Rope Materials

Most of the rope we use and sell is hemp, three strand laid (aka twisted), in 6mm. This is the basic 90% of the time-rope. It’s got that traditional Japanese bondage look about it and it just feels great to work with, it goes where you want and holds a knot well, it has a very high strength (6mm~700kg).
We treat our ropes with a blend of Hemp Oil and a refined Mineral Oil, No animal products.

We also sell alot of cotton, when we can get it it’s a great rope at a great price, very low strength (due to the shortness of the cotton fibres) so not for any bondage under load, but great for general bondage, our cotton ropes are 9mm (flat, ~6mm round) woven pure unbleached white cotton. Very soft on the skin, ideal for anyone with sensitive skin.

Various synthetic ropes are sometimes available when we find a batch of something nice, it can be a bit hit-and-miss with synthetic ropes, Nylon is usually a good bet but it can be rough dependent on the size of the filaments, some polys can be good but again, filament size can make the rope rough. If you want synthetic ropes either go to your local boating or hardware supplier and get your hands on their ropes, pick-out something that feels nice. Or talk to us and see what we have available at the time.

Rope Care

Both synthetic and natural fibre ropes need to be cleaned occasionally, all can be washed in a washing machine (use a laundry bag and a cool setting). Cotton and synthetic ropes just need to be air-dried after washing.
Unless they are really dirty we recommend a sink of hot tap water with a little detergent and a generous dose of Bleach such as chlorine, the cheapest supermarket bleach is usually ideal, this will kill bacteria and nasties as well as getting the ropes clean.

Hemp ropes are best cleaned by the hot-tap-water method mentioned above, chain-coil the ropes and briefly dunk the ropes in the water, pull them out and dunk again and then drain the sink, refill with plain hot tap water and dunk again a couple of times to rinse, then hang to air-dry.
Once dry your ropes will be stiff and messy-looking, uncoil them and run them from end to end roughly through hands while wearing heavy leather gardening gloves or similar, this will soften and straighten the stiffened rope again, if dry you’ll need to re-oil, various people like various oils and methods, we use a hemp-oil and refined mineral-oil blended in a spray bottle, the cheapest and easiest way is to buy a bottle of Baby Oil (scented if you like) in a spray bottle such as used for plants, kitchen cleaners etc. With the ropes hanging or loose on the floor we give a few sprays from the bottle and then run the ropes end-to-end through gloves again, that should be all thats needed to bring your ropes back ready for use.

For blood contamination we recommend discarding the rope, or at least the contaminated section. Even if you decide to only use that rope with the same person there is still a small risk that you may use or store other ropes with it and then use them with someone else. The risks are small but they are still there, it’s not worth messing around with.

Rope Safety

Rope bondage can be dangerous, but crossing the road can be dangerous, you just have to know the risks and danger-points and use your common sense. Avoiding ropes around the front of the neck is an obvious point, being aware of nerve compression and circulation restriction is another thing, as is a tight chest harness on an asthmatic or someone prone to claustrophobia.

When you tie someone up you accept responsibility for their safety and well-being from the moment they are tied until the moment they are back in a ‘normal’ headspace after being untied.

When you are the one being tied you have a responsibility to communicate and unusual or significant physical discomfort, numbing or pain or any feelings of being unwell. If you feel like you are going to faint or throw up, try and communicate this with urgency and try and give 20 or 30 seconds notice, that way you’ll be cut down in time to pass out or puke (often cutting you down will mean you don’t pass out as a few seconds on the floor will have you feeling better).

Safety is about common sense, you need to be aware of what effect your ties are having and can have on a body, from the friction burns of rope moving over skin to compression of nerves and arteries to blood-pressure issues, a little anatomical knowledge goes a long way, a good dose of common sense goes way further.

Should you have a need to get someone out of ropes quickly you have to make a snap decision, untie them or cut them out, use your common sense here, cutting is usually many times faster than untying, is there some urgency? then cut. (BeautifulBondage.net have a policy whereby if anyone has to cut ropes bought from us for safety reasons then you can purchase replacements with a massive discount). Don’t feel bad about having had to cut someone out of the ropes, it isn’t a reflection on your lack of skills as a rigger, it happens, just recognise the need to cut and do it quickly, safely and without hesitation.

The most used tool for cutting ropes in bondage is the EMT/EMS Scissors/Shears, they are designed to cut through things quickly and safely, they have one sharp blade and one serrated and come with either a hook or a lip to aid getting one blade between the skin and the rope safely, if you are tying people up and you don’t have a safe cutting tool, buy some. Another tool we always carry, though more expensive than the EMT Shears is the Rope Escape Knife this is the fastest safe way we know of to release someone from bondage, the replaceable blade is angled to cut the ropes delivered straight to it by the smooth plastic hook thats slid between the skin and the rope. We compared it cutting multiple 6mm hemp lines of a chest harness and the EMT shears took 4 seconds, this took less than 1 second. (Update: We recently had an uninvited visitor to our outdoor location bondage shoot, the model was in a chest harness with 6 parallel lines around the torso, of 8mm rope, the Escape Knife went through them like they weren’t even there, we were all very impressed, I can’t recommend this tool highly enough.)