string, I love that stuff

I was just thinking about para cord and all the other strings and jute twine and bailing wire and stuff that always seems to find its way into my pockets n bags.

I learned a long time ago how to twist and pull over fiber to make primitive cordage by hand.

I usually grab a piece of bailing twine and will just sit and twist it into cord while sitting around just as a way to work on improving my hand control since my stroke.

I am always having the kids and their friends run up and ask me for some "string" for some kid project. (they know not to grab rope or such without asking as much is already purposed for something around the homestead.)

They have all had a quick course in the "twist away / pull over " method of making a string thicker and stronger. They have even seen me strip bark off a piece of stick and twist that into a "string" to tie something up around the place.

I cannot think of the last time I was without some strings of one kind or another in my pockets or lap. I do buy and keep the "good stuff" but for much I do it is this twisted up stuff that I like.

This isn't a how to as much as a just thinking so I stuck it here to hope others might share their thoughts on string.

I have made a drop spindle and spun cotten thread, and have made simple looms and sort of wove stuff. It would be neat to learn how to weave cloth better and have a great loom.

Come grubby times I think a man able to make cloth from raw materials to finished goods would have a good trade / barter item.

Wonder if there is a profit to be made weaving stuff by hand today. I know some of the buckskinners like linsey woolsey cloth for their stuff and I suspect I could work up to that if there were a market. Be a nice step up in my "rehab" work.

Anyway for now that is all .

Thad

 

String seems to be disappearing..when I was a kid I could always lay my hand on a piece of string,but now,not so much.I have several balls of string in different sizes I picked up at the flea market and you can still find it at Ace hardware sometimes,and Lehman's.String doesn't hold the place in America that it used to.I have the plans for a simple spinning wheel and I think I have some for a small loom,also..need to dig'em out and put them to use.

 

Seems my old boy scout leader had one for a 3 strand rope using some bent wire and a boards so you could crank all three like a pencil sharpener while a kid at the other end walked a guid thing and let the rope kind up. Part of 2nd class scout stuff maybe or some merit badge. Been long time.

Then we had to learn how to wrap the ends with hidden tails so the thing would not come unraveled, I wanna say frap, but I really cant remember the word, and think my memory is playing tricks.

I had forgotten this so thank you It dug up some old memory for me and those are like rabbit holes I jump down since the stroke, sometimes I find a golden memory, occasionally a darker one i wish I had not found, but I hunt em all down.

 

Have lots of "paracord" but have fallen in love with "mule line". It is used to tow the inspection tools through new gas/etc. lines when finished. It is flat braided nylon and tough as nails.

 

need to look into this mule line. sounds promising.

is it available to buy somewhere and to look at its stats, I cannot get my google fu to work on it today.

 

Is it maybe sky chair from a tree limb about 30 ft up. That thing stayed for years!

Lightning finally killed the tree, and when we had it brought down, the bark on the branch was gone, the wood under it was polished, and the nylon cord was barely frayed. Unfortunately, I don't know if the item I found in the link above is the same as what I had back then.

Still, it says it has a 4200 lb tensile strength. Sounds about like what my buddy described to me. And 60 feet for less than $20 sounds like a decent gamble. If nothing else, I can make a hammock out of it.

 

Nylon webbing has a multitude of uses.

This stuff is a must for a bug out bag....in my EDC bag I keep a few metres of it...enough to improvise an abseiling tape seat with; together with a karabina, and some rope, I have the chance of roping myself or someone else out of trouble if needs be...

How To Make A Swiss Seat Rope Harness - YouTube

 

I won't be doing any repalling anytime but I usually just used a length of rope to tie my swiss seat, just cause that was how marines taught me.

heck we just used carabiners and did not even use figure 8's when I learned. since then things have changed a bit.

That austrialian repel facing forward was always the scaryist one for me.

I loved the helicopter ones, done right and lock up and then release as your feet hit the dirt, it just zips the rope out of the carabiner and boom you are loose and on your way.

Old news, done long time ago, I'd probably kill myself now if I tried any serious climbing up or down.

But any cordage /rope etc, I'm always interested in that. (I always played with string since I was a kid. Used to frustrate mom when I would make "spider webs" with a spool of thread in my bed room when I was real young.

Not the making of it but the wasting of her thread. That tended to not be a very smart thing for a young boy to do. did not take me to many whopings to learn to leave mom's sewing stuff alone.