Phase 02 — Stone, bone, wood and fibre toolkit / About year 1
02.11
Three-strand rope
for hauling and lifting
AWhat it needs
Needs 3 other products in all, 1 of them directly.
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- 02.11 Three-strand ropeMaking Year 1 needs 3 products
- 01.05 Twisted plant-fibre cordMaking Year 1 needs 2 products
- 01.03 Sharp stone flakeMaking Year 1 needs 1 product
- 01.02 HammerstoneMaking Year 1 raw materials only
Open a box to see what it needs. A dashed box is a product already drawn in full: click it to jump there. In the org chart, drag to move around.
BWhy
Cord ties things. Rope moves things: it hauls logs, lowers people down a cliff, holds a boat and lifts a load. A rope is three cords twisted one way and laid together the other way, so the two twists lock each other.
CYou need
- Three long lengths of strong cord (01.05), each as thick as a finger, and all three the same
- A post or tree, three short sticks, and a forked stick with the fork a hand wide
- Thin cord for binding the ends
DSteps
- Tie the three cords together at one end and fasten that end to the post. Lay them out straight and side by side.
- Tie a short stick to the free end of each cord, as a handle.
- Three people each take one stick, stand an arm's length apart, lean back to keep the cords tight, and twist: all three the same way, the way the cord itself is already twisted.
- Keep twisting until the cords are hard and try to kink.
- The fourth person puts the forked stick between the cords at the post end, one cord in the fork and one on each side, and walks slowly toward the three twisters.
- Behind the fork the three cords wind round each other by themselves, the opposite way to the twist. The fork keeps the winding even. The twisters keep twisting and step forward as the rope shortens.
- When the fork reaches the sticks, bind that end tightly with thin cord before anyone lets go. Bind the post end the same way.
- Wet the rope, hang it from a branch with a heavy stone on the end for a day, and let it dry stretched.
- For a thicker rope, make three ropes and lay them together the same way.
EIt worked if
- A rope as thick as a thumb holds two adults swinging from a branch.
- When let go, it lies quiet and does not untwist or coil up.
FWhat goes wrong
- The rope untwists. The strands were twisted the wrong way, or not enough. Twist until they fight back.
- It is lumpy. One strand was slacker than the others. All three twisters must keep the same pull.
- It kinks into knots. Too much twist for the pull. Lean back harder.
- It rots. Stored wet. Dry it in the wind and hang it in a coil.
GIn the story
Imani needs four people who can keep time, so she makes them sing. Tane, who has spliced rope on boats since he was a boy, takes the fork and walks it down with one hand. The first rope goes straight to the beach to hold the canoe log that is not yet cut.
HFigures
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