Foraging to Make Natures Rope or Cordage...Neetle Cordage...Bushcra...

I am in the midst of planning a 4 day trek into the deep bushes of Algonquin Park on a Survival adventure of sorts this summer. This is on my Bucket list. To survive 4 days in the bush with no outside technology or help. So I have been teaching myself all kinds of skills, that I will need to survive. One of the skills that I plan on practicing once the Spring comes is how to make cordage from several different sources of foraged materials. This post is dedicated to making cordage in the bush.

It seems in all my research that the Nettle plant it the best and most durable source of foraged material to fix a rope. Some call it natures rope. First I had to consider what I wanted to use the cordage for. So fixing a shelter, with some logs, possibly some fishing, and setting traps. However I also must consider what if I would not be able to find a Nettle plant, then what would be good strong alternate sources of foraged materials.

Some of the better alternatives might be the following: Milkweed the fibers inside the stalk,

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Dogbane the fibers inside the stalk,

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Yucca the fibers inside the leaves, Agave the fibers inside leaves, Basswood the inner bark, and Western red cedar the inner bark. All of the rest of these are not easily found in my area of the country.

You can use the same principal idea of how to make the cordage from all the different plants that I have suggested. But for this demonstration I will be using the Nettle Plant. It is suggested to make it easier to wait until the end of summer and the plant has gone to seed to harvest the plant for cordage, but that is not always going to be an option, so we take the plant and hang it to dry for a few hours once we have picked it.

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Then we pull off all the leaves and such, and break open the stem. You can bash it with a rock or strip it with a knife.

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The strips you will want to hang should look like this. Just drape them over a tree branch preferably in the sun, to dry them out.

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Once dried then you can rip smaller strips and twist them for fishing line, or braid larger strips for more durable.

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And even looks like rope, with even thicker strips. I have attached in the image sources 2 excellent website that give you a more detailed breakdown of the entire process. I encourage you to get out there and try making your own cordage this summer, cause you just never know when you will need it.