Coppicing to make rope.

[erunkiswldrnssurvival]

This is a wood lore practice that I found in a book by Ramond Meyers , ISBN 0-312-09359-4 The trees cut yearly to encourage new shoots is a rapid way to replentish rope material resorces. what do you think about this concept?


http://www.wilderness-survival.net/forums/picture.php?albumid=16&pictureid=203

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/forums/picture.php?albumid=16&pictureid=202


If you think that there is a better way to manage rope bark trees used for that purpose, what do you think should be done?

[crashdive123]

Take a look at Pict's video on making cordage. He makes some great cordage and doesn't need to rely on "after several years of growth" to be able to make new cordage.

[Pict]

This practice really isn't about making cordage but rather managing the resources that are used to make it. I can imagine that in a fixed location like a village, especially one that isn't surrounded by trackless miles of jungle that managing resources for the long term sustainability of a basket weaving industry would be a good idea. It makes perfect sense to cut the grove of willows down by the river in a manner that will create more of the stuff you use every year to create your products.

In a wilderness survival situation, you just use what you have on hand and get the job done. In my cordage making video the wood I used had been cut the week before on an alpine survival exercise by one of my students. I don't normally allow any cutting above 4500 feet as trees are few and far between. I teach them to rather cut a long pole in one of the lower forests and carry it up as a walking stick they can also use for their shelter. They then leave the stick on the mountain in a good shelter location, protected from the weather for future use.

In that case my student happened to cut an Imbira pole up on the mountain for his shelter and had left it, bark on, in a cleft in the rocks. We had used a portion of it the week before to make cordage. The following week I was back up there with my daughter and we hauled it out again and made the cordage video.

http://img103.imageshack.us/img103/439/img3112kb7.jpg
That's the pole at the far end of Valcione's shelter.

Making Bark Cordage (http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=kXW95Ux-4GE)

Alpine Survival Scenes and Stills (http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=xjorF5103yQ)
This is the video I made of that mountain trip if anyone's interested.

Mac

[crashdive123]

Very good point on managing resources.

[Pict]

Willow is amazing stuff BTW. If you cut or break off a willow branch and stick it into moist soil you will create another tree. They are practically impossible to kill. If you take a chainsaw to a willow they will turn into a bush like the ones pictured in the first post.

We once had a willow that got shredded in the leftovers of a hurricane. There were downed branches all over the property. I took them all and threw them over the back fence. Several of those branches are now full fledged trees 20 years later as they simply landed broken-end-down in the wet soil. I'm convinced that this is one way that willows propagate. Living limbs fall off and get stuck in only to grow into individual trees.
Mac

[erunkiswldrnssurvival]

Coppicing was an exelent practice for primitives also because they could manipulate how the branches grew and could produce tool handles and other nessasary products that nature makes fewer of on its own.

[klkak]

How will this "Coppicing" help me to survive say if I'm flying from Anchorage to Fairbanks and the plane goes down and I must survive for several days or so until I am found and rescued?

If the answer is "It can't". Then what good is it?

[Pict]

klkak,

In the short term I would say that very few primitive skills will help you survive in an emergency. I may take some heat for that statement but I am willing to defend it. If you rely only on primitive skills to solve your immediate need for shelter, fire, water, signals, navigation, food, and first aid then you will find yourself running out of TIME.

Coppicing (first time use of the word) would be a useful skill to learn if you had your own woodlot. I have a friend who runs a primitive skills school and recently purchased his own "hundred acre woods" to do it in. His land does not give him unlimited resources to allow for long term cutting without managing it wisely. Besides, if you cut stuff on public land and use the same areas for training it makes sense to do it in a way that will promote the growth of resources rather than just cut without a plan.

You are right in that this technique would have no effect on a survival situation. Mac

[klkak]

klkak,

In the short term I would say that very few primitive skills will help you survive in an emergency. I may take some heat for that statement but I am willing to defend it. If you rely only on primitive skills to solve your immediate need for shelter, fire, water, signals, navigation, food, and first aid then you will find yourself running out of TIME.

Coppicing (first time use of the word) would be a useful skill to learn if you had your own woodlot. I have a friend who runs a primitive skills school and recently purchased his own "hundred acre woods" to do it in. His land does not give him unlimited resources to allow for long term cutting without managing it wisely. Besides, if you cut stuff on public land and use the same areas for training it makes sense to do it in a way that will promote the growth of resources rather than just cut without a plan.

You are right in that this technique would have no effect on a survival situation. Mac

I was feeling ornery when I made that post:rolleyes:. I was thinking it was more of a managing your homestead or bushcraft kinda of thing as opposed to a survival kinda thing.:D

[Gray Wolf]

klkak,

In the short term I would say that very few primitive skills will help you survive in an emergency. I may take some heat for that statement but I am willing to defend it. If you rely only on primitive skills to solve your immediate need for shelter, fire, water, signals, navigation, food, and first aid then you will find yourself running out of TIME.

You are right in that this technique would have no effect on a survival situation. Mac

I completely agree with your statement Mac.

[Pict]

I completely agree with your statement Mac.

Thanks. If it starts a flame war then you can go get a bucket and throw water on me. Please use a plastic one, if you have to make one out of birch bark I will be scarred for life.:D Mac

[crashdive123]

Can't see it starting a flame war. But then again......

[Pict]

I you really couldn't start a flame war about primitive skills unless you used friction in which case I'd run away and get an hours head start. Mac

[crashdive123]

I don't know Mac. I've got it on pretty good authority that you can take a frog knife and throw it like a rock. I don't care what you call it........it hurts when it hits you.

[Pict]

I have already admitted here on the forum that my stone tool skills have risen to the level of smashing large lumps of quartz into dangerous looking debris and sifting through the rubble for useful shapes. People who live in grass houses shouldn't stow thrones. Mac

[crashdive123]

I was referring to the rock...I mean knife in this thread. http://www.wilderness-survival.net/forums/showthread.php?t=4206

[Pict]

I saw that. It is never a good idea to throw your knife in a survival situation. Throw rocks, sticks, anything, but hang onto your knife. I'm going to bed...

[crashdive123]

Looked at it again this morning.............still looks like a rock to me.

[RobertRogers]

How will this "Coppicing" help me to survive say if I'm flying from Anchorage to Fairbanks and the plane goes down and I must survive for several days or so until I am found and rescued?

If the answer is "It can't". Then what good is it?

errr, no comment on that one.