Fesselfans rant:Ropes

Postby Fesselfan » Thu Jan 14, 2010 12:09 am

Hi Folks,

as rope is for many the prefered tie up material for tie ups, so I thought I'd put down my experiences with it.
A lot of the problems beginners have with rope tie ups is because they use the wrong ropes.

A good rope has tu fulfill several criteria:

-it should have a decent diameter, 6mm minimum. Large diameter ropes (>12mm) are usually unsuited either, because they have less flexibility. Usually, I use 8mm and found that to be very usuable.
-Run it through your hands. If it generates much friction heat (or, starts to irritate your skin) it is bad. You don't want to hurt yourself when you whiggle around in your bounds, won't you? Disclaimer: if it starts to rip of your skin, it's most likely unsuited, either :D
-knots should not come open by themselves
-(an often ignored point) knots should be openable. You don't want to cut your favourite rope everytime you free someone.
-it should be flexible, so it wraps around everything snugly. This prevents single points of pressure.

When you keep to this points, you should find an at least decent rope for your tie ups.

Personally, I usually use cotton (soft, washable, very good) or hemp (not as soft, more rugged feel) ropes of 6-8mm diameter.

Cheers

FF
There are 10 kind of people in the world.
Those who understand binary numeral system, and those who don't.