Winter Bow Drill Cordage

[Dugs]

Hi, long time no post,

I recently succeeded in making fire from a bow drill set I put together whilst out in the woods, which has been a long term goal for me. I used nettle cordage which worked well without having to dry it out.

This got me thinking about what would be a good cordage for repeating this in winter? Think freezing temperatures and snow covered ground.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Louis

 

[Toddy]

Bast fibres like lime or willow bark, spruce roots, and the like. Hard to get the roots up sometimes when it's frozen ground though. Bark comes off and it warms up and seperates with a fair bit of work. Beating it helps.
That said, in drier areas nettles stand over winter, and when the leaves have fallen the stems can be stripped of their sheathing and that is a kind of natural retting process that leaves the fine fibers available for spinning into beautiful cordage
If you can find decent condition rushes, they can be stripped out and shredded into fine lengths. Those twist and ply up very well. They won't take dogs abuse, but they will work at a pinch. Tried it and it's not multi use stuff, but it did the job.

There's another one that will sound totally off the wall, but garden lobelia, if left in situ, quietly rots down to a cluster of stems. Those stems are rich in fibre though, because the lobelia is a member of the flax family and it'll twist up into good cordage too. Clematis (pick the right kind though) also works. Fiona managed it with ivy, and I managed it using fleece gathered from a barbed wire fence.

Bound to be folks know a lot more than I do though.

Nice interesting topic fun to play around with

 

[Dugs]

Many Thanks,

I shall give the bark a go. hopefully it won't be too difficult to get off the tree. I imagine it will be easier to separate from dead wood.

Cheers

 

[Robson Valley]

I disagree, Dugs. To separate the long fiber from the rest of the different cell types in the bark,
try to go with fresh bark first, if you can. Harvest nettle for mid-winter efforts. Lots and lots of it.

Many big western red cedars here on the west coast have long, wide grooves where bark has been pulled.
It has to be boiled to soften it and split it into thin strips for weaving capes and hats.

 

[Falstaff]

I tried picking some dead dry nettle but it just powdered away, I could,nt get anything like fibers from it ?

 

[Toddy]

Rotted not retted

If the nettle stands dry, then it flakes off it's outer peel and the fibrous stuff clings to the stems. Hemp does the same. Flax, if it stands and doesn't fall, does too, but it goes grey not so white, and not so good for spinners.

 

[Falstaff]

Hmm ok..thought I'd picked dry standing nettles but maybe I was too rough rolling it between my palms.

 

[Toddy]

If it hasn't rotted, it'll be sound enough to twist up and not shatter into crumbs.

Thing is though, mostly we use nettle straight from the stem and the peel is still on it...that gives us a false impression of the staple length of nettle fibres. Flax and hemp will give easily eighteen inches, often longer, cotton you're lucky if you have an inch, but nettle is somewhere between four and six inches.
It needs to be spun slightly damp for best effort. Spin it fine and ply it up and it's absolutely beautiful, but it's not the fast quick cordage that most folks think of from nettle.
Good nettle fibres spins up fine enough that it can weave finer cloth than linen.