Harvesting and Processing River Cane for
Weaving
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River
cane is a member of the grass family, the
Poaceae (=Gramineae) and the grasses have
always been a primary source of our energy
and nitrogen. River cane grows along the
banks of streams in the southern part of the
United States. Cane is the oldest of the
Southern tribe basket materials that is
known. Salt mines preserved remnants of cane
double weave mats. To some it is also the most
difficult of materials to
prepare.
Cane and the other bamboo
genera are members of a single tribe:
Bambusea, within the subfamily Bambusoidee.
Bamboo genus: Arundinaria
River Cane Species:
Basketry of the Southeastern Indian,
the chapter Cane: Its Characteristics and
Identification in Baskets, is written
by James R. Estes and Rahmona A. Thompson.
It is a comprehensive study of cane. They
write that the only native species of
bamboo in the continental United States is
Arundinaria gigantea with three inclusive
subspecies:
Arundinaria gigantea ssp. gigantea (giant
cane) is a robust form primarily of the
Mississippi River Valley, the Appalachian
Ozarkian Uplands, and the Gulf Coastal
Plain. Russell Stevens of the Noble
Foundation wrote me regarding giant cane.
He said, "There is a pretty good line
drawing of giant cane (Arundinaria
gigantea) in North American Range Plants by
Steve Hatch. It does not indicate a range
that far west for giant cane. A good way to
tell if it is giant cane is to look at the
venation in the leaf. Along with the
parallel veins, upon close examination it
will have small cross veins connecting the
parallel veins together, forming a blocky
sort of pattern. The only other plant that
may have look similar is common reed
(Phragmites australis). It is native to the
coastal regions of Texas but has been
introduced to ponds, etc. in this
area.” This area meaning in Oklahoma.
Arundinaria macrosperma (no common name)
is the tallest of the subspecies. It is
morphologically intermediate between giant
and switch cane and may be the result of
intertaxon hybridization. The population
occurs throughout the region where giant
cane and switch cane come in close contact,
and often individuals of this subspecies
occur intermixed within populations of the
other two. Arundinaria ssp. tecta. (Switch
cane) is shorter and has air canals in the
rhizome. These canals are lacking in the
giant cane. Switch cane occurs primarily
along the Atlantic Seaboard south of the
Mason-Dixon Line with occasional
populations along the Gulf Coast.
Growing Habits of River
Cane:
River cane grows like other bamboo. New
cane sprouts up from underground runners.
Every seven years the cane that grows in
the south puts out a head that looks like
rice or wheat. Indians once used the grain
in food preparation. When cane shoots up it
never gets larger in diameter, like trees,
it only grows up. It grows from joint to
joint. It has a cornhusk-like covering,
which protects the new limbs and leaves.
When it is about eight feet or taller, it
is ready to harvest. Cane ready to harvest
has a yellow cast to the green stem but not
the juicy grass green of cane that is too
young.
The south had cane islands and many rivers
where it grew along the banks. Sometimes in
the canebrake, the canes grew so close
together you couldn't pass between them.
Often American lumbering operations and
farming destroyed the sites where the cane
grew. Previously the lands over which they
roamed were given to colonists as French,
English and Spanish land grants.
Harvesting River
Cane:
Camps: according to Thomas A.
Colvin in Cane and Palmetto Basketry, in
the old days, the Choctaws camped at the
site of the raw material used in the making
of their baskets. They stayed at these
camps for the duration of the cutting,
splitting, peeling, stripping, trimming,
and drying of the strips they called
straws. Any Indian could use these camps.
In Adair's History of the American Indian,
he wrote the Cherokee "divide large swamp
canes into long, thin, narrow splinters,
which they dye."
Tools: machete, bush knife, cane
knife or my favorite a folding saw for
cutting cane; strong pocket knife for
peeling or stripping the limbs and leaves
(use one where the blade will not fold back
onto your skin!). Use a pocketknife to trim
the straws. Select large canes about the
size of the thumb that are at least two
years old. It is stronger and not as green
as the younger stalks. Older cane will have
an abundance of foliage at the top. Cut the
foliage off, as it is useless.
