Medieval rope making with bast using a reel and a stick

[@michaelmoceri1118]

I've seen people using a reel like this to make rope, but no one ever stopped and explained what they were doing. Thanks for that.

[@piccalillipit9211]

THAT was way more interesting then I expected

[@j5300]

I feel like the struggle of trying to do something while a cat is on your lap is something that would resonate with people from across many thousands of years.

[@Donnies_lil_ding_ding]

I’ve got yucca plants in the yard that I can’t kill, but I’ve recently read they can make some decent rope fibers. So, I’m about to build this setup and take a stab at it. Thank you!

[@Just_Sara]

Hey, did you end up trying it? How did it go?

[@dce040186]

“Stab” being an appropriate word when dealing with yucca.

[@Donnies_lil_ding_ding]

@@Just_Sara I DID try it, and it worked. I abandoned the project. Because unfortunately I’ve got bigger fish to fry, but it DID work. If you have yuccas, and if you need rope, then definitely give this a shot. The small length of rope that I made is dried, still slightly green colored, and strong as all heck.

[@DaysofElijah317]

@@Donnies_lil_ding_dinghow did you extract the fibers I got one myself I might try it out on

[@totocologne7824]

Excellent video. I have the highest respect for everyone who teaches me something new and practical. Thank you.

[@simvrod]

Cat needs to play with string, nothing better than to see an artisan at work with his kitten👍👍

[@barbadoskado2769]

love rope making, it's very meditative work. common nettle also works very well

[@MissGroves]

I have never seen rope made like this before, only with some strange toggle things and later with a hook or crank. I have to try this way of spinning! Looks so fun and soothing

[@tauIrrydah]

Oh this is delightful I've been looking for low impact activities to demonstrate at events!

[@BrinkmanCrafts]

Thank you, yes I think this would be really nice to show at events! One of the reasons for making this video was to use as a 'sales pitch' for an event next summer.

[@petejandrell4512]

The kitten represents the original use of the phrase 'You little BAST-ard!!

[@pegrande6545]

I have never seen this technique before, that’s simple, yet a very clever and faster than the previous form (probably) of twisting and turning by hand, thanks for sharing and love your cat XD

[@curtis1985]

This demonstrates in an unabridged form what skills I developed for my undergrad degree. Granted I went on from there and turned the products of those skills into baskets for my graduate degree, but I don’t want to toot my own buisine. (The collegiate level of work is quite adequate in its own right.) I better stop writing now . . . I wouldn’t want to string you along any further.

[@ShotgunLlama]

I don't have access to a cat. Does it work just as well if you chew on it yourself, instead?

[@m.c.4785]

This is so much more compact and easy to understand than some of the other videos I saw that used complicated tools and/or multiple people!

[@peacefulscrimp5183]

Great video 👍 This looks much easier than what I was doing. I will have to make one of those. You have a new subscriber 😜

[@astorniit7524]

Tack! Äntligen en bra video som demonstrerar denna tekniken i mer detalj! Mycket bra jobbat

[@BrinkmanCrafts]

Tack så mycket, det var roligt att höra!

[@astorniit7524]

@@BrinkmanCrafts Om jag får fråga, hur fick du tag på bastfibrerna? Jag skulle vilja bygga en vikingabåt och det vore kul att fixa riktigt bastrep.

[@BrinkmanCrafts]

@@astorniit7524 jag har ännu inte lyckats hitta lindbast utan använder bast från palmträd som jag köper på Hornbach. Då jag jämför det med "riktig" bast så är det förhållandevis likt.

[@astorniit7524]

@@BrinkmanCrafts intressant! Verkar det jämförbart i styrka också?

[@BrinkmanCrafts]

@@astorniit7524jag vet tyvärr inte

[@jeffreydustin5303]

Well done, sir. Makes rope making from bast so clear. Very clever!

[@jodsvelis9819]

nice, thank you for the video! i always wondered how smaller ropes were made. all other videos were with only by hand or the big sea ropes

[@aaronburson1427]

Never seen this method before. Thanks. Mouth harp was a nice touch.

[@abcstardust]

Thank you for showing and explaining how it’s Done!! Excellent video! Cute kitten!

[@QuantumMechanic_88]

Thank you for a fascinating video with a beautiful cat.

[@giancarloperez9508]

🎉Wow anothere rooe making ideaa👍😍💕😊😊thank you for sahring.👌👌👌❤️

[@MichaelMarko]

Very labor intensive. But great job!

[@BrinkmanCrafts]

Thank you! It sure takes a lot of time to just make a few meters this way

[@misscdog]

My mom did this with yarn to make ties on a vest she knitted for me. She didn’t have the reel, but same technique.. cool to see this 50 years later and find out how old the method was.

[@potfur_z_bagna]

It's so delightful that your mother handcrafted a vest for you AND you remember how she created the ties 50 years later AND thanks to the wonders of the internet I can now read about it! It seems crazy that just by clicking on a video KZbin recommended to me I heard about this tiny crumb of yours and your mother's history. Life truely is wonderful.

[@christopherstein2024]

Amazing cat footage

[@DigiLab360]

Came for the rope making, stayed for the kitten 😻

[@Intelligence_Failure]

thumbs up for making rope for you cat 👍

[@anklebreaker648]

Thanks you for making this informative video i’d learned another technique in making rope👍🎊👍👍✌️

[@ianbruce6515]

Thank you! 👍

[@benjifiji2019]

very good demonstration

[@iainrussell4478]

Brilliant. Thank you

[@gregsquires6201]

Good call. It would have been extremely rude to make the kitten get up to get your knife.

[@sgg0003]

Now I understand. In the Middle Ages rope was made by cats.

