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Cordage - Agave
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Agave is a plant that grows in the
American southwest - Arizona and surrounding area.
It has long tough fibers which make it an ideal cordage
material.
Agave is also known as "Century Plant",
because it grows for many years as a rosette of leaves, then one
year it suddenly sends up a very tall flower stalk (10 feet tall or
more) and then dies.
Here is a picture of one growing on the edge of the Grand Canyon
in Arizona. Note the height of the flower stalk!
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photo by Rob Bicevskis
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In the interests of being precise, here is a photo
of an Agave species called "Agave deserti". It is the plant
from which the cordage shown below was made by
Rob Bicevskis. |
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Photo by Kfir Mendel |
And here is a truly astonishing Agave
plant in Israel! |
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Raw Agave fibers. Note how thick and long
they are.
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Click on the small picture to view the movie |
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Windows Media format (WMV)
320x240, 1.9 MB |
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Here is a movie illustrating how to make
cordage from these fibers. Of course, the technique applies to all
cordage making.
(Cordage making demonstration by
Rob Bicevskis)
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A small section of the finished agave
cordage, the same that was being made in the
movie. |
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A coil of Agave cordage.
This sample was made by
Rob Bicevskis
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