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Processing River Cane:
You can hand split more than four straws
from a large cane. After the cane is split,
the underlying plant tissue must be stripped
away from the outer "skin" of the sections
which are afterwards called "straws." Each
straw is trimmed vertically to make the
widths even. The straws are never stored
before stripping and trimming. After these
thin pliable straws are dried, they are ready
for use, or storage. Thomas A. Colvin
reported that in the old days the dried
straws were rolled into balls. They were left
outside overnight before use, to "open up" or
flatten out. Rodney Leftwich in The Arts and
Crafts of the Cherokee explains the process
in simpler terms. He writes that you split
the large part of the cane into four pieces.
Holding the pole in your left hand, draw the
knife with your right hand to split the cane
in half lengthwise. (Cutting only where the
split crossed a joint, the motion of the
knife was more of a controlled twisting under
the splint.) Each half is split again to make
four pieces from each cane. Leftwich writes
under a photograph showing cane splitting
that each quartered piece is split lengthwise
to remove the outer surface, which is part of
the basketry. What he means is that you now
peel the quartered pieces. Using your fingers
or a knife, peel off the shiny outer surface
of the cane. This is the part used in
basketry. Discard the coarse inner fiber of
the cane. Trim the cane splints along each
edge to make them uniform width. Scrape the
inner side of the shiny splint for uniform
thickness. If your cane is the cut at the
correct time of the year and other conditions
are right, you should not have to cut the
outer skin away from the cane as shown in
many diagrams. It should be necessary to cut
only at the joints. Between the joints the
outer skin is lifted up and pulled away from
the cane. If the cane is cut between joints,
you can peel the outer skin with your fingers
or teeth by holding the end of the cane
between your teeth or under the chin.
Roger Cain, Oklahoma award winning artist, said "the best time to get cane is in the winter, but anytime is good as long as the cane is not growing at the time of harvest. As far as crushing cane to get splints....it doesn't work and plus it's a waste of material. Every time I work with river cane, I am amazed at our ancestors for being able to work it without steel." Roger also said that he does not boil the cane anymore. He splits and peels it in one day. "It is very labor intensive!" In my opinion Roger knows more about harvesting and processing river cane growing in Oklahoma than anyone I have talked with. His wife, Shawna, weaves beautiful award winning river cane baskets and mats.
From Weaving Wildly: Mats and Baskets
the Choctaw Way by Mary Lou Stahl the
process of peeling is described: "with the
help of a very big sharp knife, the outer
layer is peeled off these quarter lengths of
cane by inserting the knife blade and drawing
it steadily down the cane toward the person.
This takes skill and strength. The object is
to obtain a strong, flexible strip of even
thickness. The sides are trimmed for a
uniform width and the strips are scraped on
the inner surface to reduce thickness making
them more flexible." Judith Olney wrote that
Claude said he boiled the cane he used as a
rim. Boiling he said makes the cane
stronger.
Weather Conditions: I have been
told or read different stories. Let the cane
dry some and strip it the same day. One Cherokee elder
woman said to boil cane before peeling it.
Do not boil it per Roger Cain's advice.
Peel cane when the weather is cool. Collect cane
in the winter if you are in the southeast because in the summer
the surface is dry and brittle. Claude Medford said he faced the east
when peeling the cane. In very dry weather
water the cane if you cannot peel it the same
day. From my experience with river cane
harvested in Oklahoma, it is essential to
split and peel cane the same day you harvest
the cane. The easiest way is to camp where
you are harvesting the cane and do not cut
more than you can physically split and peel.
It will be hard to peel long strips after one
day of even keeping the cane immersed in
water. I have successfully scraped the inside
of the cane after it was split for a week. If
I peeled the outer layer, it broke at the
joints but scraping works well as long as you
are careful around the joints.
Choctaw River Cane Splitter: Drive
an upright stake of stout green cane into
deep ground so that about 2 1/2 feet of the
cane pole are above the ground. The top of
the cane to be split is cut criss cross, down
to the middle or just past the first joint.
