How can you escape certain bonds?

Postby WishPaladin » Sun Dec 16, 2012 1:07 am

I've been wondering about this question for a while now. When I write a fictional story, I sometimes want a character to escape, but I can't think up a better way than finding scissors or another sharp object. In my own experience, I've never had anyone escape being tied up even after struggling half an hour with only the hands tied behind the back and legs bound together. The only way I could think of to escape that situation, would be by bringing your hands in front of you (only if you're sufficiently athletic) and using your teeth to untie the knot.

Anyway, so back to my question. What situations where the victim is tied with rope, duct tape or something similar are escapable without the help of a sharp object and how? Also, a secondary question, if there is more than one captive, how likely is it that they'll be able to free each other? Answers coming from your own experiences are very much appreciated. I hope that I can make my fictional stories a little more realistic this way. :)
My drawings on deviantArt: http://wishpaladin.deviantart.com/

Re: How can you escape certain bonds?

Postby Tieup1 » Sun Dec 16, 2012 7:58 am

Good questions, If someone is tied up real good and tight, imo, they would need someone else to free them.

An example, I capture two girls, tie them to chairs, put them at opposite sides of the room, surely they need someone to free them.

Fictional stories, are just that, I'm sure people realise that the tie-ups and escapes, are just part of the story. :)

Re: How can you escape certain bonds?

Postby FelixSH » Sun Dec 16, 2012 8:53 am

I think if the tied person can reach the knots he could be able to free himself, even if he is tied well aside from that.
With two people, as long as they can reach each other (and the others knots) freeing each other should be realistic.

Though I have no experience with that, so take my info with a grain of salt. :wink:

Re: How can you escape certain bonds?

Postby drawscore » Sun Dec 16, 2012 10:14 am

Some people have the ability to escape by pulling their tied hands under their butts, untying their ankles, stepping through their hands, pulling away the gag, then using their teeth to untie the knots holding their hands. I think, because of anatomy, it's easier for a boy to do it. Young girls can do it well, too, but as they mature and their hips widen, it becomes more difficult. For boys, the rule if thumb, is that the inseam of their pants needs to be a minimum of four inches longer than their waist size. In other words, they have to be tall and skinny.

Drawscore

Re: How can you escape certain bonds?

Postby Reidy » Sun Dec 16, 2012 1:18 pm

I can't imagine why you would want them to escape. :D

Re: How can you escape certain bonds?

Postby Kyle » Sun Dec 16, 2012 9:41 pm

In most of the real-life situations I've heard involving someone getting tied up by robbers, the victim escapes themselves after a little while. Criminals often just don't have the time to do a good thorough job and really only worry about keeping the victim restrained long enough to get far enough away the police won't catch them. There are of course cases of people getting stuck for hours and hours and hours but that's not nearly always the case. So it's actually not unrealistic for someone to escape on their own.

Besides, it is fiction. Let's face it many of the fictional stories here are at the very least improbable, but some are still enjoyable.

Re: How can you escape certain bonds?

Postby WishPaladin » Sun Dec 16, 2012 11:41 pm

@Tieup1: well, whenever I write a story (not only tie-up stories) I try to keep everything as realistic as possible (within the context of the story of course, so if there's magic available, there might be a magical solution to a problem) albeit sometimes improbable. So if the captive really has no way to break free without help, he or she will stay stuck.

@FelixSH: hmm, well, I guess it should be possible to untie the knots, but it might take a long time depending on the type of knots used. Well, since the stories are fictional anyway, I might play around with that a bit.

@drawscore: too bad I often prevent that situation in my stories by tying a rope around the elbows.

@Reidy: well, I want the characters to try to escape so they can be busted by the captor at the very last moment. Then they can be tied up even tighter and/or punished. :big:

@ParanoiaDoesBondage, @Kyle: so if the captor is careless or in a hurry, the captive has a good chance to escape. That seems to make sense. ^^
My drawings on deviantArt: http://wishpaladin.deviantart.com/

Re: How can you escape certain bonds?

Postby RopeMaster » Mon Dec 17, 2012 12:10 pm

I think the volume of rope used, how easily the fingers can reach the knots and if you have access to the ends of the rope all come into play. Even a very basic tying job with lOts of rope used and several knots will take a while to get out of. Now f you use some better bondage techniques or knots, make sure the knots are difficult to reach with the fingers and tie the ends of the rope out of reach, the individual would be held much longer. An example would be tying wrists behind the back, then taking the remaining ends of the rope, running them around the person's waist and tying off in front. They an reach the knots in back,but without the ends, you can't really pull them through to untie yourself. As long as you have access to the ends of the rope, I think you could eventually work at the knots enough to get yourself free.

Re: How can you escape certain bonds?

Postby cellofello » Wed Dec 26, 2012 5:48 am

ParanoiaDoesBondage wrote:The most boring answer would be simply forcing one's hands free. This works with ropes that have a relatively large diameter - not so well with small diameter ropes (tried latter once - needed scissors for what was a 5-minute hand flexibility exercise with larger rope).


As mentioned above, the diameter does make a difference. So does the kind of rope. Some rope materials - for example, nylon and cotton without a synthetic core - actually do stretch. I have had more than one occasion where I could not reach the knot, but after strenuous effort (and a bit of pain) I could get just enough slack to work one strand off my wrist and over my hand. Once that's accomplished, it's downhill from there as the captive redistributes the slack from the removed strand. If you want to be a professional kidnaper, I recommend smaller-diameter hemp.

Re: How can you escape certain bonds?

Postby tyme115 » Wed Dec 26, 2012 7:39 am

My wife has learned that if she wraps my hands/fingers in duct tape it is virtually impossible for me to escape and I have to agree! :)

Re: How can you escape certain bonds?

Postby Unknown-User » Sat Dec 29, 2012 4:09 pm

This really depends on the way the "victim" is tied. If done with a duct-tape-hogtie, for example, there are some ways to weaken the strength of the tape. This way you could break your hands and feet from eachother and, if you are flexible and taped the right way, pull your arms under you to your front and get some ways to break it that way. A common tie, the spreadeagle, is almost impossible to get out of, even with scissors or knives. So don't use one of those in your story if you want the character to escape.
Oh, and btw, metal like used in your knives becomes soft when heated to 30 degrees Celsius or when rubbed on a lot, also causing the object to heat. I believe I once read a TUG-story taking advantage of that, but I don't remember in what way.

Re: How can you escape certain bonds?

Postby Rope_guy » Wed Jan 02, 2013 8:07 pm

I read somewhere that it is harder to escape when the wrists are tied crossed to each other than if they were parallel. And even when cross-tying wrists, it is actually harder to escape if the tie is vertical than horizontal. In my experience it is hard to tell, because whenever I tied someone up, I always crossed the wrists and tied them both horizontally and vertically.