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Author Topic: nettle Fibre Strings  (Read 21708 times)

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Offline 65x55 swedis

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Re: nettle Fibre Strings
« Reply #15 on: June 04, 2010, 07:28:21 pm »
 :o :o :o that is a lot of nettle. send any scraps my way >:D
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Offline Bill Skinner

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Re: nettle Fibre Strings
« Reply #16 on: June 10, 2010, 10:14:05 pm »
If I was in short pants, I would want to stay far away from that patch.  Bill
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Offline Phil Rees

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Re: nettle Fibre Strings
« Reply #17 on: June 12, 2010, 10:16:44 am »
Quote from: 65x55 swedis on June 04, 2010, 07:28:21 pm
:o :o :o that is a lot of nettle. send any scraps my way >:D

...be delighted to....
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Offline Phil Rees

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Re: nettle Fibre Strings
« Reply #18 on: September 09, 2010, 03:10:01 pm »
I took a look at them today, and I think I'll leave them for another week or so before I harvest them because the leaves are still quite green. I have an old bath tub we use for watering the horses, I'll be using that as a rettin tub
.... so far so good ...
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Offline toomanyknots

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Re: nettle Fibre Strings
« Reply #19 on: September 11, 2010, 07:56:36 pm »
Alrighty! Will be following this for sure. Tryed my hand once at retting nettle, but I didn't wait long enough.
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"The way of heaven is like the bending of a bow-
 the upper part is pressed down,
 the lower part is raised up,
 the part that has too much is reduced,
 the part that has too little is increased."

- Tao Te Ching, 77, A new translation by Victor H. Mair

mikekeswick

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Re: nettle Fibre Strings
« Reply #20 on: September 12, 2010, 05:15:24 pm »
I spent quite a long time experimenting with nettle strings last year. My problem was after retting I tried to get rid of the 'rubbish' by combing with a metal comb. As mentioned above all than did was snap the fibers. Even with very short fibers I still managed to make some strong strings. I've been waiting for them all year for them to be ready to harvest and now that i've seen the above info I can't wait! They don't sting if you just grab em....honest
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Offline toomanyknots

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Re: nettle Fibre Strings
« Reply #21 on: September 12, 2010, 10:10:34 pm »
"They don't sting if you just grab em....honest"

Ho ho ho, really!?! :) Those things sting me if I just hink about em. I've worn gloves and long sleaves AND just grab em AND go up the stalk like they say if you do it won't sting, and STILL get stung the crap out of me. You know they got certain species of nettle in other countrys that can kill you from gettin stung? Ya, about how to process, I tryed combing em too like flax and it did not work at all. I tryed stripping the fibers green and letting em dry, but that did not work at all either. So when they are done water retting will the pure fibers just separate with the other material? Do you have any experience/knowledge on field retting? That's what I wanna try...
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"The way of heaven is like the bending of a bow-
 the upper part is pressed down,
 the lower part is raised up,
 the part that has too much is reduced,
 the part that has too little is increased."

- Tao Te Ching, 77, A new translation by Victor H. Mair

Offline alanesq

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    • my webpage
Re: nettle Fibre Strings
« Reply #22 on: September 14, 2010, 04:46:26 pm »
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Offline Phil Rees

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Re: nettle Fibre Strings
« Reply #23 on: September 19, 2010, 08:54:57 pm »
I had another look at the harvest today, they're still a little green so I'll leave them for about another two weeks .... in the mean time ...
I've spoken to acouple of people who've been involved in hand making linen from flax. They're reccommendation is that I treat the nettles as if they were flax. This means I have to make one or two bits of equipment.
First I have to make a "crusher".. imagine a old style paper cutting guillotine but with a blunt wooden blade. The dried retted stalks are crushed to break up the outer woody bark without damaging the internal fibres ...
Next I need to make a "scutcher or scutching knife" ... this is along flat wooden blade that's used to beat the stalks against a "scutching board" and remove the outer woody stem.
Finally I need to make a series of "hackles to comb out the fibres. The hackles are wooden blocks with nail teeth over which the fibres are drawn to comb out the fibres. I have to make a series of hackles with finer and finer teeth to give me a fine fibre that can be spun on a hand wheel.
 So it's off to the workshop for a day or two.
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Offline Jay

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Re: nettle Fibre Strings
« Reply #24 on: September 20, 2010, 08:33:02 am »
This allsounds like fun but I'm a visual learner.  ??? Picks??youtube?? You guys are describing skills I need to learn.

Keep it coming.
Jay
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Offline Hillbilly

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Re: nettle Fibre Strings
« Reply #25 on: September 20, 2010, 01:39:39 pm »
I just finished retting a big bundle of nettles-left them out in the grass for a week, flipped them and left them for another week. I'm letting them dry, and I'm going to try the same process as they use on flax. I've made cordage from nettles by splitting the stems and stripping the fibers off, but I wanted to try making a big mass of raw fiber and spinning it with a drop spindle.
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Offline Phil Rees

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Re: nettle Fibre Strings
« Reply #26 on: October 10, 2010, 04:02:56 pm »
The nettle harvest is in .....
Spent most of this morning gathering in my crop of nettles. Because I had so much material to choose from, I was able to be very selective. I only chose the stems that were  as tall as me (6 feet) and had no signs of damage. I particularly chose stems that had large diameters and still had a little showing of green leaf at the top. I hand pulled the stems and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised as to how easy they came out of the ground. I tied the stems into 5 kilo bundles and finished with 20 bundles.

So... I have around 100 kilos of nettle stems, a very rough estimate is that it will make around 1.5  kilo's of fibre. When the fibre is spun, it should make about 80 to 100 meters of yarn of 0.5mm diameter. The plan now is Rett the stems down by immersing them in an old bath tub of water, after they've been left to begin the decomposition process by laying them in some long wet grass for about a week.

I'll start taking photographs for those who want to see them ..... but for the time being, good old mother nature has begun the transformation process from nettle to bow string
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Offline Diligence

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Re: nettle Fibre Strings
« Reply #27 on: October 11, 2010, 02:08:50 am »
Looking forward to seeing your progress!
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"Always do your best and to everyone be kind and good" - Ernst Hjalmer Selin (1906-2000)....my grandfather's words of advice he wanted me to tell my children.

Offline Phil Rees

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Re: nettle Fibre Strings
« Reply #28 on: October 18, 2010, 07:03:00 am »
I took a look yesterday, everything seems to be progressing just fine ..... but .... if your thinking of having a go at this be prepared for the SMELL Boy oh boy what a stink.
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Offline Bill Skinner

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Re: nettle Fibre Strings
« Reply #29 on: November 09, 2010, 08:09:15 pm »
By now you should have lots of fibers and have started spinning them into thread?  Bill
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