How To Make Bow Drill Cordage from Nettles (Twist Braided for Extra Strength)

If you want to try your hand at a natural cordage bow drill fire, stinging nettles are tough to beat. They take a bit of work to process down into fibers, but once you do, you have one of the strongest and most flexible materials available in the woods.

They are usable as early as late spring in the Pacific Northwest, but the fibers don’t seem to really get strong until the time they flower in the summer.

I use gloves to harvest them initially and running them through my gloved fingers knocks off the leaves and stinging hairs at the same time, which allows you to handle them bare-handed after that.

To make the best cordage possible, it is ideal if you can hang the fibers up to dry once they are separated from the woody section of the stalks. An hour or two in the sun is all it takes. They will shrink a lot during this initial drying stage and will become a bit stiff. At that point they can be soaked in water to rehydrate.

Unfortunately there was no sun on this day so I opted to braid them up in their raw, un-dried state. The fibers are still very strong and flexible like this, but they will eventually shrink when they dry out, making for a looser weave. This isn’t ideal for long term-use, but it is still a very viable option for times when drying isn’t possible, or you just need a piece of rope right now.

I have really come to prefer braid over reverse-wrapped (two-strand twist) cordage for a number of reasons, but when working with flexible fibers like nettles, giving them a quick twist with each pass while I’m braiding keeps everything nice and tidy and results in a tighter weave and more durable cordage. Be careful doing this with less flexible fibers like bark though. It can still be beneficial, but more attention needs to be paid to avoid over-twisting them.

For the set I chose red alder, which is not the ideal wood as it has a strong tendency to soak up moisture. For that reason, I took down a dead sapling and used the wood from higher up on the tree. The difference in dryness from the top to the bottom of trees this size can be dramatic, so keeping the phrase “the higher the drier” in mind can be very useful.

This wood really responds well to light pressure when drilling. Pressing down too hard will grind out sawdust or over-char the powder depending on speed. Slow and steady seems to the be the key for this material.

In the wet season , I really prefer conifers like firs and cedars, but alder (Alnus rubra) is easy to work with and very common, so knowing how to use it can be a big advantage.

I used some dead sword ferns for a hasty bundle. They work OK when they’re dry, but they’re not my favorite option as they have a tendency to smolder out, so it is a good idea to make sure that the next stage of your kindling is suitably to catch the short lived flames.

Materials Used

Cordage: Stinging Nettle (urtica Dioica)
Bow Drill Set: Red Alder (Alnus rubra)
Bearing Block: Douglas fir fatwood (Pseudotsuga menziesii)
Tinder Bundle: Sword fern (Polystichum munitum) wrapped in Trailing blackberry (Rubus ursinus)

Knife: Mora Garberg (Stainless)

Music
Ikson- Reflect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A26LDRmLP58
Luca Stricagnoli – The Last of the Mohicans (Guitar) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Kbv1…