Zack Walker

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since Nov 19, 2017
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Happy to find this thread, I did my own experiment this fall and wanted to report back.

My Nettle Processing Album on Imgur
I attached all the pics to this post in case the link dies, first time posting so hope it works ok.

Some high points:
  • It split and stripped nicely fresh, but without retting you have all the thin outside bark.  Maybe cording, not great for thread/yarn?
  • If you are going to ret in a bucket, make sure it doesn't have holes.  I ended up putting my bucket in another tub to keep the water level after day 1
  • Retting in Nov was really slow.  I let it go for 9 days and then pulled it.  No froth, no see-through mushy skins, but it did seem to help?
  • Drying in the garage is hard with 80% humidity.  Near the end I pulled them inside my house.  It was in the garage 10 days, inside 2...seems dry?
  • Separation seemed to go well, but it doesn't take many woody bits to make the whole lot look really rough.  I wonder what stripping fresh and retting the bark off the strips would yield?
  • After drying, fibers got more brittle at the nodes and it was harder to pull long strips.  I'm considering giving up and chopping out nodes to just strip 2-3" sections
  • My poor cotton cards!  Never have they seen so much 'junk'!  I'm looking for other options, maybe crushing, scutching, etc


  • 7 years ago