Rope preparation
2011-Feb-18, Friday 05:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ssurgulSo, a while ago I posted about hemp rope prep.
A few things I've discovered thus far. Boiling the rope takes many too many hours. Like at least 9. So a WIDE stock pot is very preferable as they can usually hold more water (since the height is usually the same or slightly higher) and then with the added water to boil with, there's usually less of the dreaded boil-over. I dunno why it happens with rope like it does with pasta, but there we are.
The smell is amazingly bad and pervasive. To help control it at least somewhat, wash the rope in hot first. Then, when cooking, change the water at least twice, every two-three hours. That helps some with the smell, and it also gets a more bleached looking rope at the end. While this may not be the color o' choice for some, since I'm going to be dyeing all my rope to things not camel/wheat color, it is probably better anyway since that will give me bigger open cells for dye absorption/bonding I should hope.
Pulling rope over metal bar is amazingly annoying work, and is rather strenuous at that. But at least after the first pull, the burnyating of the fuzzy off the rope is mildly entertaining. ;)
After all these washes, I'm relatively certain the rope is as soft as it's going to be for a while, without actually using it. Which is good. Soft rope helps conform to specific shapes and limbs that much better.
All-in-all, it's a worthwhile project, but wow is it some heavy endurance to get through certain unfun aspects. But as with all things BDSM (or really anything of personal importance) it will definitely help cement that the rope is mine, and that my sweat and energy helped shape it to my standard of perfection for my desired tasks.
A few things I've discovered thus far. Boiling the rope takes many too many hours. Like at least 9. So a WIDE stock pot is very preferable as they can usually hold more water (since the height is usually the same or slightly higher) and then with the added water to boil with, there's usually less of the dreaded boil-over. I dunno why it happens with rope like it does with pasta, but there we are.
The smell is amazingly bad and pervasive. To help control it at least somewhat, wash the rope in hot first. Then, when cooking, change the water at least twice, every two-three hours. That helps some with the smell, and it also gets a more bleached looking rope at the end. While this may not be the color o' choice for some, since I'm going to be dyeing all my rope to things not camel/wheat color, it is probably better anyway since that will give me bigger open cells for dye absorption/bonding I should hope.
Pulling rope over metal bar is amazingly annoying work, and is rather strenuous at that. But at least after the first pull, the burnyating of the fuzzy off the rope is mildly entertaining. ;)
After all these washes, I'm relatively certain the rope is as soft as it's going to be for a while, without actually using it. Which is good. Soft rope helps conform to specific shapes and limbs that much better.
All-in-all, it's a worthwhile project, but wow is it some heavy endurance to get through certain unfun aspects. But as with all things BDSM (or really anything of personal importance) it will definitely help cement that the rope is mine, and that my sweat and energy helped shape it to my standard of perfection for my desired tasks.