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crashdive123
06-23-2008, 06:55 AM
Many of us have made cordage. Mac has posted and excellent video on making cordage. How long will it last? Will the cordage you make be around in....oh....say 4000 years? I thought this was interesting. http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/06/20/rope-cave-egyptian.html In the second link, about half way down the page is a short video talking about the find. http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/06/20/dna-salad-dressing.html I wonder what the shelf life is on salad dressing

Pict
06-23-2008, 08:19 AM
Very cool article. I find it amazing that such a cave could remain undiscovered for so long. The rope looks like good stuff. The material appears to be bark, especially in the larger rope.

How long it lasts is a matter of how its stored. UV light does a number on natural materials. I would say laid out in a bone dry cave it would be around forever but you wouldn't want to hang off a cliff with it. Ordinary hemp rope will dry rot if left in the rain and sun. Some of the barks I've used have alot of tannin in them, they really toughen up your fingers if you work the bark when wet. I don't know what long term effect the tannin has onthe rope. I imagine that once anything in the rope that can ozidize finally does that it remains stable for a long time.

Ray Mears has a segment out there in his Bushcraft series about making willow cordage. He uses ashes to boil the material first but doesn't really explain the chemical "why" of it. I have never done that but plan to make willow cordage back in the US so I guess I'll figure it out eventually.

The two-ply cordage on the right of that first photo in the article looks like the Imbira cordage I make here, just more uniform. Mac