Well, those ‘future sheets of paper’ that were laying on the deck (pictured in the last post) are becoming a reality.
I can now say with certainty that: one bag of corn husks (BIG bag from the farmer) yields 4 lbs of dried, cut up pieces; only one lb of dried, cut up pieces fits in one of my canning cook pots; it takes 3 hours to cook them in soda ash (and maybe I should have cooked a little longer!); one pound works well in the Hollander beater that I have and it takes 3-6 hours, depending on how low I set the beater drum, to get the fibers beaten enough.
I can also say that I wish I had cut the pieces smaller or had been a bit more careful in making sure no long ones got through. And by long I mean more than two inches. The extra length makes it harder to pull a nice smooth sheet of paper.
Right now I have three batches done; last one will go in tomorrow morning early. We’ll see how far I get in pulling corn sheets!