When gathering bark for rope or twine making purposes it is always well to bear in mind that the outer or true bark, yielding little useful fibre, is, however, applicable to a variety of useful purposes, as the above illustration, representing a number of articles formed from outside bark, will show. The method by which large sheets of bark are stripped from forest trees is shown in the annexed illustration.
The so-called Manilla hemp is not the product of the hemp plant, but is produced by a vegetable so closely resembling a Banana tree that it is difficult to distinguish one from the other.
Straw-ropes, to spin.
It is to be regretted that the names given by early travellers and others to productions of this kind, should be only calculated to mislead, instead of being guides to their origin; the so-called China grass is not a grass, but is obtained from a plant closely resembling a nettle (Urtica tenacissima). The common stinging nettle of this country contains a fibre out of which very good twine can be made; straw, hay, rushes, and swamp grass, make good tough bands, which are useful for many purposes. The Esparto grass, as it is called, is a dry ground rush, and was used in very early ages for the manufacture of ropes, but is now extensively applied to paper-making purposes. Cocoa-nut husks, and the leaves of all the agave tribe, the yuccas, and most of the aloe-shaped plants, yield an abundance of fibre, as does the pine apple plant by soaking or maceration in water. Cotton, wild or cultivated, makes excellent cord. Smoked sea weed is used for lines by the British Columbian Indians. No one possessed of even ordinary powers of observation will fail in discovering a host of other fibre sources in travelling through tropical, or even temperate regions. A number of animal substances will also be found, which by the aid of ingenuity may be converted into thread and cordage. Fine strips of tendon scraped round and pointed make excellent sewing thread. Strips of raw hide, soaked, twisted or plaited, and greased, form ropes or cords of immense strength and considerable durability: to form long strands for these, see the directions given at page 784. The hair or wool of animals, and the web spun by the wild silkworms are also available for twisting or working up into cord. Many methods more or less simple are had recourse to in different parts of the world, for so combining and intertwining fibres and other materials that, united, they may resist breaking, strains, and deteriorating influences. The untutored savage, as he is called, proceeds to gather his fibre, prepare it, and by the aid of his open palm and naked thigh only (as shown at page 599), twists it into an even, compact, and beautifully wrought line of any length, free from knots or irregularities, a task which the highly educated white man, unless tutored by savages, would vainly attempt to perform. “Laying up” as it is called, is another simple method by which a two or three strand cord or rope can be made. Each separate strand, when equally divided and secured at one end, is taken by the finger and thumb, or the hand, according to the size of the work, twisted on itself and passed over to the off side of the operator; the near side strand is now treated in the same way, and so on, fibre being carefully joined in with the fag end of each strand as it becomes too short for twisting: (vide pages 598, 599.) No two strands should be suffered to remain the same length, in order that no two unions of fresh fibres should take place at the same spot. A common three-plait is an expeditious mode by which three strips of sheeting, or other fabric, may be converted into a rope. Four strand round plait is formed by making each pair of strands cross each other from right to left alternately, until the whole length required is completed; this form of plait is useful for whip thongs, and will run through the sheeve hole of a block. A single strand cord or twine may be twisted from loose fibre, by bending a winch handle in one end of a thick iron wire, and a hook in the other.
Set up a stiff stake, waist high, in the earth, bore or burn a hole through it large enough to allow your wire to revolve freely in it, now split your post down to the hole, enter your wire and allow the cleft stake to retain the wire in the hole by its own spring; station some person to turn your winch handle, whilst you, with a goodly supply of fibre round your body, first hook on enough to form twine of the required size to the book of the wire, and then walk backwards as the thread increases in length; a forked stick set up here and there serves to support the sag or belly of the twine as it is formed. A little thin glue or size rubbed on with a rag prevents the strands from opening too freely. Threads thus made may be either laid up by hand or spun into cordage by the regular ropemaker’s wheel, a makeshift form of which may be easily extemporised by fitting a light flat hoop with a hub, a set of spokes, a wire handle, and a set of hook-axled cotton reels. With such a contrivance as this ropes and cords of small size may be twisted; but, for the manufacture of ropes of large dimensions, such an arrangement as that represented in the illustration (p. 791) must be made use of. An examination of it will show that an implement, called a top, is made use of in order to keep the strands in their proper relative positions. This top is merely a conical block of wood, with a set of deep grooves, according to the number of strands to be twisted, cut in it longitudinally. Tops may be made of almost any size, to suit the character of cord in the course of production. Straw-ropes, to spin. Grass or straw ropes may be conveniently and expeditiously spun to almost any length by the aid of an apparatus made as follows: Take four narrow flat pieces of board, say four inches wide, an inch thick, and three feet long, make two equal-sided crosses of them by nailing them together; take care, however, that no nails are used in the true centres of the crosses, as a two-inch augur hole will have to be bored in each. At one foot from the end of each arm of the crosses bore an inch hole, and into these fit a rounded stick, four feet long, in such a way, that when pinned fast in the holes the whole arrangement may resemble a large-sized fishing reel without a handle. Now fashion a straight, smooth, one inch and a half stick in such a way as to leave a head like that of a large nail at one end and a point at the other. The pointed end must project about a foot beyond the hole in the inner cross when the stick is thrust through the centre hole in the crosses, and the head is brought in contact with the surface of the outer. To use this apparatus, bore a hole in a tree, insert the pointed end of the reel axle, or stick; the reel formed by the crosses and bars will now, if properly made, revolve freely if struck with the hand. Gather up a long lock of grass, hay, or straw, and attach it to one of the cross-arms. Throw the arrangement round by giving a circular swing to your straw, keep up the revolving motion, and keep adding fresh material to the end of your rope until it becomes too long to be easily managed; wind the surplus length round the bars of the reel, or drum, and twist on until you have made as much rope as you require. Short hay or straw bands are made by catching a loop of the material over the turned-up thumb in such a way that it may form a loop; keep turning the hand, and gathering fresh material from below until the band is completed. “Thumb bands” is the name usually given to short grass ropes thus made.
Hard rove ropes, to treat.
Large ropes are very liable when new to give considerable trouble by their disposition to kink. It is therefore often necessary to take the extra twist out of them by fastening one end high up in a conveniently grown tree, and suspending a spare waggon wheel from the other, as shown in the illustration (p. 791). The use of tar in the manufacture of rope tends to impair its strength, but adds to its power to resist deteriorating influences.
Weight of rope, to estimate.