Natural alternatives to leather [100% veg*n ] Digest Number 392

[Guest guest]

Further to what I wrote below, I've done a search at the Plants For A Future

database http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/index.html

which turned up the following three plants as possible leather alternatives;

 

Broussonetia papyrifera (Paper mulberry); " A fibre from the bark is used in

making

paper, cloth, rope etc[46, 61, 114, 171]. The fibre can be produced by beating

strips of bark on a flat surface with a wooden mallet. A very fine cloth can be

made in this way, the more the bark is beaten the finer the cloth becomes.

Larger

sizes can be made by overlapping 2 pieces of bark and beating them together. A

leather substitute can also be made from the bark "

 

Caragana decorticans; " The bark is used as a binding material[146], it takes a

good

polish and when new resembles leather in appearence "

 

Salix caprea (Goat willow); " The bark is tough and flexible, it is used as a

substitute for leather "

 

see http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/cgi-bin/pfaf/find_use?OTH_USE=Leather for

greater

detail and to check out each plant individually.

 

 

Cheers

Graham

 

>a future vegan-permaculture society would do well to look at alternative fibre

plants such as nettle or hemp, or some of the plants covered in the Plants For A

Future article at http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/fibplant.html