First Quarter: Rope materials for newcomers

Hello. It's Friday, so I'm sending you the usual weekly missive; but it's also the first week that I've been back in school, here in my late thirties, for the sake of finding a more meaningful and more lucrative "day job" than the job I lost seven months ago. Indeed, while I will always consider writing and witchcraft my truest callings and thus careers in a manner of speaking, I am hopeful that within a few more months perhaps I'll embark on a new career in the sense that capitalists also mean, and that for the first time in my life I'll feel able to identify with that work as well.

But this brings me to an important point that I've been due to make: I do not yet know how my new studies are going to affect my ability to keep up with Salt for the Eclipse. Going forward, it's unclear but certainly possible that I will wind up with a better day of the week than Fridays, or that I can't manage weekly posts for a while at all, and that's to say nothing of further impacts that may come from whenever I find full-time work again. (At my old job, I had the free time to essentially subsidize my writing. In the field I'm going into, that may not be the case.)

For the moment, I must at least apologize in advance that posts are likely to become short — as is the case today — or have their topics broken up. Alternately, I haven't made my mind up yet but I may restrict a lot more of my posts to paid subscribers. Right now about 8.5% of my subscribers are paying, which isn't a bad ratio but in terms of the raw numbers I'm still barely breaking even on the newsletter's cost. I remain thrilled that people whom I don't even know are reading here, paid or free, but if I'm going to keep investing the same amount of time in these posts — which may now wind up happening at less convenient hours — then I can't keep giving so much writing away for free.

Whatever I decide, besides finally graduating from a free to a paid subscription here are some things that you can do to help Salt for the Eclipse remain a viable project in the months to come:

• If you already have a paid subscription at the Supporter tier, please consider upgrading. The Occult tier ($5/month) currently lets someone read an additional four posts per season; and it may be that I choose not to increase the overall number of paywalled posts but rather to make more of those posts Occult. Either way, if you're lucky enough to afford more, at this point I will strongly request and encourage the Alchemist tier ($20/month) wherein you can have a patronly hand in shaping what I post at all — very worth considering if you like what I write but I wind up having to write less often. Help me make sure that the thoughts I'm sharing are things you've wanted to hear about.
• If you previously had a paid subscription that you've allowed to lapse, please consider reinstating it.
• If you absolutely know you have to keep reading for free for your own financial reasons, which is very understandable, please consider more frequently and intentionally linking posts that you like, for others to read. For Mastodon users who follow me there, I already toot previews of new free posts, so you can boost those. I don't want these writings to find more people "just" so that I can garner new paid subscriptions; but as capitalistic time "is" money, especially for a writer, with my schedule changing I'm on the brink of losing money to this project. Instead of simply reading for free, please pay it forward by helping me find a larger audience.

This was a long, dry, less than interesting introduction. If you've made it through, I actually mean to write a little more about kink — through the lens of handcrafts, specifically rope. Following my recent post about bondage ordeal, I'd like to offer a small appendix regarding different types of rope for bondage purposes. I am not a ropemaker, so this will not constitute expert advice on how to create these kinds of rope for yourself; neither am I terribly versed yet as a rope top, so I won't express strong preferences about what rope to use as a top. But as a modestly experienced rope bottom, I do have opinions and knowledge about rope types from that side of things, and I've listened to enough reasonably trustworthy tops that I can paraphrase some of their own views.

Given these givens, those of you who are remotely seasoned kinksters may not find anything here that you don't already know unless rope really isn't your normal sphere of play at all. As with many of my other kink-centered posts, though, I'm writing for the larger portion of my readership whose kinkiness is either "null," "curious but not involved," or completely unknown to me. So let's begin by refining one crucial understanding of rope bondage.

Rope bondage is not just one thing

In my earlier bondage post I obliquely addressed this issue, but more in terms of the widely varied risks that bondage can present. To put it more directly now: where rope bondage is concerned, people may be tied for a number of distinct purposes that can create wildly different moods for the scene and that also demand wildly different properties from the rope that's selected.

