I finally got around to trying my hand at twisting up some cordage. I attacked the expanding clump of my moms yucca plants to get the raw material. I beat the leaves with a fossilized whale rib to soften the leaf then used a piece of steel with a rounded edge to scrape off the extra green stuff. It took me a couple of tries to get the feel for twisting the fibers. I made a couple of 3-4' pieces until I figured out how to splice in the new clumps of fibers. Once I finally figured out how to twist them together without the splice slipping I made a couple of 8' lengths. The second turned out a little better than the first long piece, being a more uniform thickness. I was aiming for about 1/8" diameter, which most of it is but some spots that I spliced in too much material ended up about 1/4" thick. That yucca is some strong stuff. On the later lengths I twisted up better I can't break it by hand, it doesn't even stretch much. The first few lengths broke at the splice points. I will say that I do enjoy twisting up cordage, and it makes a good use of the yucca that's taking over the yard. It was a much easier process than I expected, though time consuming.
If you can see the pictures well, what do you think?
One pic is of the clump of yucca fibers and the other is of the last length I twisted up. Which will end up getting used to stitch together a quiver.
Thanks for looking,
Kyle