What about a bit of rope? You'll want it, if you haven't got it: Well, I'll want it.
Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2020 5:00 am
Rope is usually somewhere in any "10 essentials" list for modern wilderness travel, and I'm not sure how I'd make do without some in bear country. Hanging a bag is about the only way to protect your food, if you haven't got a modern canister.
As such, I recently bought a kilo of 6mm hemp rope and set about preparing it for use.
I started by cutting a length of about 10 arm-spans--between 50 and 60 feet (15 and 19 meters), for me. I then back-spliced and whipped the ends. This is probably redundant, but the hemp seems extremely prone to fraying and I didn't want to take any chances with just whipping or back-splicing.
I was struck by how light it was in color, and decided to subdue it a bit. I tossed it in a vat of brown dye, and here was struck by a caveat regarding the hemp rope--it DOES NOT like water. The fibers tightened rather astonishingly, causing it to stiffen and twist to a frustrating degree. My loose hank of rope became one huge twisted knot.
After it dried, it was much softer than prior to dyeing it, so maybe it will have less of a reaction next time it gets wet...one can only hope. Hearkening back to my pioneering merit badge class at scout camp, I believe manila rope would be superior in wet applications, but it's hard to source genuine manila rope, and hemp seems like a more authentic fiber for our setting, anyway.
Anyway, while waiting for the main hank of rope to dry, my reminiscences of scout camp reminded me of another interesting rope project that, while far more modern than what we usually aim for, fits very well, to my eye--a "toggle" or "commando" rope. This is a rope of a sufficient length to wrap three (?) times around the owner's waist, with a wooden toggle at one end and a loop at the other. These really shine when all the members of a group have one, since they can be chained together quite easily. Even without that, though, they have uses. Any time you need to just loop a rope around something, this works; tying a bundle in a way that's very quick to undo/redo, tying off to a tree, hanging a pot over a fire...or just as a belt. So I whittled a toggle and did an eye splice at either end of a rope one and a half arm-spans long. I dyed it as well, and am quite pleased with the result.
Here it is in belt mode:
In this mode, it keeps both my hip pouch and flacket from bouncing when I run.
Here's the toggle rope wrapping up a blanket roll. I think I'll make a couple more of these, of varying lengths. They're damned useful.
As such, I recently bought a kilo of 6mm hemp rope and set about preparing it for use.
I started by cutting a length of about 10 arm-spans--between 50 and 60 feet (15 and 19 meters), for me. I then back-spliced and whipped the ends. This is probably redundant, but the hemp seems extremely prone to fraying and I didn't want to take any chances with just whipping or back-splicing.
I was struck by how light it was in color, and decided to subdue it a bit. I tossed it in a vat of brown dye, and here was struck by a caveat regarding the hemp rope--it DOES NOT like water. The fibers tightened rather astonishingly, causing it to stiffen and twist to a frustrating degree. My loose hank of rope became one huge twisted knot.
After it dried, it was much softer than prior to dyeing it, so maybe it will have less of a reaction next time it gets wet...one can only hope. Hearkening back to my pioneering merit badge class at scout camp, I believe manila rope would be superior in wet applications, but it's hard to source genuine manila rope, and hemp seems like a more authentic fiber for our setting, anyway.
Anyway, while waiting for the main hank of rope to dry, my reminiscences of scout camp reminded me of another interesting rope project that, while far more modern than what we usually aim for, fits very well, to my eye--a "toggle" or "commando" rope. This is a rope of a sufficient length to wrap three (?) times around the owner's waist, with a wooden toggle at one end and a loop at the other. These really shine when all the members of a group have one, since they can be chained together quite easily. Even without that, though, they have uses. Any time you need to just loop a rope around something, this works; tying a bundle in a way that's very quick to undo/redo, tying off to a tree, hanging a pot over a fire...or just as a belt. So I whittled a toggle and did an eye splice at either end of a rope one and a half arm-spans long. I dyed it as well, and am quite pleased with the result.
Here it is in belt mode:
In this mode, it keeps both my hip pouch and flacket from bouncing when I run.
Here's the toggle rope wrapping up a blanket roll. I think I'll make a couple more of these, of varying lengths. They're damned useful.