Here are some of the most common yet fairly divergent cases. The terminology I will use here is a mix of common kink vocabulary and my own conceptual distinctions.

• Pure restraint, either on a horizontal surface or against a vertical one, as long as the rope bottom's weight is completely supported by that surface or by their feet on the floor. The bottom may also not be fixed to anything besides themselves (e.g. binding someone's wrists to their opposing elbows, while leaving them free to walk around), but the goal is that they're at least partly immobilized.
• Suspension, wherein either some or all of the bottom's weight is actually held by rope that's fixed to a hard point. In some kink circles, "full" suspension is typically assumed, whereas "partial" suspension needs to be specified, but it depends on the sub-subculture.
• Predicament, which may incorporate pure restraint, suspension, or both, but is geared toward pushing the bottom to cause (consensual) discomfort to themselves from one source as they attempt to avoid discomfort from another source.
• Torture, which may overlap significantly with predicament but involves any tie focused on causing significant pain, including stress positions.
• Decoration, wherein the bottom may actually be free to move in any way they choose, but they're wearing a chest, hip, or full body harness that may resemble macramé. The objective may be completely aesthetic; however, many harnesses do carry the practical function of providing grips to seize and move the person around with, much like a harness for a dog.

Any of these variants may occur in the course of the same rope scene, but rope players all have our favorite focuses and may also not be interested in some of these whatsoever. When my owner just ties me decoratively, it's usually a very soothing, calming experience; for some rope players, this is all they want, enjoying the connectedness and the final visuals. When my owner ties me to keep me in place, it usually doesn't take as long and I'm not likely to slip into the same headspace as for decorative tying; for other rope players, this is the ideal because the point of their rope is to cause immobility in the face of other torments. And then there are many other possibilities in between.

Natural fiber rope types

When it comes to choosing rope, I'm the sort of person who usually prefers natural fiber. It's typically on the rougher side, making it ideal for a sense of the rope "cutting" in to my skin, which I like even when the point isn't to cause pain. There are of course many types of fiber within this category, but not all of them are suitable for tying up a human being, especially not for certain kink activities. If you are curious about trying rope bondage, these are some of the most common types of natural fiber in that realm:

• Hemp - Yes, that hemp, produced from Cannabis sativa. Still rather rough to the touch, but it's the "softest" natural fiber option of these three. It also possesses superb tensile strength, degrades less quickly from moisture, burns less easily, stretches well, and essentially lasts as long as you'd like if you treat and condition it appropriately. I absolutely love hemp and I would not disagree with people who claim it's the best all-around option... if you don't want something softer.
• Jute - Produced from the Corchorus genus, this is a more economical option. Some people would claim that jute's cheapness compared to hemp also indicates its inferiority, but it always depends on what you want to do with the rope. On the one hand, jute is weaker, less stretchy, more prone to molding or rotting, not so fire resistant, and will inherently break down over time. On the other hand, jute is very scratchy — it's literally the same material as a burlap bag. This roughness allows it to hold knots extremely well, and I find it deliciously unpleasant when I'm tied with it. To restrain someone securely in a moderately sadistic manner, jute will get that job done better than hemp, and it will cost less.
• Coconut - This fiber is almost excruciatingly rough to the point where in my opinion it should only really be used for torture rope. For exactly that purpose, it's beautiful.

In the rope bondage world we have an ever-present debate about natural fiber as well as synthetic fiber rope, regarding which rope to use for safe suspension. Since my suspension experience is very limited, I cannot give the most informed opinion. However, where natural fiber is concerned, I know that a lot of people will only use hemp because they want the strongest rope possible, and also because any rougher rope can eat through itself as lines and knots rub together. Some people absolutely do use jute to suspend, though, simply taking extra safety precautions; of that subgroup, some may just avoid using jute for their uplines, i.e. the ropes that attach directly to the hard point. I personally would rather never be fully suspended with jute, but I would be open to using it for partials and/or predicament situations where its load-bearing capacity won't be maximally stressed. What everyone does seem to agree on, meanwhile, is that you should never suspend with coconut — that's just asking for someone to get fall and get injured.

