Turk's Cap Cordage

[crashdive123]

I’ve been meaning to play around with some plants to see if they are viable for making cordage. YCC’s Yucca tutorial motivated me to try one today. Thanks YCC. One plant that I wanted to try is the Turk’s Cap (Malvaviscus arboreus). Every spring I cut this bush back so that it is about 4” – 6” tall. As you can see from the pictures, it is a fast grower.

Here is what the plant looked like toward the end of summer.

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Here is what it looks like today.

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The outer bark scraped off very easily. I used the back edge of a pocket knife, but could have used finger nails.

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The inner bark peeled away very easily.

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I used a knife at a 90 degree angle to scrape away the “pulp”.

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The final product.

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[your_comforting_company]

Thats some great looking rope crash. Have you tested the tensile strength on it yet? Mimosa or silktree bark is processed in the same fashion, but in my opinion ain't as strong.
Does is splice as easily as leafy material? it looks sort of stiff on the plant.

Glad I got somebody to try some new materials and post results. and excellent pics to boot! Thanks for sharing!
Remember the old ways!

[crashdive123]

I just tied it to a 30 lb weight sitting next to my desk. Picked it up - no breaky. Didn't suspend it high or long though. It was very easy to work with. It does splice easily. I was playing around with a couple of different methods of making it. Sometimes the arthritis in the hands kicks in (not today) so I also tried rolling it against my jeans (thigh). I did notice as it dried that the chaff came free more readily and made it easier still to work with. I'll probably try some Saw Palmetto next - since they are every where in the woods around here.

[your_comforting_company]

I have tennis elbow and hammer hands. It's worth mentioning to everyone that you need to take frequent breaks when twining as it's pretty tough on carpal tunnel. I generally take a break every two pieces and stretch my hands.
I hope more folks will experiment and let us know what they come up with. there's all kinds of viney things in the woods to try too This book even mentions spanish moss.

[Ted]

Good job Crash! Very good indeed!

[hunter63]

Turk’s Cap, Malvaviscus arboreus
As a bunch of us live "Up nort", you betca.
What family would this plant belong to?
Maybe a northern sister? Arboreus, maybe a clue?

[crashdive123]

Turk’s Cap, Malvaviscus arboreus
As a bunch of us live "Up nort", you betca.
What family would this plant belong to?
Maybe a northern sister? Arboreus, maybe a clue?

http://www.wildflower.org/plants/res...id_plant=MAARD

[hunter63]

Thanks, I was looking at the same site, seems that most all these type are from the south.
Yucca does grow here, ornamentals.
Haven't tried any.

To bad we can't do too much with Buck Thorn, black berry brambles,got PLENTY of those.

[your_comforting_company]

I tried some brambles one day while hunting on the ground. not very strong, but you can make some simple ties from them. The best thing to do is look for the properties that make good cordage. flexible, and long fibers. uniform cell membranes in the fiber structures. I read somewhere that smooth bark was a good indicator that it could be used, but I haven't tried enough stuff to say how true that is.

Would it be a good idea to start a thread with experiments in cordage? picture of the plant, picture of the rope, and resulting tensile strength and other properties? I wanna try all kinds of things. particularly the greenery in my garden.. several of the plants have very fibrous stalks. It does seem that most of the references are to plants in the southern half of the US. I think it would be a pretty useful list. It could even be categorized by geography

[hunter63]

This is from Mother Earth News Archives
I remembered reading this article, might be easier on your hands.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It...g-Machine.aspx

Given any though to wild grape vines?

[crashdive123]

This is from Mother Earth News Archives
I remembered reading this article, might be easier on your hands.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It...g-Machine.aspx

Given any though to wild grape vines?

I was looking at that article last night and it reminded me of something we used in the Boy Scouts. I found this as well http://www.flyingpigs.org.uk/crafts/RopeMaking.pdf and have added it to my "to make" list. Thanks.

As far as wild grapes - I haven't. Not sure if there are any around here or not. But then again, I've walked past a lot of things that I didn't notice.

[rwc1969]

I like twining it on my leg. Much quicker and less of a pain in the hands.

I've been experimenting with everything I find, but in the winter it's tough finding anything that isn't rotten.