After some use, we need to make sure the rope stays in good working order. This means making sure it is clean, doesn’t dry out, maintains its structural integrity to keep it strong, and sometimes fixing minor problems. Your maintenance routine will determine how your ropes age and how often you need to replace them.
When Should I Wash my Ropes?
Deciding how often to clean rope is a complex topic, as it involves a lot of compromise. The cleaning process may progressively weaken the rope, with some fibre types being more vulnerable than others. Each person also has their preferences and needs when it comes to hygiene. Discussing rope maintenance with your partner is part of informed consent.
I’m comfortable wearing my friend’s shirt, but not their underwear. I wash all the clothing bought from the store in case it was worn by a stranger. For most people, their hygiene limits and preferences are not just about whether the rope was used, but also how it was used and with whom. Some will prefer that their rope is used on them exclusively; others will be perfectly fine with ropes that were used on others over clothing. What about ropes that were used on the mouth, on genitals, or rope that dragged on the floor in a dirty location? It is important to make a conscious choice about what is acceptable to everyone involved.
For most people, the main criteria is to limit contamination via rope, especially STIs and other infections. No method of cleaning rope can achieve 100% sterility with natural fibre ropes without damaging it. But many types of natural materials used for bondage show antimicrobial properties, especially bamboo, jute and hemp as well. If you are afraid of pathogens from one person infecting another, the only completely safe way is to use a separate rope between partners.
We generally only want to wash our rope when needed. Synthetic and cotton ropes are easy to wash, so they can be washed after each use. Hemp and jute may weaken when wet and take time to dry under tension. If you decide to wash these ropes more often, you might have to replace your kit sooner.
We can combine the different strategies depending on our preference and the type of play. One strategy is to have a set of synthetic rope for messy play, and keep a natural rope kit for more conventional sessions. Have a smaller kit reserved for a specific partner that can be combined with the regular kit, and use those ropes for mouth and genitals. A nice trick is to coil the dirty rope using a different method, so you only have to wash the ropes that were in contact with dirty stuff. The most important thing is to have a strategy that works for you and your partner(s).
The Importance of Regular Oiling
Natural rope requires regular oiling to ensure its strength and longevity. When natural fibres dry, they become brittle and break. Oil is most important for natural fibres; synthetics do not require this process.
Oiling rope after washing it is important as the cleaning process will remove some of the oil in the rope. How often you need to add oil depends on how often you use the rope, the climate and the type of rope. Some people like to tie on bare skin, adding “natural oil from the body”, and it is important not to let rope in storage dry. People in a dry climate will also need to oil their rope more regularly. Whenever your jute or hemp feels dry, it is important to oil your rope.
Fixing High Stranding
High strading is when the different strand of a rope become uneven. This will likely appear after lots of use, when tighly coiling the rope or suddenly by accidentally pulling on one strand more than the others during rope manipulation. This is unlikely to happen on braided ropes, but quite common in twisted ropes.
Hanging the rope for a long period of time may help reduce the high stranding and remove some of the kinks. To fix light high stranding, you can massage the rope by holding it firmly and travelling your hand along the rope a few times. If the rope was balanced in the first place, the tension should adjust itself progressively. Make sure you do it in both directions to keep the rope even. After some time of using a rope, some strands might naturally stretch more than others. To fix this, you will need to open the end of the rope to shorten one or two strands to rebalance it.
Some methods, known as resetting the rope, can help tighten the twist back up. This usually involves rubbing the rope in twisted on itself or forcing the twist in by attaching it one one point, and tighten it before releasing the tension.
For more intense high stranding, massaging the rope might not be enough. The strategy then is to untwist it at the location of the problem, and manually retwist it until it falls back into place. Some additional massaging is generally necessary after this to smooth things out. The good news is that even if a rope gets pulled in pretty badly, high stranding, it can be completely fixed with some patience.
High stranding on a yarn within a strand is much harder to fix; it is usually a sign of uneven tension during the rope-making process. It is recommended to avoid this kind of rope when strength is important, as this is generally the sign that the tension inside the rope might weaken it.
Practice Time!
Try different techniques and update your rope maintenance protocol.
Exploration ideas
- Discuss with your friends and partners about their limits and preferences when it comes to rope hygiene
- Oil your rope and take note of how long before they start to feel dry again. Try different types of oil to compare.
- Can you make the lay of the rope looser or more twisted by resetting the twist?
- Try fixing some high stranding. No high stranding in your rope yet? Just pull very strongly on one strand until the rope unravels. Then proceed to retwist the rope back into place. Use a rope that has less sentimental value so you can play with the strands comfortably.
- Try with ropes that have different lay tightness. High stranding is much easier to fix on a looser lay rope.
Inspirations and Resources
- “How do I clean rope” and other musings by Treezy
- Rope Care, video by M0co
- Fixing high stranding by WykD Dave
- How to Care for you Ropes, video by Avalon
- Rope Maintenance, video by BelleCorde
- Notes for class: Hygiene for BDSM by Neuromancer28
Or return to The Rope for more options.
Credit: R/P: Ebi McKnotty