HCB Chapter 376 Free straw paper
Chapter 376 Free straw paper
Shen Youyou at home was not idle either. She really couldn't stand having no toilet paper, so she took her brothers to study papermaking. It was a bit too much to say "research" because she knew the production method very well.
Even in modern times, I have learned to make different types of paper using tree bark, bamboo, and even cotton because of documentaries I watched.
To put it bluntly, life is too good and I have too much free time, so I really like to learn various ancient crafts.
Of course, Shen Youyou planned to make paper for wiping her butt. She didn't even plan to use tree bark, let alone bamboo and cotton.
Since everyone couldn't accept using expensive paper to wipe their butts, she created a kind of paper that was as cheap as it could be.
In fact, the concept of straw paper in ancient times was rather vague. It was generally used to describe something rough and was mainly used for superstition, packaging, and wiping away dirt. It was not necessarily made of grass plants in the usual sense.
In some places, bamboo paper used as daily paper is even called straw paper.
Shen Youyou remembers that when she was a child, toilet paper was called straw paper in her hometown. At that time, toilet paper was mostly made of bamboo and straw.
In fact, there are many raw materials that can be used to make paper, such as wheat straw, rice straw, and cattail. In the northwest region, Stipa sphenanthera and Amaranthus chinensis (also known as Malan grass) are also commonly used.
The main reason for choosing this time to make toilet paper is that everyone in Tangjia Village was harvesting wheat a few days ago, and there were piles of wheat straw everywhere.
Before Shen Zhiqiu and the others came, everyone would collect some of the wheat straw and use it for burning, and some of it would be directly burned when the land was cleared.
This time, Shen Zhiqiu didn't ask everyone to do that. He just kept the bean stalks, wheat stalks, sweet potato vines, etc. that they collected, intending to dry them and use them as fertilizer.
But Shen Youyou had already set her sights on these wheat straws, and she chose today because the wheat straws she had previously soaked and fermented in lime water looked almost ready.
Before soaking, she asked her brothers to borrow the grass cutter used by Tang Xin's family to cut grass for livestock, and cut the straw into sections in advance. At that time, many villagers gathered to watch.
Originally everyone thought it was for feeding animals, but Shen Youyou said it had other uses. It was not until she asked her brothers to dig a large pit, smeared clay on it, and soaked it with water that everyone believed it had other uses.
Anyway, the people in Tangjia Village are no longer surprised by the behavior of the Nine Clans. After all, many of their methods are things they have never seen before.
After seeing Shen Zhiqiu and the others off, Shen Youyou asked her brothers to boil wheat straw in pots. In order to soften the fibers, she asked them to boil them with water containing wood ash.
The operation was also quite simple and crude. She first borrowed several large pots that Uncle Tietou had just made to install pot baths for everyone.
They even dug stoves and set up pots on the ground right below their bases.
After cooking, wash off the lime in clean water, remove from the water and squeeze out.
Use a stone mill to grind it directly into a paste.
Several strong young men from the Jiu clan did not need to borrow the old ox to pull the millstone. They pulled the heavy stone mill around in circles by themselves.
The stone mill is a relatively large object, usually several meters wide. For example, the stone mill in Tangjia Village has a diameter of nearly four steps.
Such a large object would definitely take up a lot of space and be inconvenient if placed in the yard, so it is placed next to the stone mill in the village.
However, it is placed in the open air, unlike the stone mill which has a shed. This is because mules or donkeys are usually used to help pull the stone mill, and it is inconvenient to set up a shed.
When grinding wheat straw paste, sprinkle some water on the straws that have been rolled into a ball to wet them slightly before grinding.
Slowly add water and grind into a paste. But be careful not to grind it too much to prevent the fiber from being destroyed.
After grinding out a portion of the paste, Shen Youyou asked her brothers to put the paste into cloth bags, pull them to the riverside, and beat them with wooden sticks to clean them.
This step was originally called washing, which is also the second cleaning of the lime on the raw materials, until the lime is completely washed away.
Big Mao from Uncle Fugui's family asked, "Yo Yo, how long will it take to wash like this?"
Shen Youyou told him: "Just let the water flow while knocking it, and when no more powder can be knocked out, it's done."
It doesn't require much technical skills. Big Brother Mao and a few of his brothers just swung their arms and started to "bang bang bang!"
If you don't know, you might think they are sitting by the river washing clothes.
However, there are also some things to note in this step. It's just that there are no requirements for the beating technique, but there are requirements for the cloth used to make the bag.
The bag should be made of cloth, because if the holes in the bag are too fine, the muddy matter in the grass, that is, the starch and fine fibers cannot be bleached out, the wet paper is difficult to separate, and the paper will also be yellower.
If the bag holes are too large, it will result in large fiber losses.
After washing, take these raw materials back and you can make paper.
Just the first few steps took me half a day.
After lunch, Shen Youyou didn’t have a sink at the moment, so she could only make do with the bathtub, since the bathtub was big enough.
However, at this step, she asked her brothers to move the large bath pot to the workshop on the east side of the wall they had just built.
There are two rooms here, which she requested specifically for her father. One room is intended to be used for copying paper, and the other room is used as a firewall.
"Yo Yo, what should we do next?"
When the older brothers heard today that Shen Youyou was going to make paper, they were very excited. They thought she was making paper for their younger brothers to use for writing.
I wonder what they would think if they knew she was doing it to wipe her butt, but Shen Youyou did ask her brothers to cut some bamboo.
I tied the palm trees and soaked them in the Xiaoqing River. It has been soaking for half a month. After another half a month, I can make bamboo paper for my younger brothers.
Shen Youyou instructed the brothers to pour the raw materials into the bath pot, add appropriate amount of water, and stir evenly. This time, there was no need to light a fire.
Just use the bamboo screen to copy paper.
This bamboo curtain was made by her grandfathers before. It has four horizontal grids, which can be used to copy four sheets of straw paper at a time.
Because the curtain was quite large, Shen Youyou asked her brothers to hang it directly on the beam. Fortunately, the bath pot was big enough, otherwise the curtain would not be able to be opened.
She demonstrated it herself, copying once first, and then placing the curtain on the water surface after the paper came out of the water.
Use your fingers to gently press down to lift the paper slightly so that the bottom of the paper becomes smooth.
Then pick up the paper again, and apply another layer of water, which should flow towards you quickly to make the upper part of the paper smooth, making it easier to peel off.
The copied papers were stacked one by one on a wooden rack with a bamboo screen.
Shen Youyou demonstrated it many times, and the young men from the Nine Clans watched carefully from the side.
Many strong laborers who did not go to the stalls came over. After all, paper is really sacred to them.
In this way, she copied it about a hundred times by herself, and her arms were a little numb. After all, the big rack was hung by the beams, and it was quite difficult to operate with her current height.
During this time, her brothers offered to help her but she refused, saying that she had to use toilet paper even if she went to the toilet tonight.