Condition and Dye Your Own Hemp Rope

Step 6 Break in the rope

Undo the daisy chains. Your rope is probably very kinky (no pun intended). Find some sharp sturdy edge like a metal staircase bannister. In my case there's a padlock latch on an out door closed in the back yard of my apartment. Any sharp edge that won't wear down or get splinters in your rope will do. Pull the rope across the edge at a sharp angle. Put a lot of force into it. Your arms and back should hurt. Wear gloves to avoid blisters. You're trying to break the fibers and sort of sand the outside of the rope. Start at one end and pull to the other end then go back. Your rope should end up looking pretty fuzzy and less stiff. This also will stretch and straighten the rope.

Comments

[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.