Primitive and modern outdoor skills

Netting

2012-12-10

When I was at the Buckeye gathering a while back Norm Kidder mentioned that some of the natives had carried around large nets. They'd use these nets to gather things into, to catch game, to throw over trees to pull the trees down, etc. Recently I found myself wanting a gathering bag. So, with this in mind, I decided to give it a try.

I did't happen to have a bunch of flax or nettle around, and didn't want to wait to rhette it and start from scratch, so I cheated and started with twine. I read a few websites and fiddled around, here's a good video for the basic knot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WW6VlflNbTU.

I didn't have their fancy little board or their fancy netting needle, but after a little poking around I realized I *did* have an old laundry card... bending this back and forth I made a netting spacer the size I wanted.

Next I needed a netting needle. Jess has a very small loom with an appropriately sized shuttle, so for my first experiments I used that. With that kit and some waxed linen twine I made this: IMG_20121031_192323.jpg IMG_20121031_192248.jpg

Instead of using a door or something I tie the far-end to my toe. Tension is critical, so I'll adjust the length of the tie-out cord occasionally to keep the net smooth. Your first net will have extra confusing loops on it... but after a couple feet of netting you'll figure out how to control the size and when you get extra loops. Growing the net is easy, shrinking was a bit less intuitive for me.

I'd used a shuttle I didn't make, so next I had to try making my own. I grabbed a buckeye stick we had lying around the house (yes, we keep sticks lying around the house). I spread a blanket in my livingroom to catch the shavings, and carved the stick down to a short flat board. Then I took the tip of my knife and drilled through the board about 1.5" from the each end, going through from one side, then from the other side until the two sides met. Once I had holes, I widened the holes out, and then cut/split notches going down to the holes.

The end result was a pretty passable shuttle. To make it really easy to use it'll need a bit of sanding (right now it catches a touch when passing it through the twine). But, it's completely functional. A bit of rock could be used to do the sanding, it's also possible to smooth something like this with just a knife, if you're more skilled than I. Anyway, here's the final kit: IMG_20121202_114526.jpg

I haven't yet made the size net I'd need to use it for all of the things Norm talked about, but that's on the agenda. Using this technique you can make flat nets of any size, bags, hammocks, etc. It's very general. By tying it to your toe it's also very portable and can be carried around like knitting. I made a 3.5 foot net while listening to a series of presentations in search and rescue training.

So... give it a try. I'd love to hear any ideas anyone has for what to use nets like this for. What size would be the most useful to carry around in an ultra-minimal kit (say, in a blanket roll on your waste), how big of holes? What would you use it for? I'm hoping to try some uses myself soon!