Main Discussion Area > English Warbow
nettle Fibre Strings
Hillbilly:
I just finished retting a big bundle of nettles-left them out in the grass for a week, flipped them and left them for another week. I'm letting them dry, and I'm going to try the same process as they use on flax. I've made cordage from nettles by splitting the stems and stripping the fibers off, but I wanted to try making a big mass of raw fiber and spinning it with a drop spindle.
Phil Rees:
The nettle harvest is in .....
Spent most of this morning gathering in my crop of nettles. Because I had so much material to choose from, I was able to be very selective. I only chose the stems that were as tall as me (6 feet) and had no signs of damage. I particularly chose stems that had large diameters and still had a little showing of green leaf at the top. I hand pulled the stems and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised as to how easy they came out of the ground. I tied the stems into 5 kilo bundles and finished with 20 bundles.
So... I have around 100 kilos of nettle stems, a very rough estimate is that it will make around 1.5 kilo's of fibre. When the fibre is spun, it should make about 80 to 100 meters of yarn of 0.5mm diameter. The plan now is Rett the stems down by immersing them in an old bath tub of water, after they've been left to begin the decomposition process by laying them in some long wet grass for about a week.
I'll start taking photographs for those who want to see them ..... but for the time being, good old mother nature has begun the transformation process from nettle to bow string
Diligence:
Looking forward to seeing your progress!
Phil Rees:
I took a look yesterday, everything seems to be progressing just fine ..... but .... if your thinking of having a go at this be prepared for the SMELL Boy oh boy what a stink.
Bill Skinner:
By now you should have lots of fibers and have started spinning them into thread? Bill
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