Rope Preparation

Why treat your own rope?

Some people enjoy preparing and treating their own rope, as they enjoy the feeling of working with something they helped to produce. It also allows more freedom over the finished product; if its not soft enough, boiling for longer will soften it up, if you want a length that isn't generally commercially available, you can cut the rope to that length yourself. Another reason you may wish to treat your own rope is cost. While the procedure is simple, it is time consuming, and paying for someone else to do this means that treated rope ready for use is considerably more expensive than untreated rope.

How to treat your own rope:
You will need: Your rope (hemp, linen, or jute), scissors, some waste yarn or string, a washing machine, a tumble drier (optional), a gas stove (optional), waste canvas or other heavy cloth, oil (mink oil, jojoba, or baby oil).

Boiling and washing the rope

1) The first step is to cut your rope into the desired lengths. While it is possible to prepare the rope then cut it afterwards, shorter lengths are a lot easier to work with. Once the rope is cut, the ends need to be finished to stop them fraying. The easiest way is to tie a simple overhand knot, though more complicated knots, whipping with twine or thread, or wrapping with tape may be preferred.	2) The ropes should then be wrapped into loose coils (around the same size as the base of your pan), and tied with waste yarn or string. Knotting or tightly wrapping the rope is not a good idea, as it contracts when wet, so will be very hard to get undone.

3) The rope is then placed in a large pan and covered with water. The temperature of the water doesn't matter, although using warm water will mean it comes to the boil quicker.	4) A lid is placed on the pan and it is brought to the boil. As the water soaks into the rope it becomes hard and twisted, and may protrude from the water, so you may wish to move the ropes around with a wooden spoon to ensure they are fully immersed, although keeping the lid on will allow the steam to penetrate any rope that does not stay submerged.
5) Once the water has come to the boil, lower the heat and simmer for a couple of hours. Then turn the heat off and leave the pan until the rope is cool enough to handle (usually takes around 12 hours)	6) Drain the water, and put the rope though the washing machine on the delicate cycle, with half the amount of washing powder/liquid you'd normally use.

Drying the rope

Method 1: In a tumble drier

You can use a tumble drier to dry your rope, on a medium heat setting, with no adverse effect. However this method does mean a lot of fluff comes off the rope into your drier, so you may need to empty the lint trap, and run the risk of getting bits of rope fluff all over the next set of clothes you put in it. Once you take the rope out of the drier , it'll probably be pretty tangled up and will have shrunk in length. After cutting the yarn/string bands of each coil of rope, you will need to stretch it to set the twist back into it, and restore as much length as possible. The easiest way to do this is to wrap the rope around a smooth pole attached to the wall or ceiling, and pull hard a few times. You'll feel the rope stretch as you do this. If you don't have a secure point to do this from, then getting someone else to hold it, or looping it under your foot works fine too. As you stretch the rope out you'll notice that it becomes less twisted up, though you'll probably have a couple of unwanted twists in it which you can remove by holding the rope and letting it dangle and spin out the extra twist.
Your rope is now ready to be treated.

Method 2: By hanging it up

When you take the rope out of the washing machine, it'll have shrunk in length and will probably be pretty tangled. Cut the yarn/string bands of each coil, and give each bit of rope a firm tug to restore some of the lost length. The easiest way to do this is to wrap the rope around a smooth pole attached to the wall or ceiling, and pull hard a few times. You'll feel the rope stretch as you do this. If you don't have a secure point to do this from, then getting someone else to hold it, or looping it under your foot works fine too. Now hang the rope up to dry, if you have a secure point you can hang it on and use for stretching it too, great, if not, hanging it on a clothes airer or over your shower rail is fine.
Once the rope has dried, which will take about a day, it'll have unwanted twists in, and will still be rather short. Stretch the rope again as before, pulling hard until you can feel it doesn't 'give' any more. As you stretch the rope out you'll notice that it becomes less twisted up, though you'll probably have a couple of unwanted twists in it which you can remove by holding the rope and letting it dangle and spin out the extra twist.