Use a butcher or flint knife to cut in one
direction and then again at 90 degrees to the
first cut. The cuts are about an inch or two
in length, just enough so that the quartered
end could be adjusted. A shorter piece of
cane ten to twelve inches long is passed into
one of these cross cuts on the "pusher" side
of the stake and then placed horizontally
against the stake. Another way of saying this
is a smaller piece of cane is fixed at 90
degrees to the upright and placed so that
half of the cane passed above it and half
below.) The stake itself is placed into the
other cross cut, and as the cane is pushed
through, it falls into four divided lengths,
on the far side of the stake. Sharply jab the
cane pole to push against the upright cane.
The cane should split along the grain between
joints. Cane can be split as fast as it can
be pushed through. Another way of saying this
is from Weaving Wildly: Mats and Baskets the
Choctaw Way by Mary Lou Stahl. "After the
cane stalks are cut and brought back, a cross
shaped warp is driven into the ground. Two
lengthwise slits are made in the cane stalk,
dividing the stem into quarters. These four
parts of the stem were arranged around the
cross- shaped warp and the weaver holds the
stake with one hand and pushes the cane
against it with the other hand. An
experienced person can swiftly divide the
stalk of cane into four equal lengths."
Another way of splitting - select cane an
inch or more in diameter and split by
twisting in the hands and quartering it with
a sharp blow across the thigh or knee.
Splitting Asian Bamboo
Stalks: The Asia Society web page
gives the following information: the actual
training in bamboo basketry begins by
learning when to harvest the material. This
requires a sensitivity to the "best" bamboo,
that is, bamboo with the right flexibility
and texture (usually three to four years
old). The best time to harvest is in autumn,
when there is less insect infestation and
less moisture to cause mildew. The cut stalk
is then either heated over a charcoal or gas
fire to burn off excess oil or boiled in an
alkaline solution. The bamboo is cleaned with
cordage or water mixed with rice chaff and
cured under sunlight to keep it insect
repellent and to bring out an attractive
yellow color. The stalk of bamboo is finally
cut into the desired length of approximately
three feet, and the basket maker begins the
time-consuming and laborious process of
splitting and stripping. In the book
Basketry, we are told to use a
slender hollow stalk less than 5/8" in
diameter and over 7' high. Bamboo is not cut
but split along the grain. The knife, mostly
used as a wedge, is needed only to make the
initial cut at the bottom and to cut through
the joints. Scrape the sheaths lightly with
the edge of a knife. Use a knife to split the
stalk in half from the bottom up. Protect
your lap and your left hand with pieces of
leather. Rest your right thumb and forefinger
on opposite sides of the stalk just in front
of the blade. This helps prevent the blade
from suddenly hitting your left hand when the
stalk splits further than expected. When you
come to a joint, press the stalk against your
right knee and try to twist the blade
clockwise while you twist the stalk
counterclockwise with your left hand. Bending
the blade toward the stalk as you twist will
also make splitting easier. When the stalk
has been split, place the shiny outside of
the stalk on your knee, and lay the knife
with its cutting edge at a slight angle of
about 25 degrees on the stalk. Pull the split
toward you. Scrape the inner part of the
shiny peel until the splint is the required
thickness. Basketry, Hisako Sekijima
Splitting is described in a different way in
the Asia Society web page: splitting is done
by repeatedly cutting down the wall of the
bamboo stalk vertically--bamboo fibers run in
that direction from top to bottom. Stripping
further thins down each strip parallel to its
outer surface. This work is done with a few
medium-size knives. The dexterity of a maker
rather than the quality of the tools is the
deciding factor for the mastery of this
process. Many spend considerable time in
training to achieve strips as straight as
possible and the correct width and thickness
for a particular basket. A master basket
maker might produce a half dozen strips as
thin as a millimeter in half an hour Hisako
Sekijima states that bamboo frequently used
in Japanese basket weaving is
shinodake, a small type of bamboo
belonging to the genus . Medake and madake
are also widely used in Japan. Madake, of the
genus Phyllostachys, is the a larger
type of bamboo which sheds its sheaths in the
growning season. He advises collecting bamboo
at the beginning of winter and storing whole
or in coiled splits.
Bamboo poles and splits are imported by
Royalwood, Ltd. A contributer to the
basketry site on About.com replied to my
comment that the Asian bamboo does not make
a 95 degree angle without cracking. She
said to wet the bamboo and heat the part
you are going to bend over with the tip of
an iron. I would try steaming the bamboo
too as steaming helps to bend wood splints
and barks.
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