How To Make Cordage From Cattails
Making cordage from cattails is easy. A perfect way for beginners to start learning the ropes (haha) of being self-sufficient.
It is best to start with green living cattails as the source material, but if all you have is dead brown cattails, don't worry those will work as well. You just need to soak the brown leaves first. Soak them for about ten minutes.
The next step is to take the long slender cattail leaves and split them down the middle. They split easily just using your fingers. No tools required. Split the cattail leaf multiple time is you want a finer, smaller diameter string.
The next step is to take a single leaf strip and twist at it center point a few times. Now you will have a long strip of cattail that resembles a belt or a long piece of tape that has its center twisted a few time so that it takes the appearance of string, bit only a very spall portion is twisted. The rest remains flat just lke it grew.
Now fold the strip at the twisted section so that it doubled with the two ends now laying next to one another. With one hand hold the doubled strips in this doubled position by crossing the two and pinching/holding where the cross. They should cross right where you twisted them. This should form a little loop that only stays a loop because of you holding/pinching the strip where they cross.
So, hold the pinching hand in front of you and you will have an upper and lower strand, still connected at the loop.
With your other hand twist the upper strand a couple of times. Twist it such that the twist is right at your pinching hand and not spread out across the entire strip.
Once twisted pull the top twisted on towards you and down so that it assumes the bottom position. Repinch to hold the twist. Now twist the upper strip a couple of times like you already did to the former top strip. Then, again move the top twisted strip towards you and down to again become the bottom strip.
Keep doing this proceedure over and over again.
For strin longer tha the original cattail you can easily do that buy joining your first cattail strip with a second then a third etc to make string as long as you want. Here is how.
When you are about six inches from the end of your cattail strips, grab a second strip of cattail. Put its midpoint in your pinching hand so that you now have pinched your original strip with six inch tag ends as well as the new strip with its two much longer tag ends.
Now as you continue the process as before, but you just twist a short tag along with one of the longer tag ends. To be clear you will now have four tags/strip ends to work with instead of two. Pair a short and a long and treat them as one.
Your short tag will end after a few more inches are braided together and once again you will be left braiding two tag ends just like you started.
The tag ends stay together, don't unravel, better then you might think. but you can just make a simple knot near where the tag end separate from the string to prevent unraveling.
The next step is to take the long slender cattail leaves and split them down the middle. They split easily just using your fingers. No tools required. Split the cattail leaf multiple time is you want a finer, smaller diameter string.
The next step is to take a single leaf strip and twist at it center point a few times. Now you will have a long strip of cattail that resembles a belt or a long piece of tape that has its center twisted a few time so that it takes the appearance of string, bit only a very spall portion is twisted. The rest remains flat just lke it grew.
Now fold the strip at the twisted section so that it doubled with the two ends now laying next to one another. With one hand hold the doubled strips in this doubled position by crossing the two and pinching/holding where the cross. They should cross right where you twisted them. This should form a little loop that only stays a loop because of you holding/pinching the strip where they cross.
So, hold the pinching hand in front of you and you will have an upper and lower strand, still connected at the loop.
With your other hand twist the upper strand a couple of times. Twist it such that the twist is right at your pinching hand and not spread out across the entire strip.
Once twisted pull the top twisted on towards you and down so that it assumes the bottom position. Repinch to hold the twist. Now twist the upper strip a couple of times like you already did to the former top strip. Then, again move the top twisted strip towards you and down to again become the bottom strip.
Keep doing this proceedure over and over again.
For strin longer tha the original cattail you can easily do that buy joining your first cattail strip with a second then a third etc to make string as long as you want. Here is how.
When you are about six inches from the end of your cattail strips, grab a second strip of cattail. Put its midpoint in your pinching hand so that you now have pinched your original strip with six inch tag ends as well as the new strip with its two much longer tag ends.
Now as you continue the process as before, but you just twist a short tag along with one of the longer tag ends. To be clear you will now have four tags/strip ends to work with instead of two. Pair a short and a long and treat them as one.
Your short tag will end after a few more inches are braided together and once again you will be left braiding two tag ends just like you started.
The tag ends stay together, don't unravel, better then you might think. but you can just make a simple knot near where the tag end separate from the string to prevent unraveling.
