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Originally posted by Dramey
do you buy the hemp already in the proper form to work with or do you "prepare" the hemp for lack of a better word in order to use it in such manners?
Originally posted by ravenshadow13
I buy it, because as stated in other places, I don't support growing marijuana because I don't enjoy or support t's other uses for people who don't need it for medical reasons.
Step 1 Purchase hemp from a reputable buyer (see Resources below). Hemp is illegal to grow in the United States because it is from the same family as marijuana. However, it is not illegal to own hemp or hemp products.
Step 2 Soak the hemp for 12 to 24 hours in water.
Step 3 Put the hemp on low heat and add some soda ash. Cook the hemp for about 8 hours. The hemp should still feel tough.
Step 4 Put the hemp into a blender for about 2 minutes until it turns fluffy or soft. For a different texture of paper, try adding shredded newspaper or similar soft paper to the mixture. You can also increase or decrease the amount of time you use to blend the materials. You can also choose to add dyes to the mixture.
Step 5 Pour the hemp substance (known as slurry) into a shallow pan.
Step 6 Scoop your deckle into the bottom of the pan and lift straight up very slowly. Once the deckle is free from the mixture, allow any excess water to drip off before moving to Step 7.
Step 7 Flip the deckle paper side down onto a clean towel or newspaper. The paper should come off onto the towel.
Step 8 Place another towel on top of the paper. Roll over the towels and paper with a rolling pin to squeeze out any excess moisture.
Step 9 When paper is almost dry, iron it using the hottest setting on your iron. This will help finish the drying process and flatten it at the same time.
Step 10 If you have excess slurry, you can put it in a plastic bag and freeze it.
Fiber & Pulp Paper
Until 1883, from 75-90% of all paper in the world was made with cannabis hemp fiber including that for books, Bibles, maps, paper money, stocks and bonds, newspapers, etc. The Gutenberg Bible (in the 15th century); Pantagruel and the Herb pantagruelion, Rabelais (16th century); King James Bible (17th century); Thomas Paine’s pamphlets, The Rights of Man, Common Sense, The Age of Reason (18th century); the works of Fitz Hugh Ludlow, Mark Twain, Victor Hugo, Alexander Dumas; Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland (19th century); and just about everything else was printed on hemp paper.
The first draft of the Declaration of Independence (June 28, 1776) was written on Dutch (hemp) paper, as was the second draft completed on July 2, 1776. This was the document actually agreed to on that day and announced and released on July 4, 1776. On July 19, 1776, Congress ordered the Declaration be copied and engrossed on parchment (a prepared animal skin) and this was the document actually signed by the delegates on August 2, 1776.
Hemp paper lasted 50 to 100 times longer than most preparations of papyrus, and was a hundred times easier and cheaper to make.
What we (the colonial Americans) and the rest of the world used to make all our paper from was the discarded sails and ropes sold by ship owners as scrap for recycling into paper.
The rest of our paper came from our worn-out clothes, sheets, diapers, curtains and rags*, made primarily from hemp and sometimes flax, then sold to scrap dealers.
*Hence the term “rag paper.”
Our ancestors were too thrifty to just throw anything away, so, until the 1880s, any remaining scraps and clothes were mixed together and recycled into paper.
Rag paper, containing hemp fiber, is the highest quality and longest lasting paper ever made. It can be torn when wet, but returns to its full strength when dry. Barring extreme conditions, rag paper remains stable for centuries. It will almost never wear out. Many U.S. government papers were written, by law, on hempen “rag paper” until the 1920s.5
It is generally believed by scholars that the early Chinese knowledge, or art, of hemp paper making (1st century A.D., 800 years before Islam discovered how, and 1,200 to 1,400 years before Europe) was one of the two chief reasons that Oriental knowledge and science were vastly superior to that of the West for 1,400 years. Thus, the art of long-lasting hemp papermaking allowed the Orientals’ accumulated knowledge to be passed on, built upon, investigated, refined, challenged and changed, for generation after generation (in other words, cumulative and comprehensive scholarship).
The other reason that Oriental knowledge and science sustained superiority to that of the West for 1,400 years was that the Roman Catholic Church forbade reading and writing for 95% of Europe’s people; in addition, they burned, hunted down, or prohibited all foreign or domestic books, including their own Bible!, for over 1,200 years under the penalty and often-used punishment of death. Hence, many historians term this period “The Dark Ages” (476 A.D.–1000 A.D., or even until the Renaissance). (See Chapter 10 on Sociology.)
Originally posted by Raud
I just became aware that this thread is now on the "ASC" board.
It was originally on the Survival board because I wanted this to be about being self sufficient on paper and textiles and such.
Please note that I am only talking about hemp as in the "non smokeable" kind of hemp and not about "weed".
I hope I don't have to repeat myself on that.
Originally posted by Mr Mask
THAT MEANS...he is asking how to grow Cannabis sativa.
Originally posted by zaiger
3) as far as survival goes there is not much good hemp will do for ya.
Hemp is the most super-useful thing on Earth, almost like a wonderful nature-gift from God. Thank you for giving us Hemp, God!