Making Cordage from Snake Plant Fibers
My snake plant was getting overcrowded. I had to repot this spring and decided to pluck off a few leaves to practice making cordage. I’ve never done this before, but remember seeing Bushmen hunters do this on a travel show.
To extract the fiber, I used a plastic card as a scrapper. After a few attempts, I realized the stem enf contains much denser and stronger fibers. It helps to roll the stem flat with a rolling pin, then scrap for the fibers.
After the fibers dried, I made some two ply and three ply cordage with this “leg rolling” technique. Sorry I couldn’t take any “action shots,” but Ray Mears does a wayyyy better job explaining the process in this clip.
These fibers are incredibly strong. They actually feel like…horse hair? I’m glad I got to practice this primitive skill, but have no intention of doing this regularly. Simply learning these painstaking processes by hand really opens me to appreciate the small conveniences in our everyday lives. But if you are ever stuck in a survival situation in tropical regions of the world, keep an eye out for snake plants as cordage making material.
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