If you read about bondage or participate in hands-on training you are told about save binding practices, knots, positions, etc but on the topic of the rope itself it is often limited to : Make sure you use the right rope!

In this topic I will tell some more about that, but don't expect a directory with shop addresses and article numbers! The shop you will have to find yourself, and if you are a qualified Master you already know the addresses. If you are a wannabe I prefer not to point you in a direction of shops where some of the items may overload your fantasies at your submissives expenses. If you take training or study the addresses will come of them selfs.

The human skin is considered to be our 5th sense, 'Touch'. Just as to much noise can damage some of the vibrating hairs in our ear, resulting in loss of hearing for given frequencies, or as a prolonged presence of certain intensive odors can result in not smelling them anymore (wouldn't that come in handy for smelling feed – smiles), our skin is vulnerable too.

Skin can be damaged by cutting, abrasion, physical impact (pressure) and temperature. Until there everybody could have given the answer. And that there are some veins under the skin from which we don't want to cut the blood of to long is also quite evident, unless your in the amputation business!

However, the most overlooked problem of all are allergic reactions. Everybody is allergic to something. Believe me, everybody. You can take a test in a poly-clinic. They will place plenty of little band aides on your back with extracts of fruits, coffee, cacao and other food as well as other substances such as wood and herbs, for which one can be allergic. They let you sit there for a while and no time later you will know what you are allergic to.

Well, there are people that are allergic to certain types of rope! Ropes are made from nylon, manilla, coco, cotton, flax, jute, etc. The ONLY type of rope that is suited for 'longer periods' contact with the skin is 100% pure COTTON rope! So, people allergic to cotton can technically spoken not be safely bound, because all other types of rope do not qualify. Luckily cotton, 100% pure, is the product by excellence advised to people with allergies.

If you don't use cotton rope other problems may surface. Ropes with chemical products in them may cause serious problems for people with eczema or atopic dermatitis. And as if that is not enough also asthma patients can get in serious trouble if the wrong substances show up to be in your rope and are released in the air they bread. And believe me, you don't want to witness an allergic reaction or an asthma attack of a bound submissive!

Remember we are talking about prolonged contact, not 5 seconds now and then. In bondage it is prolonged contact, unless your are a speed binder (smiles) !

So for building an Ape-bridge over a river you use flax and for bondage cotton! Now I can see some of you walk into a sports shop and buy sailing or climbing ropes. They look like the cotton ropes used for bondage. However, they are not! Cotton is not water resistant and may even rot! Further more there are more then 60 types of cotton ropes, ranging from rope for wicks to pulling ropes! Therefor if you go to a specialized rope store instead of the professional bdsm store, just tell the guy that you need rope to bind your submissive! I'm sure he'll show up with the right rope since that must be a daily request with all these Master around these days!

This being said, if you managed to buy some cotton rope suitable for binding, at least 1 centimeter diameter (you don't want the rope to cut, use a knife for that) you must start preparing the rope.

In the same way you marinate a steak before cooking it, your rope needs to be prepared. First make sure you cut your rope in different sizes. Make more short ones then long ones. A 1 meter rope comes in handy to bind an individual ankle or a wrist and since I suspect your submissive to have 2 of each, 4 short ropes are a absolute minimum. Make some medium size ropes for breast binding. A rope of 3 meters works fine for me to bind a little bra with neck strap equivalent. For some work, and certainly the Japanese binding specialist among you, longer ropes may be needed. I am not myself a japo-binder but I do have some longer 15 and 20 meter ropes. I use them for exposure binding in humiliation sessions or parties because the ceilings are high. If you bind multiple people make more ropes. I buy my ropes on 100 meter bobbins.

Once cut, mark the center of your rope. I do it with white tape because I prefer it to be as invisible as possible. Tape it strongly so it doesn't move and doesn't create to sharp edges by being loose.

Finally you will want to finish the extremities. If you don't your rope will quickly start to fray. There are different techniques but tape is my preferred. With tape I not only finish the rope but also color code it. The 1 meters red, the 2 meters blue, etc. Here also, tie hard and make sufficient iterations.

Voilà, you have your set of color coded, centered and 100% COTTON 1 centimeter+ thick ropes. Use them well and store them DRY!
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