779 meters: reflections on tying with different kinds of rope

I just got a new jute kit in, and I and some good company spent yesterday evening conditioning it. We also retied the ends with a different knot, and then cut a couple of them down to prepare the kit for use. The creak of new jute always makes me happy, but it also has me reflecting on all the various rope I've tied with over the years.

Nylon (1 kit - 115 meters)

My rope journey started with 6 hanks of purple nylon Nea and R bought be for me at the annual benefit auction for CPI, our local kink community center. I wouldn't have been able to afford any rope at the time and this gift was a catalyst I will forever be grateful for. Within a year I would buy 4 more full hanks as well as 4 half hanks and then eventually another friend would give me another 2 full hanks and one last shorty for a total of 12 full hanks and 5 short hanks.

I loved tying in nylon and I still sometimes come back to it. It's nicer than jute which was beneficial when I was self tying and also helped early on when less of my rope was about the sadism. Nylon is fast and there is nothing quite like the drama of unhanking nylon and tossing the long ends off into the distance where their weight will carry them to their full length. It's also fast. So much faster than anything else I've ever tied with.

Because nylon is slippery is demands precision in a way natural fibers don't. While that makes it far less forgiving to learn on, I think it made me a better top in the long run. My frictions, my tension, had to be correct or the whole structure would fall apart. I often suggest people tie in nylon at least a little when they reach a certain point or because I think the lesson it teaches is incredibly valuable even if you don't use it long term.

Jute (4 kits- 536 meters)

I bought my first jute kit back in 2018 as preparation for my first time attending a rope con. At the time, nylon wasn't common and posh was all but unheard of so I was worried that teachers would be concerned about me tying with nylon during classes. I used it here and there leading up to that con, but was also definitely still treating the nylon as my main kit. I'm actually not really sure when I switched over to almost completely using jute. I just looked up one day and realized I hadn't touched the nylon in quite some time.

I love jute. I love the way it smells, the way it feels, the way it moves. My biggest complaints about jute when I first started tying with it were that it was twisty and the the knots on the end always get caught pulling through. Well I take better care of my rope so it doesn't get as twisty and I tie a smaller knot (a thistle knot specifically) now so that isn't a problem either. The natural texture of jute grips the skin in a way that's just delicious while still being smooth enough to move rather quickly in tying when I want to. I'm familiar enough with it to be able to tell by touch when ropes are having issues and have in the past pulled high stranded or otherwise damaged ropes from my kit mid scene in a dark and crowded play space. And on that note, some issues like high stranding can be fixed in jute.

Posh (1 kit - 128 meters)

When my previous jute kit was dying I caved to the pressure of the community around me switching primarily to posh and I got myself a posh kit. I bought it from rwropes directly on a spool and cut it myself. For a little over a year I have used this as my sudo-primary kit. Nea had their own dedicated kit (the blue jute) so I was still tying as much or more in jute, but I had enough time on the posh to get the feel of it.

I really hated it and I tried quite hard to like it. On paper it's just better jute but in my hands and in practice I couldn't get over a few things about it. First is the texture. While it's marketed to simulate jute I find that the texture is just.... sticky in a way I find really uncomfortable. It doesn't hold onto the skin like jute does, but rather sticks to it in a tacky way I just can't move past.

Secondarily is the melting risk. Now I knew going in that under too much friction there was a risk that is would melt parts of the rope fibers which would render that section of rope no longer safe to use. So when I tied with it I was careful to move slow and gently. It felt inhibiting, but I did it anyway. Then, after not having my kit for super long I pulled it out during a jam where the lighting was good and spotted a rope with a melted strip up the full length. The shine caught my eye, but I couldn't easily feel it with my hands so I have no idea when that happened or if I had inadvertently used that rope on someone after it had sustained damage. This really scared me. It meant that the point of friction required to melt it was much lower than I thought and that I could never really play comfortably with posh. Especially with posh in a high friction or important point like an upline. I also suspect that the risk of melting posh increases significantly with the weight of the bottom putting it cleanly out of my risk profile.

From a tying perspective I found posh to be unpleasant and risky. I want to be able to enjoy the process not spend the whole time worrying if I'm going to melt my rope. I still have my post kit and if someone really wants me to use it I would be willing to use it for body ties, but I would use jute or nylon for my uplines in that case.

Final Thoughts and Honorable Mentions

There are certainly other options I haven't really tried. Hemp and HempX are the first that come to mind. I've touched both but never truly tied with either. I will say, my initial impression wasn't one I loved, but I also know I didn't give it a fair chance. Cotton and silk are also not uncommon for decorative rope but aren't suited to suspension and so I doubt I will ever tie with them in a way that would let me reflect on them fairly. I used to own a single hank of coconut rope. I won it as a prize during a class, tied with it one time, and hated touching it so much I gave it away immediately after. It was certainly as advertised and the noises I was able to get in response to it were wonderful but not personally worth me having to touch it.

At the end of the day something always draws me back to jute. It's the perfect balance of speed and texture and pain for me.