Withys may not sound very exciting to most, but I’ve just had a breakthrough with them so I’m a little excited and thought I’d share what I’ve learned. First of all, I want to say that I originally learned about these from one of Ray Mears videos (again). But I’ve also seen them mentioned in Hilary Stewart’s book Cedar. If you are not familiar with the withy, it is simply a sapling or thin branch that you twist which causes the wood fibers within to separate making it pliable enough to be used for binding. Ever since learning about them, I would try to make one every time I went out into the field. But I never really had any success. I would start twisting, the fibers would start to separate, then eventually…SNAP! The fibers would break rendering my withy useless. The trick, as I learned today, is to maintain some tension on the shoot so the wood fibers don’t have a chance to kink. If a kink develops and you continue to twist you’ll likely hear a snap too. In the beginning, I was blaming everything but myself (e.x., brittle tree/shrub species or seasonal variations, etc.). But in the end, it all boiled down to technique.  So, in my excitement, I put together a little tripod fastened with a withy and a built-in kettle hook to celebrate.

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