Treating natural rope for shibari

[Suzy__Tapshoes]

I was asked by a lovely member for my 'recipe' for treating hemp rope to soften it and make it more user friendly, and told to post my method here to help others, so here you go!

This is for hemp or flax ropes, not anything else.

So take your rope and tape or whip the ends; note that if you knot it, you'll likely never get it undone again!

Coil it loosely into a large pot or pan, cover with plain cold water and put it on to boil for about two hours. Hold your nerve and your nose! It will be fine for that long and it will smell gross!

Let it cool completely, this should take half a day or so but you can leave it over night if that's more convenient.

Drain off the water and put the rope in a pillowcase, tie the top shut in a knot so the rope can't move or escape and shove it in the washing machine on the hottest wash you have with about a third of the usual amount of washing powder but twice the amount of fabric softner/conditioner.

Let it dry while either strung out straight or coiled as widely as you can; note any bends or links will take a while to come out so keep it as taught as possible. Drying took my 90feet of hemp rope two days to fully dry.

When it's dry, get a blow torch or even just a cigarette lighter and run it very quickly along the length to burn off the little hairy bits. Don't use a candle, it'll leave soot which is a bitch to clean off again!

Then you can do one of two things: leave it there and make your cuts and use it or you can wax or oil it. Personally I don't like to as I prefer the texture of unwaxed rope. If you do want to, then a food grade coconut oil is good but any highly purified food grade vegetable based wax or oil is fine. Just put a little on a cloth and run it along the rope a few times. Et voila!

To finish your ends, tape it when it's fully dried, knot it while dry or whip it - doesn't matter if it's wet or dry.

Happy tying!

Suze.

Xxx

 

[Collar_N_Cuffs]

Awesome info! Thanks for taking the time and sharing, SuzyTS

 

[seela]

After boiling and drying the rope I always run the it through a loop of some sort (loopy cupboard handle works well for me) and twist the rope a couple of times and then pull it so that there's slight friction to the rope (provided by the twist, not the loop). This brings up more of the hairy bits before I burn them.

I find that if I don't do it, after a while of using the ropes, they start getting hairy and fizzy again. This also softens the rope further and makes it more "pliable" without having to boil it for so long. I've never washed them in the washing machine at all. I just boil them, rinse them, pull them straight and leave them dry. Then I pull them through the loop, burn off the hairy bits and oil them.

Also remember that the longer you boil and soak the ropes, the softer and weaker they get. The washing machine bit is also basically boiling them, and if you add softener and other chemicals, it weakens the rope even more. That's particularly important to take into account, if you're doing suspensions.