Stripping dogbane fiber

Video for http://www.instructables.com/id/EBE4M6LF1B3RGO0/

Answer for enjoythewildUSA:

Check out this photo I took of a broken (dead & dried) dogbane stalk: http://gallery.brainonfire.net/view/056f9d5f929ace5862abbde8c8db08b3 -- there's the core wood, there's the fibers (some sticking up at an angle), and there's the outer bark (the dark flake on the fibers.) This stalk died the previous autumn, and was ready for harvest.

Here's a view of much older dogbane bark flaking off: http://gallery.brainonfire.net/view/d0bfce31364007eee76f9e190159524c. This is probably a two-years-dead stalk -- easier to clean, but possibly more degraded.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• dogbane
• fiber
• instructable
• make

[phyzome]

@enjoythewildUSA: Ah, OK. Yeah, I don't approve of his method, there's too much danger of cutting the fibers you want to extract.

YouTube is not allowing anything that looks like a URL into comments, so I've posted the rest of my answer into the video's description.

[enjoythewildUSA]

@phyzome ...thank you for the comment. Check out this video, however: gRzj58VIic8 This guy states that you should strip away the outer portion of the dogbane plant.

[phyzome]

@enjoythewildUSA: In that video (id 1T3IGcHGkBc) he's basically doing the same thing I do in my video, except with green (living) dogbane. The process is different, but he's using the same part of the plant.

[enjoythewildUSA]

@phyzome check out the video entitled "working with dogbane quick cordage exercise" by Dave. I couldn't figure out how to send the link. Thanks for the response.

[phyzome]

@enjoythewildUSA: Almost certainly the same plant. There is an outer layer of bark (dark, flaky, and thinner than paper) that I remove -- the inner bark is what is useful. Do you have a link to one of these videos?

[enjoythewildUSA]

You seem to be looking for the outer fiber. Dave Cantebury made a video where he does the same. I have seen numerous videos where the outer dog bane skin is rubbed off with a knife to get at inner fiber. Are we talking about two separate plants here?