[@abcstardust]

🤣😂🤣

[@DaysofElijah317]

That’s why dogs are their mortal enemies because they invented leashes

[@SamAlderDesign]

This is great, thanks.

[@thomasbentin2205]

Thanks, was looking for information like this!

[@mrkultra1655]

Excellent, thank you

[@FlintStryker]

Wonderful! Can you provide dimensions of your rope making jig. I'd like to make one. Thanks!

[@noivalencia]

Must wear also a medieval dress

[@kirielpapillon9169]

Thanks!

[@spaideman7850]

1:46 there's a bee singing into your microphone 🐝

[@DraftingandCrafting]

Sounds like the drone of a hurdy gurdy.

[@theodoretusbreen2841]

This is fascinating. How long does it take you to produce, say, 5 meters?

[@BrinkmanCrafts]

It's the first part, the spinning, that takes most of the time and five meters would take me at least a full work day. But I guess a professional rope twister was quicker.

[@GordonWrigley]

"it's held together by a twist"... I feel like that rather short changes the significance of the counter rotating twists in a length of rope.

[@BrinkmanCrafts]

@@GordonWrigley Haha, you're right!

[@juliewilborn-barth7]

We like the cat❤😊

[@LoganStargazer]

I had no idea that rope could be made in this way. I may make a rig and test if it's good for twisting paracord into rope. What is the cute little grey furball's name?

[@BrinkmanCrafts]

@@LoganStargazer you can try using paracord, but I think that will be hard. But you could use any twisted string and make stronger rope using this method. That is Matcha, she has grown into a pretty large cat since then.

[@kiskarakter]

Hello, could you give me a reference for the 1350 crank you show at 0:32 please? Thanks in advance

[@BrinkmanCrafts]

Sure, but this is just a textual reference and the image shows what I understand as the same kind of crank. In the article 'Zukunft der Seilerei' Weber 1971 writes about a will from a Ropemaker in Lübeck where they are listed.

[@kiskarakter]

@@BrinkmanCrafts Thanks. Where is the image from then?

[@BrinkmanCrafts]

@@kiskarakterI'm sorry for being unclear. That image and the next was just to distinguish between nongeared and geared cranks.

[@kiskarakter]

@@BrinkmanCrafts I see, I just thought maybe you could help me find references from the 14th century for non-geared cranks. I'd like to make one, and it would be nice to be able to verify it with some real proof of how it looked back then, but it turned out to be very difficult. I hoped that the one one the image may be a real finding from the age, or at least a close one.

[@BrinkmanCrafts]

@@kiskarakter yes it's really hard to find these early references! I honestly do not think we know how they looked backed then. The earliest depicture is, in my knowledge, from 1420 drive.google.com/file/d/1n5KOEtVk6OpUkJ6dvfSFNp76UQWdbPea/view?usp=drivesdk

[@Apostate_ofmind]

Note: the kitty is integral to the process.

[@JamesLaChance1]

It is my understanding that in ropemaking "countertwisting" is important, which is twisting the rope together in the opposite direction that you twist the individual yarns. Pretty much anywhere you look up rope mentions this countertwist and its importance. Yet this method and making rope with a spinning club seem to work even though they spin the whole rope and the individual yarns the same way. Is countertwist not that important? Or is this type of rope weaker in some way than countertwisted rope? Even if it is weaker it's still a very useful method for making rope since you can do it alone and indoors. Also the fact that you can even start with fibers and feed them in as you go which seems harder/impossible using the rope walk method which I've only really seen used starting from yarns, I've never seen it used to wind the yarns themselves.

[@BrinkmanCrafts]

@@JamesLaChance1 yes, counter twisting as you call it is very important as the rope would otherwise unravel. This rope has S twisted strands while the rope is Z twisted.

[@JamesLaChance1]

So like at 1:54 when you have the two sections of fibers; aren't the two sections being twisted counterclockwise individually and twisted counterclockwise together? I do see what you mean at around 5:47 now though. I saw the machine still turning counterclockwise and was confused but now I see that that's twisting the strands together clockwise since you're working your way back towards the machine. And then that makes sense why you turn the machine clockwise when you add in the third strand and are working back towards yourself.

[@BrinkmanCrafts]

@@JamesLaChance1 yes, it's quite confusing until you really look into it! When doing it yourself it all feels natural which way you should turn as it just simply does not work if you twist the wrong way

[@jwrightgardening]

Did you make this reel yourself? When I try to Google it, I just find fishing reels or more complicated looking yarn skeiners.

[@jwrightgardening]

I've only ever made cordage by hand twisting and I'd like to try to use a simple machine like this.

[@BrinkmanCrafts]

@@jwrightgardening Yes I made it. But I actually have not used it this year but started to hand twist instead to get a more even result

[@Yeeleaf007]

I like your tunic where did you get it? Are you selling any tunics?

[@BrinkmanCrafts]

Thank you! I sewed it and unfortunately I do not sell anything

[@Yeeleaf007]

@@BrinkmanCrafts can you make a video on how to make a tunic?

[@simonphoenix3789]

i got distracted as soon as the cat showed up...

[@ItAintMeBabe99]

I think that would become very unmanageable if you wanted a 50 foot, or longer, rope!

[@BrinkmanCrafts]

@@ItAintMeBabe99 yes,very much so!

[@Mr71paul71]

Unwatchable due to the background music/noise

[@BrinkmanCrafts]

@@Mr71paul71 I'm sorry to hear that. The video has subtitles so you can mute it if you wish.

[@cobbledong]

what the..... hell?

[@echowhiskey17]

Really annoying cute kitten.

[@ФеофанЭтополедолжнобытьзаполне]

Home made rope AND the kitten? Meh, it's too much!

[@terryg4179]

Excellent. Thank you.