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Dear Stoner: I was smoking weed with one of those guys who sounds like he knows everything but makes up most of the shit he says. Anyway, he said hemp was once used to make armor, but I called bullshit. Couldn’t find much online. Care to settle?
Farrah
Dear Farrah: Smoking weed socially tends to bring out droning rants that are loose with facts, but your friend is right. Hemp fiber is both durable and a good base for clothing material, rope and paper, so it’s not crazy to think that past cultures used hemp for protection. Although metal was obviously preferred, cheaper armor made of hemp fibers was used hundreds of years ago by Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Russian soldiers.
Hemp wasn’t used to make shiny battle suits centuries ago, but fabrics made from the plant did help create cheap armor for numerous civilizations.
Unsplash/Nik Shuliahin
One of these suits, made in eighteen-century Korea with hemp sewing, has become a popular display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Hemp armor appears to have extended into the present, too, as companies that make bulletproof vests are now experimenting with hemp-based compounds as an alternative to Kevlar.
Maybe the Du Pont family really did hate hemp…
Send questions to marijuana@westword.com.
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