that was a great tutorial well done, it seems that it is nearly identical as nettle cordage in the way that it is made
leon

 

[jdlenton]

thats right leon same technique different plant fibers

 

[leon-b]

well i can make nettle cordage succesfully, so i might give this a try, i will have to research the plant a bit as i dont know how to identify it or where it lives
leon

 

[shutupthepunx]

i made fireweed corage for the first time yesterday. just picked the dying plants, skinned them and 2-plyed it. no drying, no soaking no nothing. seems pretty good. i was quite impressed with myself. pictures to follow hopefully