My last note about natural fiber rope is that there are other types out there like cotton and bamboo, but I'm not really familiar with either, except insofar as cotton can be a gentle practice material. It does not hold knots well, though; those will either slip or tighten further than intended, and both of those possibilities can become dangerous even outside of a suspension scene.

Synthetic fiber rope types

For a truly soft rope bondage experience, my owner and I also own lengths of synthetic rope, which I very much recommend for anyone who prefers the idea of decorative tying or less-torturous restraint, as well as for people who are just getting started with rope bondage in general. The two types of synthetic rope that I know best are:

• Nylon - Smooth, luscious, and easy to produce in every color under the rainbow. Natural fiber rope can be dyed, but the hues are rarely brilliant; likewise nylon has vastly superior tensile strength, elasticity, and durability. It's an excellent choice to learn with if your concern is something easy to handle, and it can be all that anyone needs if they want a pretty, soft material. The major downside is that because it's so slippery and stretchy, knots will not hold as well; and despite the smoothness during regular tying it's also much more likely to cause rope burns if it slides fast along the skin.
• MFP (multifilament polypropylene) - Very similar to nylon in most respects, but slightly weaker and less elastic, the latter of which becomes an advantage if you want a synthetic material that will grip itself better.

Separately, there is a new(?) synthetic rope on the market these days known as POSH, which stands for "Portside Out, Starboard Home," owing to the rope's invention for nautical purposes. It visually mimics natural fiber rope but is spun from polyester; its tensile strength is quite good even if it isn't on par with nylon or MFP. I have never tried it and actually only discovered it today. A friend has told me it feels "sumptuous."

Just like with natural fiber, there is debate about using synthetic rope for suspension. However, I don't think I've heard much controversy about nylon vs. MFP within that context. The real question is simply whether to suspend with synthetic fiber at all. To some rope players, synthetic fiber is transparently the superior choice because of how strong it is. To others, the importance of holding knots (or minimizing burns in an accident) feels so paramount that synthetics are anathema. I do not have an opinion here either; some suspension tops whom I trust routinely use synthetics, whereas my one and only suspension experience involved hemp. I would let someone take me up in either if they knew what they were doing in general.

Final considerations

If you are interested in pursuing rope bondage, whether for ordeal purposes or otherwise, obviously you must choose some first rope to start practicing with, so please feel free to use the above information when making your decision. But in addition to researching things further on your own — especially since I can primarily only speak "from the bottom" — I think there are other questions worth asking that do not come down to the physical properties of the rope itself. I did not ask myself these questions when I first became interested in rope bondage, but I think about them now. Questions like:

• Can I find this type of rope from an artisan, or is it industrially produced? (For what it's worth, go to a kink convention or hop on, regrettably, FetLife; you can handily find artisans in these ways.)
• Since all synthetics involve plastics, which are increasingly proven to be damaging across the board for our entire planet, when do the pragmatic and aesthetic benefits of synthetics outweigh the ecological cost?
• Even if choosing natural fiber: what can I verify about the labor and environmental conditions in this one ropemaker's supply chain?
• If performing ritual work with this rope, what type of rope suits the intention? (Hemp may be an excellent choice for someone who already lives in ritual relation with inhaled or ingested cannabis, but if you're battling unhealthy dependency then this rope may not be the best reminder of that drug.)

With these thoughts, I will leave you, and I look forward to reading feedback from anyone who finds this introduction helpful on their rope journey.

Thank you for reading and for bearing with the initial housekeeping. Next week there will be a post for paid subscribers only, meditating on the concept of "virginity" here in Virgo season; the following week's holiday post for Haust Blót (the autumn equinox) will also be paid-only, examining controversy around modern individuals' ecological responsibilities.