Condition and Dye Your Own Hemp Rope

In this Instructable, I will guide you through the process of conditioning raw hemp into soft and beautiful rope.

Disclaimer:

This is for informative purposes only. I am in no way responsible for any injury by or misuse of the finished product.

Step 1: Tools and ingredients

1. Hemp rope - I'm using 83 meters of raw 4 mm rope but the process is the same for thicker sizes. I buy Ecolution Romanian hemp rope through greenboatstuff.com. It's sold by weight so if you buy thicker rope you won't get the same length.

2. EMT safety shears

3. Stock pot or pressure cooker - large enough to hold all your rope and cover with water

4. Washer and dryer

5. Mesh laundry bag or old pillow case

6. Dye (optional) - use any brand you like, just make sure it's for natural fibers and that you follow the instructions. I'll be using Rit-Dye.

7. 1 cup salt (for dying)

8. Water

9. Rough towel or piece of burlap

10. Gas burner or alcohol lamp

11. Mineral oil - get the kind sold as a laxative at the drug store. It's much more refined than other kinds at the hardware store.

12. Masking tape

13. Measuring tape.

14. Whipping twine or strong thread

Comments

[Fyremane]

Hmm, 15' and 30' lengths of dyed Hemp Rope, I do belive i know what this rope is used for. Sounds like Shibari

[jklovance]

I am having trouble getting the dye to penetrate to the core of the rope. I am using fiber reactive die. I vat processed it for over two hours in my bathtub but it didn't go all the way through.

[vincedis]

will this process take away some of the smell? i don't really want to buy natural hemp if it is going to smell like goat poop. When i use my friends rope it reminds me of the petting zoo. If this process doesn't get it out is there anything that will besides 10 years of consistant use?

[jklovance]

All the smell goes away after treating.

[hansherauf]

Some instructions claims that it has to be animal oil, others recommend using Vax. Do not use vegetable oils as they go rancid quite easily

[holsen]

Jojoba oil is commonly considered one of the best choices.
This doesn't contradict the previous comment since chemically it's a wax rather than an oil.

[b1gdamnhero]

Does it make any difference whatsoever if the pot is covered or not? (Sorry, total rookie at this.)

[mcvarij]

No. It might help to reduce evaporation, it shouldn't matter otherwise.

[b1gdamnhero]

Great, thanks!

[jiminigrist]

Another great instructable. I use a similar process and the results are great.

[frollard]

Thank you mcvarij! Treated hemp is always super expensive, and I've always wondered the steps! I love the warning "not responsible for what you do with it" ;-) - should this be in the 'anything kinky' group?

[Vulcanator]

smoke it, hemp originates from the cannabis plant (the stems)

[frollard]

not what i had in mind when I joked at the disclaimer about making rope.

[Vulcanator]

yeah i know, you shouldn't smoke it it contains the least amount of THC of the entire cannabis plant

[godhole]

Another reason to not smoke hemp rope is that the majority of that available in the US was grown with pesticides.

[wiljo94]

Also, hemp rope comes from a different plant in the cannabis family than that which is smoked

[frollard]

**how DARE they take down the tkb videos? those are incredibly informative!

[albesan]

this step didn't quite work for me. Maybe I overdid it. The rope ended up damaged and after zinging there were lots of black burnt out dots along the rope.
Not doing this step worked better for me, the boiling and washing at high temperature plus the stretching during the drying process seems to soften the rope enough.

Maybe is the rope I am using, it is a 6 mm hemp.


None the less thanks for the instructable.

[shango2]

Very nice, I'm in the middle of trying this myself. I'm not dyeing my rope yet, I want to see what color it ends up being first. And I used Sailmaker's whipping with hemp cord, which is nice and secure, and looks cool too...

[ellarodgers]

Thank you. Procedure works very well.

[thickneckarts]

Cool instructable! I will definitely give this a try.

[Mr. Beefhead]

Thank you, this is fantastic! Any tips as to the optimum amount of boil/dry cycles (in your opinion)?

[mcvarij]

I did a single boil for about two hours, plus the dying process and my rope is fine.