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Make Great Cordage Out Of Grass

video Make Great Cordage Out Of Grass

This is a very easy method of making your own natural cord out of any material with long fibers (like grass)
If you like my video, I have loads of them on my blog!
please rate and vote!

38 comments

Apr 6, 2012. 4:47 PMscrapedfire1256 says:

That was an awesome instructable .Thanks sooo much for sharing!!

Dec 17, 2011. 11:21 PMThevail.TS says:

Thank you soo much..I've watched and read a lot of stuff on cordage and never been able to quite get the motion right. You made it so easy! Great. camera work and fabulous job keeping your fingers out of the way..seriously not easy.

Sep 14, 2011. 5:28 PMtravw says:

Was that a BK2? If so, nice knife choice! =)

Sep 14, 2011. 9:21 PM

nepheron (author) says:

It's actually a custom knife made by Gray Wolf knives. Best knife I ever had. 59rc so it's not brittle. Scandi grind so it's a breeze to maintain.

Sep 15, 2011. 4:42 PMtravw says:

Looks like a user! I love that in a knife. What steel is it? 1095?

Sep 15, 2011. 7:53 PM

nepheron (author) says:

Gray wolf knife model #3

Dec 6, 2011. 3:16 PMjjone538 says:

Cool!!!

Sep 15, 2011. 7:31 PM

nepheron (author) says:

Yep, 1095. It's a beautiful simple tool. It's not that hard so it doesn't chip. I'll post a full picture of it later.

Sep 14, 2011. 8:29 PMtravw says:

Wait, it's not. Never mind.

Also, really cool! I'll definitely make some soon.

Dec 1, 2011. 11:27 AMMr.1911 says:

Really cool 'ible!! 5 S-T-A-R-S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sep 14, 2011. 4:28 PMmmartin7 says:

Made a thick one and it could handle my weight on a tree.

Sep 14, 2011. 9:19 PM

nepheron (author) says:

AHAhaahaha, can you post a picture??

Nov 3, 2011. 9:29 AM

palombo5050 says:

Great survival skill to know. Rope is just as important as a knife or such tool. I have always wanted to know how to make grass rope. Thanks

Oct 28, 2011. 5:36 PMtictaclad says:

im glad you won this works great]

Oct 29, 2011. 3:52 AM

nepheron (author) says:

Hey, thanks so much :)

Oct 22, 2011. 4:21 PMjediwhiz3 says:

Looks great! Like you said there are so many other varieties of materials you can use. I used yucca fiber...

Oct 6, 2011. 1:01 PMdbond3 says:

Just to say, you've just made a cord that you would rate at what? the strength of string?then repeat the method shown in the video with the chord you've just made (he used about 6 strands of grass, so about 6 of those chords made in the video) and do the method shown and you then have a stronger cord, this can be repeated until you have something you could use to make a small washing line or when wet, rapped round a tin to hold it shut then when it dries it can be cut of!, hope people agree with me?

Sep 24, 2011. 6:47 PMhossweightlifter says:

could you use this as bowstring?

Sep 24, 2011. 8:50 PM

nepheron (author) says:

If you made it our of a stronger natural fiber, absolutely! Traditional bowstrings are made of flax fibers, animal sinew, rawhide, and hemp twined in this method.

It's certainly possible to make of out of grass, but it may be a bit thick for practical use. Your best bet will be sinew, rawhide cut into strips, or hemp cord. Flax takes weeks of preparation.

Sep 26, 2011. 6:42 PMhossweightlifter says:

What would be a good substitute for a factory made bowstring on a recurve?

Sep 30, 2011. 10:33 AM

nepheron (author) says:

Gets some hemp cord from the craft store and twine a 6 or 7 ply rope. Loop it at the ends, and give it a try! Check out this thread on homemade hemp bowstrings.

You will need "long" fiber hemp cord. Typically, jewelry hemp cord isn't going to be as strong as its' long-fibered counterpart you can buy here.

Sep 30, 2011. 6:43 PMhossweightlifter says:

Thanks for the advice
Btw i gave you my vote

Sep 27, 2011. 10:17 PM

CrLz says:

Tight! Thanks for teaching!

Sep 26, 2011. 7:03 AMvincent7520 says:

great instructable
video and explanations are relevant and clear.

Sep 25, 2011. 9:38 PM

NightHawkInLight says:

Nicely done, that looks like nicer cord than I have been able to form with typical braids. I'll have to give it a shot.

Sep 21, 2011. 3:16 PM

pablo6674 says:

this is really cool!!!!

I am definatly going to try to make it!

Sep 19, 2011. 10:47 AM

CatTrampoline says:

This would make good snare material if you were stranded in the wilderness and needed to trap small creatures for food. It gets my vote.

Sep 19, 2011. 11:05 AM

nepheron (author) says:

thanks :)

Sep 17, 2011. 5:49 PMLissastrata says:

Very excellent! I can't wait to try that!

Sep 15, 2011. 8:02 PMthedailyrecycler says:

cool. you can use the rope from here to make my survival bed. awesome idea btw :)

Sep 14, 2011. 2:22 PMbobobano says:

Excellent video, very clearly and simple to follow. Vital knowledge for when the Zombie Apocalypse gets here.

Sep 14, 2011. 7:50 AMTupulov says:

Excellent! VERY well done. I've seen pictures and illustrations of how to make cordage but couldn't get it to work. This made it clear and easy. Keep up the good work.

Sep 13, 2011. 11:59 PMdreiseratops says:

Sweet!
I always kinda wondered actually.
How well does it hold up?

Sep 14, 2011. 6:42 AM

nepheron (author) says:

It's surprisingly strong stuff. I can't break the thicker cord at the end by pulling on it as hard as I can. I'm trying to think of a way to actually measure the strength and get a number value.

Sep 14, 2011. 1:14 AMFoolishSage says:

You can make a whole bridge out of dry grass using similar techniques. Check out this video (skip the annoying first 20 seconds).

@nepheron: nice video, I had seen the basic technique before but never understood how you splice in a new piece but in your video that step is quite clear. Thanks

Sep 14, 2011. 6:51 AM

nepheron (author) says:

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it. That's a cool video, but those bridges are nothing compared to the grass bridge I made across the Grand Canyon.