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Cat tail

 
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The Wyasipi natives of the Appalachian area used cattail plants as a food and fiber source but i cant seem to find much info past useing as a thread and makeshift needle.
Any ideas on if it could be refind into useable fiber?
 
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I believe I read somewhere that the fluff from the seeds used to be used in things like pillows and life jackets.  Have never heard about more of a spun fiber that you could weave, that would be interesting.

 
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i have not gotten around to doing this yet but you can harvest the male cat tail and lay it out to dry and then weave mats with it

 
steward and tree herder
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Mostly people seem to mention using the leaves for thatching, seat bases etc.  This link pdf goes into a bit of detail on testing the fibres and compares them to jute, so OK if you want to make string vests.....
On The Ferns they say
"A fibre is obtained from the blossom stem and flowers[55, 57, 99].A fibre obtained from the leaves and stems can be used for making paper"
References are 55 Eat the weeds B C Harris, 57 Plants for man R W Schery, and 99 Plants in British Columbian Indian Technology N J Turner for the blosson stem fibre which may possibly be a finer fibre than the coaser leaf fibre.
 
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To push this thread back up again.
A friend / fellow Stone Age re-enactor messaged that now is the right season for harvesting cattails (bulrush in UK English, lisdodde in Dutch). So I searched for information on how to harvest and how to use them. This thread leads to some youtube videos. I watched one and want to watch more later.

Maybe now other Permies see my post they have more information ...
 
gardener
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I have made a decent fiber from cattail leaves. They need to be strong, stiff leaves, though—you need to test them such that they will not break or tear when bent. Then I boil them for fifteen minutes or a bit longer, scrape them against a cutting board with the back of a knife, and the fibers are gradually released. I have made a small sample of relatively coarse cloth by finger weaving, and am spinning finer threads so as to eventually use them for textiles. On the one hand it is a somewhat labor intensive process; on the other, the material is very sustainable, wild, and ubiquitous.
image.jpg
Finger woven piece
Finger woven piece
 
Maieshe Ljin
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Finer corded threads. It is worth cording them because the cattail fiber, while wet is strong, but can be brittle while dry. Corded, they lose the brittleness, however.
image.jpg
[Thumbnail for image.jpg]
 
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