[url=http://whatknot.tripod.com/knots/Rope.htm]Making rope – a simple method[/url] The diagrams are easy to follow.
Flax (New Zealand flax) is such an important product that it was given as one of three reasons proposed for settling Australia – to provide a supply of flax for sailing ships sails and ropes. Easy to grow locally.
[url=http://www.inquiry.net/outdoor/skills/seton/rope.htm]
How to Make a Rope By Frank Stol[/url]l
Did you ever make a rope? It is a worthy ambition. Cotton is used extensively in the manufacture of cords and lines. Cotton is perhaps the most flexible of the commercial materials and is sufficiently strong for the smaller cordage. Common hemp is superior possessing the combination of strength flexibility and durability.
Custom among sailors has decreed that the term “rope” indicates that the diameter is one inch or more. Other authorities agree that the diameter may be one-half inch or more. However we hear cords of one-quarter inch diameter called “rope.”
The principal rope materials are: common hemp Manila hemp sisal hemp Phormium hemp Sunn hemp Jubbulpore hemp jute coir flax agave fiber and cotton all of which are vegetable.
A rope is composed of a certain number of strands the strand itself being made up of a number of single threads of yarn. Three strands twisted together form a “hawserlaid” rope. The prepared fiber is twisted or spun to the right hand to form the yarn; the required number of yarns receive a left-hand twist to form a strand; three strands twisted to the right make a hawser; three hawsers twisted to the left form a cable. Thus the twist in each operation is in a different direction from that of the preceding one. The yield of rope from a given length of yarn is about three-fourths of the length of the yarn composing it.
The material from which you make your rope is for the purpose of learning of less importance than the method employed. Almost any available fibrous material will serve your purpose. The young inner bark of most shrubs and trees is very adaptable. The length of the individual fibers is of little consequence since in hand-made rope additional pieces are twisted into the “strand” as required to maintain a uniform size.
Having selected your material make three little bundles of uniform size. Around each bundle near one end wrap a single thread of the material. Now place the three bundles parallel with binding threads at the same point and again wrap a thread around the three directly outside of the first three threads. These bundles are your strands. Holding this foundation firmly in the left hand with thumb and finger tips at the band take one strand in the right hand and twist it to the left; meanwhile wrap it outside of the other two strands to the right. Hold this one in place with the thumb of the left hand while the same twisting and wrapping operation is practiced on strand number two. Now hold the two in place retaining the twist while the third strand is twisted and wrapped. All that now remains is to repeat the process introducing additional threads to the strands as others are used up in your progress.