Ropes and other Bondage Gear

1. How to make a japanese nosehook? (gallery)

2. Kinds of ropes, handling, finishing and so on

For rope bondage you can use different types of rope. The most comfortable ready made rope is cotton rope without a soul (no extra string in the woven rope), best in 6 to 10 mm diameter. To finish the ends, you can use tape, a knot or a real finishing like the sailsman do. For the last one you need thread and a sewing needle. Take a 50 cm piece of thread and turn it several times around the end. Than sew the end of the thread with some stiches around the layer of thread. Some other people like very much smooth nylon rope (used for climbing and sailing), but be aware, all kind of ropes, especially nylon ropes, do rope burn if you pull it with a little pressure on human skin. To finish the rope ends of nylon rope, you can melt the ends a little bit with a gas lighter.
Most of my time as a person doing bondage, I used black and white cotton rope. But now I am a fan of finished hemp rope (6 mm diameter). If you use hemp rope without finishing, it may happen very easy that you will abrasive the skin of your victim. The same problem with sisal rope or cocos rope which are much more hard and spiky.

Bondage Rope Preparation
Making the hemp rope as soft as you want it is a very work intensive, and needs several hours of preparation. So first you should decide whether you want to take this on or not. If you say yes, you will get a rope, with a very special softness, a rope which is very familiar to you. But the best way to decide is to touch the rope and to take the one you like most because of its smell, feeling or color.

Some words about finishing my hemp rope:
2.1. Wet Method (Like Chiba Sensei and Randa Mai will do)
Boiling the ropes in hot water without any additives for about 5 hours (bad smell in the kitchen, open the window and close the door, there must be always enough water in the saucepan. If not, the rope will get burned).
Let the rope dry. It is good to let it dry thoroughly, at room temperature it may need about 3 to 5 days. Outside it feels dry after 2 days but the interior needs longer. To avoid a loss of tension in the rope, dry it under tension. Take a small gas torch, flame set at minimum (take care, that the torch keeps standing!). Hold the rope between your hands (about 30 to
50 centimeters) and move it not too slow right through the flames, the small fibers
which are stickking outside will burn away. Take care to not burn the core of the rope. Do this with lots of ventilation. Wash out the ropes in hand warm water without any additives. Let it dry. Then you take a good bees wax based leather wax and rub it into the rope
very gentle and decimeter after decimeter. Do not spare the wax. During waxing check out hard pieces of foreign matter in the rope to pull them out.
Let it rest for 2 days. Work the rope through. If it is not sofgt enough after this, you need a second cooking for once more about 5 hours. If there is too much wax it will float on the water. Cooking let the wax sink deeper into the rope. Let the rope dry under tension for about 1 week. Work the rope a minimum two times between your hands. It is good to cut the ropes before finishing into the pieces you want, so the rope will not tangle so much. Japanese style for the rope ends is doing simple knots at the ends, so the fibres could not separate. I use sets with 8 meter ropes. I know this is a very long and time consuming method, but the rope is very soft after this, softer then cotton or nylon, some people say it feels like wool. AND you can pull it through your hands or with pressure on the skin of your victim much faster without causing ropeburn. No other rope will allow you this speed.
2.2. Dry Method (Use this only with very soft hemp and jute rope)
First you need to wash the new rope. The easiest way is to put it in a washing machine. Use the 90 degree celsius program and add a soft detergent, so you can be sure, that all chemicals and dirt will be washed out. Let the rope dry for some days under tension. Now you fold the rope into half and fix it somewhere. Twist the rope as much as possible, use for example a cooking spoon to twist. If you can make a rope chain, do this and then twist
it.This you have to do in both directions. After this proceed with pulling the rope trough the eye of a hook or a carabiner with much tension. Then you burn the small pieces with a gas or alcohol torch. Attention: Be sure that the torch is standing secure and that you do not burn the rope itself. Then take a small piece of and clean, dry cotton and wipe the rope from one end to the other. If you are able to buy mink oil (it is for leather care, so you can buy it in Shoe Shops or Leather Shops), put a small amount on another piece of cotton and wipe it into the rope smoothly.
2.3. General Comments
If you want to wash it (for example if you have used it as torch rope), use hand warm water and a soft detergent (one for wool). If there is any blood on it, put it for 3 hours in cold water, than wash the rope with hand warm water and a soft detergent. If you want to sterilize the rope, put it in a quick cooking device for about 45 minutes (there is more pressure in it, so the water comes to 145 degree Celsius). After cooking, it could be good to wax it a little bit once more. If there is any colored wax (like candle wax) on the rope, you can use hot water, to soften the wax and pull it away.
Many people asks what length they need for the first steps in bondage. A starter kit could be a 24 meter piece, which you cut into pieces: 1 with 12 meter (for body), 1 with 6 meter (for both legs) and 2 with 3 meter (for each hand). If you want do more complicated things like most of Japanese bondage or suspension bondage, you need much more rope. But if you got the BONDAGE CD with 20 different kinds of bondage, it is enough to have 8
pieces of 8 meter rope. It will do for most bondages. If you want to do a very large spider web with a person in it, between two trees or a bondage post, you need much more.
But remember, if the rope is too short, you can make it longer with another piece. But then you need ANOTHER piece. So don't be sparing with the number of ropes, if you want to do more bondage.
For sure, it is possible to do bondage with straight jackets, leather cuffs, chains, handcuffs or just with your word. So you need not to become a rope artist, if you are not into ropes, but into bondage. There is NO right way for bondage material, as long you can handle it without hurting your victim by accident.

(translation "polished" by Folterknecht (david schurman)

Normally handcuffs have very hard edges, so do not pull too much on them, the nerves and the skin of your victim will love it. From time to time it is usefull to oil all metal bondage gear. A second key for bondage gear with a lock should be always reachable, if the first one was lost.
For your leather gear you should use leather wax after using it several times, the leather stays smooth and soft.

If you use only chains, check out that there are no sharp edges. Chains are the most uncomfortable bondage device, because it is more stiff than rope and it is very easy to clip skin between the segments of the chain. So it is better, to use the chain together with leather cuffs.
By the way: Rope and other bondage gear is easier to handle, if you have your equipment in a kind of order. For rope it is a good idea to put some small hooks in the wall, for every piece one hook. So you can see withe the first look wether the rope is a short or a long one.

I am sure there is much more to say about bondage gear,
but I do not want to write a new book ...