Nature's natural-grown weave

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhznFtHhkBo

Blocked.

slingbadger wrote on Jul 21^st, 2020 at 6:25am:

Blocked.

Like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhznFtHhkBo

I’ve always wondered how the trees don’t die being completely stripped of bark. Pretty amazing stuff though. First thing that comes to mind for me would be stone pouch and quiver.

Talking of bark clothing...

https://www.google.com/search?q=birch+bark+shoes&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjN5-zHyt7qAhWdBhAIHQeOBeEQ_AUoAXoECA8QAw&biw=1536&bih=754

An old Finnish craft (well a lot of Nordic countries I think) is to make stuff out of birch bark by weaving it together. I still haven't made a sling out of birch bark but it's on the list. At the very least I would want to have a go at making a birch bark ammo pouch.

    I wonder what trees in North America could be used for this purpose.  I would very much expect that the trees die after being stripped of bark.

If you cut the bark right, birch can survive it.

If you damage the cambium the tree will likely die or have a reduced vitality. Contact a local tree worker I’m sure they wouldn’t mind if you stripped bark from some trees that they intended to dismantle/remove. Don’t do this on trees that would be retained.

Very interesting, would love to make some of that as well as know how durable it is.
Thank you for sharing.

I believe I’ve read that some African cultures would beat the bark off a baobab limb to the point that it would slip off the branch in one piece for making a quiver. I kind of wonder if that would work with other trees. That would be a pretty cool way to make a quiver.

Definitely can beat bark off certain trees in a perfect cylinder. Of corse you need to be able to slide it off so again I’ll state

Call a local tree worker and use material that has already been condemned.

DO NOT do this to living trees that you don’t own or intend to keep.

Mersa wrote on Jul 22^nd, 2020 at 5:43pm:

Definitely can beat bark off certain trees in a perfect cylinder. Of corse you need to be able to slide it off so again I’ll state Call a local tree worker and use material that has already been condemned. DO NOT do this to living trees that you don’t own or intend to keep.

That is one thing about shows like naked and afraid where the contestants will cut down a sizable fruit tree just to get a handful of fruit. I get that it’s survival but if indigenous people survived like that they would quickly end up with no resources at all.

I think with something like the quiver you could get away with just using a branch or something. Maybe not the best but at least you don’t end up cutting down a whole tree so there’s that.

There are enough trees being cut down in suburban environments as it is, tree workers will likely be pleased if you come and give them a helping hand and remove some of their “waste” as payment. This goes for fire wood , bow staves, Flowers, bark fiber, etc. You wouldn’t believe the amount of good materials we throw through a wood chipper. In Germany a lot of the sizeable pieces are taken to the saw mill, and the smaller debris is chipped and then used in furnaces to make power. Quite a resource that’s largely untouched in Australia. Here it’s pretty much all turned into mulch and left to decompose, then sometimes used as garden mulch. Almost criminal when you know what beautiful straight solid timber goes in to make something that’s not in demand like garden mulch. Sometimes I try to take good wood home but it’s not overly practical a lot of the time.

If you have interests in woodworking and other plant based resources I would recommend getting in contact with a local tree worker. You never know what you might score for nothing.

A lot of trees got cut down around our area during recent landscaping and they simply left the cut up branches and trunks lying pretty much where they fell. They were there for a good few weeks before they sent a big truck to throw them in the back off so, before they did that, I grabbed a big trunk and carried it home :D It's now been sitting on the balcony for a while and I'm hoping next year to try and fashion a throwing stick out of it, one of the large style ones. It was almost certainly just going to be chipped or pulped so I thought I would give it a slightly more interesting life before it ends up back in the dirt :D I'm not sure what type of wood it is and I have no idea if it'll be any good for a throwing stick but hey it'll be good practice on free material :D

We call it siapo, it's very labour intensive to make. Most Pacific Islands made it or still do, and used it for clothing, they call it tapa. Paper Mulberry tree is the main one used, and it's cut down and the bark taken off it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapa_cloth

In response to birch, i just dropped a huge dead triplet on my land, i stripped as much bark off for future projects, but the tree had to be over 50+ years old. I used the wood for firewood,  and bow staves drying right now.ido plan on sending some birch bark with my SITH this year.