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Evocation

SISAL THE ANCIENAND SIMPLE HISTORY Aug. 13, 2016

  • sisal

  • sisal

  • sisal

  • sisal

    • Coming from the eastern part of Mexico, the name of Sisal (Agave sisalana) ou « henequen »  , come from a small port town on the cost in the Yucatan area, Sisal, from where the fibre  was sent round the world, in the glorious time.

    The fibre is still used for making ropes, twine, string, cord, fabrics and carpet.

    sisal la plante 

    Cultivated by major owners, the henequen became fibre for twine and ropes or other products. Some of this beautiful “Haciendas” are now converted to “ live museum” like “Sotuta de Péon” near Mérida in Yucatan.

    hacienda  Sotuta de Péon

    In the old days, the leaves were picked (cut) by hand, paths through the plantation were equipped with rails pulled by horses to facilitate the harvest and pull carts back to the factory.

    plantation

    Then the leaves were processed by special machines to extract the fibre.

    feuilles pour etre decortiquées         extraction de la fibre      vers les machines

    Each leave, looking like a pack of fibre was dried in the sun, before being packed like a bale of fibre and sent away as raw material, or being processed in the plantation to become ropes and twine.

     sechage  Sechage  en botte  Botte

    The fibre was separated by hand through hooks, before being processed by torsion.

        separation de la fibre   crochets fibre devient ficelle fibre devient ficelle

    The yarn’s thickness depends on the number of fibre used, and the thickness for the rope on the number of yarn used in the process.

    Machines finish the job to spine the yarn and produce bobbins ready to use.

    embobinage  Bobines

    This activity was very prosperous and helped the economic development of the Yucatan area. Until the sixties, the production was up to 160 000T/ year, before declining in the seventies. The use of the nylon fibre had become so popular, that the sisal activity collapsed.

    Today the sisal production has been taken over by South America, Brazil became the first sisal producer in the world with 130 000T/year, which is around 50% of the world production; African countries like Kenya and Tanzania are also sisal productor.

    The use of sisal is not only for twine and ropes, but had been largely used for flooring as carpet or rugs, also as wall covering, reminding a real classic in interior design.

    tapis en sisal sisal Tapis en tissage de sisal tapis en sisal

    Credits photo: Ruckstuhl. www.ruckstuhl.com

    Today sisal is also used in the paper industry, and for geotextile products, with some opening on new market as an ingredient to reinforce plastic composite materials for the automotive.

    THM

    Photo Credit : Therese Mace, Christophe Paquay

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