Rope Demonstration
at Black BEAT 2003
Welcome to Black BEAT 2003,
and to our rope bondage demon-
stration. My mistress, Lady
Cocoa, and I, lynn, are honored
to have been invited to present at
the initial Black BEAT confer-
ence. We hope that you find as
much pleasure in rope bondage
as we have.
Before we get started, I’d like to
say a few words about rope. The
rope we are using comes from
Rainbow Rope, a scene-friendly
rope supplier run by a very nice
New York couple, Liz and Gary.
Their website is at
http://www.rainbowrope.com
They also have a booth at most
of the scene conferences.
We are using solid braid multi-
filament polypropylene (MFP)
rope. The rope comes in a large
number of colors, including multi-
color ropes in the leather pride
and gay pride colors.
Polypropylene is an excellent
rope, because unlike Nylon, it is
not attacked by bleach. If you are
tying up multiple partners, soak-
ing your ropes in a 10% bleach
solution for 10 minutes is a good
idea, and you can’t do that with
nylon.
Washing polypropylene rope is
easy, because it doesn’t soak up
water. You can put it in a lingerie
bag and wash it on the gentle
cycle, then dry it in the drier on
the fluff or air-only setting. Be-
cause it doesn’t soak up water it
dries in just a couple of dry
cycles.
We use 5/16-inch diameter rope,
in the following lengths:
Hair bondage: 2 x 5 feet
Breast harness: 2 x 30 feet
Wrist restraints: 2 x 12 feet
Ankle restraints: 2 x 12 feet
Body harness: 30 to 50 feet
Crotchrope: 3 x 8 feet, plus
20 to 40 feet
You need to do something to the
ends of your ropes to keep them
from unraveling. One of the most
common ways is to heat the end
of the rope over a lighter, so it
melts a bit. This is quick and
easy, but it leaves hard plastic
ends that scratch the skin.
Better ways are dipping the ends
in tool dip, a liquid plastic made
for coating the handles of tools,
or heat-shrink sleeves that go
over the ends.
Copyright © 2003, Lynn Grant
lgrant@ropefashions.com
I’m a traditionalist, so I prefer the
“palm and needle” whipping used
by sailors. It looks like this:
Although the 1/4 inch or so at
the end can frizz up, the whip-
ping is sewn on and will never
come off. Any good knot book
will give you the details on how
to make this kind of whipping.
Here are few hints, should you
decide to go this route:
Normally whipping is done with
whipping twine, which is avail-
able at boat stores. If you
aren’t near one, you can do a
servicable job with wide dental
floss (tape style). And if you
don’t have sailmaker’s needles,
you can use standard tapestry
needles. And although some
books tell you that you need a
sailor’s palm, which is basically
a heavy thimble on a strap, you
really only need that if you are
working with boat-sized ropes.
After whipping the rope, you
can paint the whipping with
some shellac. This helps hold it
together, and also gives the end
a little stiffness, which is handy
when you are threading the end
under other ropes.
A few safety hints....
Check your captive’s hands and
feet regularly to make sure the
ropes aren’t cutting off their
circulation.
Make sure you captive can’t fall
in such a way that they are
supported only by something
that can’t support their weight,
like their neck or hair.
Don’t leave your captive when
they are bound. There are all
sorts of things that can happen
that require releasing them
quickly.
Keep a pair of EMT shears, or a
blunt-pointed rescue knife handy
in case you need to get them
loose faster than you can untie
your ropework.
(Meyerco makes a wonderful
knife called the “Rescue One.”
It’s designed for EMTs, and it
has a serrated blade that can
cut through things that EMT
shears can’t handle, with a blunt
point that you can slip under the
ropes without stabbing Your
captives.)
Don’t try suspension until you
are really good at this; dropping Disclaimer: The techniques I
your captive is very bad. describe here are as safe as I know
For more information about rope how to make them, and I believe in
bondage, you can find interesting them enough to trust the life of my
shibari (Japanese rope bondage) beloved Mistress to them. However,
links at my website. The URL is you are ultimately responsible for
the safety of anyone you tie up.
http://www.ropefashions.com Know your captive’s limitations,
Lady Cocoa and I sincerely and any medical conditions they
hope that you enjoy our demo. may have. Don’t mix bondage with
drugs or alcohol. And don’t even
think of trying suspension until you
are really experienced with
ropework.