Hemp

[Springbuck]

  I have bougght this stuff several times at hobby shops and walmart.  It is generally machine processed and thus the fibers are short and of poor quality.  I mad a bunch of bowstrings from it, and none worked except for little kids' bows.  If you go to the trouble to counter twist it again in two or three strands and wax it, it is actually pretty darn good for lacing leather and stuff.  nothing like actual shoemakers thread, but good.

I have used it for limb wrapping for reinforcement, and similar, larger diameter for wrapping handles.  it's easy to color with wood stain or dyes and looks rugged and primitive. 

[loon]

Good quality hemp with glue can make a really strong bowstring. I think there's a thread somewhere of someone who made a fairly thin warbow string from hemp fibers, with hide glue?

I would only use the "craft store" machine processed, and bleached? hemp for 20# PVC bows. I also use it for wrapping handles and other random stuff

[Zuma]

Thanks for the info gents.
 That's what I was looking for.
Zuma

[Tracker0721]

Just picked up some at Walmart. Think it's too thin for a wrap like Pat was talking about. I need to go buy the other stuff now.

[Pat B]

Walmart hemp cord saturated with 2ton epoxy Massey finish...




I'd post more but Photo Bucket is acting up again. 

[Tracker0721]

Oh, maybe not. This stuff just seems super thin. Do you do a couple wraps around it?

[Pat B]

Single wrap. I use a bulbous handle and fill out the back of the handle with thick shoe leather then add the wrap.

[CavemanRob]

Like Pat B has it.....the commercial stuff from Wal-Mart is good for decorative uses, but not too much else.

We used to make hemp jewelry (bracelets, necklaces, etc) with different glass beads and what-not woven into it when I was  in high-school in the late 90's.

[ekalavya]

Every plumber probably has it handy and the fibers should be easily to get .....

it is a multipurpose plant .... the seeds are a good bird's food but i used to eat them
too .... they are not so hard like nuts or peanuts and can be eaten as they are ...
do not need to be roasted like peanuts and the oil is expensive but tasty .....

the fibers are quite good ... maybe a little less good than flax or linen , but make
good bowstrings .... slings, ropes and so on ... and of course insulation for waterpipes ...

Industrial or bird's hemp , how some people call it .... is almost every time hermaphroditic
and forget about the THC .... cooking one plant in milk until the milk is green cures
constipation and you should not use it when you do not want diarrhea ...

as i can see hemp fibers and cords are avaiable in all parts of the US, Europe and
maybe the rest of the world too ....

some fools are giving almost a fortune for a small pack (ten seeds) of hemp seeds ...
it is merely bird's food sold for maybe one euro a kg  or maybe for 50 cent for two
pounds in the US

[Pat B]

I heard years ago the hemp seed were removed from bird seed when hemp was outlawed. Also, they said that canneries stopped singing when they did this. 

[DC]

They stopped singing acid rock

[Zuma]

Lol you guys are a hoot.

This may be a tad off topic so to remove it is ok. 
I sent an email to some friends. They replied and I answered---

"I have a big pile of dogbane here and know where to find it.
Friday it is. Yes I can put a tarp on the upper deck.
I told everyone that.
Last dance for Mary Jane one more chance to ease the pain.
Someone at the door. later Zuma

Now since I had to run I didn't really finish the thought---
"I see winter closing in"
Well the replies I got from that mail were quite similar to the ones here.
LOL Zuma

[ekalavya]

So, was there real a time hemp fibres were illegal in the states or anywhere else?

I doubt this can be true , because it would make old clothes , old paper (once heard the constitution was written on paper made out of hemp fiber) , old ropes and a lot of other things illegal ...

also hemp fibre until now is not easy substituted by anything else .....

Seems however there was a time the US had to import hemp fibres , because laws prohibited growing
of the plant ...

An urban legend says the growing plastic industry was afraid of hemp .... however there is no way
plastic is anywhere a competition to hemp fibre ...
when used and manufactered the right way the hemp fibre makes the better bowstring

water proof is not a criteria at all ... as no English longbow archer would have substituted his
linen bowstring with something water proof like asbest(rock wool)

[Pat B]

During WWII it was grown(by the Gov) all over the US to make rope for the war. I don't think hemp of any kind was made illegal until 1929.