rope walk

[Dutchman]

i'd like to add a rope walk to the school of the sailor/ colonial maritime festival in june. I have heard of one being set up at an event- paynetown maybe?? this is out of my area of knowledge, but i'd love to learn. has anyone set one up and operated one? would anyone be willing to make the trip to Deltaville in June to run one?

[silas thatcher]

ok, i'll bite...what exactly is a rope walk ??

[Dutchman]

rope making machine. the distance between the two parts of the machine is called the rope walk.

[Littleneckhalfshell]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rope Go down the page to "Laid or Twisted Rope" for a pic of a small rope machine

The rope walk http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ropewalk was the long path along which the rope was made, usually a english rope walk was over 1,000 feet long, it has to be that long to get a long rope made, it can't be made going around a corner.

[Littleneckhalfshell]

they have a 'shortened' rope walk building at Mystic Seaport, and also demonstrate making rope with a small post held rope twisting machine for one of their presentations each day. It is a lot of fun to watch, and the rope can be cut into souvenirs for the kids. It would be a good addition to your event. The trick is to get a rope twisting machine, then anyplace with space can be a rope walk.

[Dutchman]

thanks half shell- thats exactly what I was thinking. If we look at the first link you posted there is a group of reenactors doing just that with a machine of sorts, thats what i'd like to put together. i think i have the concept but am interested to see if anyone here has first hand experience with it.

[Dutchman]

http://www.storyofrope.org/ropemaking_resources.html

[MorganTyre]

I built my own ropewalk a month or so ago and have used it quite a bit. Any help or info I can provide I'll be happy to.

[Dutchman]

morgan, thank you for the offer. a tutorial would be grand. As i understand it, the yarns are spun in one direction and at the same time spun together in the opposite direction. i have a visual concept in my mind of the sort of machine needed- but have not seen this to make the pieces fall together. how does the tree or the clover leaf shaped tool come into play?

[silas thatcher]

now that i know what one is, here are a few pics of one set up from 2008 st. louis piratefest... carl, rusty and aj are the gentlemen doing the demo...in one of the pics, a clearer view of the winding mechanism is visible...

[theM.A.dDogge]

we used to make rope (from twine) with a 3 bent nails on a handle, a plank with 3 holes and 2 caneback chairs....my great AUnts down in Tennessee were still makin rope by hand til i was in High School...i got an old tape of it somewheres....mind the hillbilly talk and the eighties hair...but actually pretty simple to do

[Dutchman]

silas, thanks. now at the far end- is that stationary or is that spinning in the opposite direction. it looks like the cross pieces hold the separate lays apart until they are wound together to make the line?

[silas thatcher]

IIRC, you crank at one end, hold the other stationary, use the cross pieces to help "guide" the twist...

with this set up, one could lay the yarns right, lay the rope left ( i think that's correct ) the stationary end moves as the rope is shortened by the twisting, i think...

is that the correct way, morgan ??

[MorganTyre]

IIRC, you crank at one end, hold the other stationary, use the cross pieces to help "guide" the twist...

with this set up, one could lay the yarns right, lay the rope left ( i think that's correct ) the stationary end moves as the rope is shortened by the twisting, i think...

is that the correct way, morgan ??

Yep, that's more or less it. The one end is cranked and turns all of the strands in the same direction. On my setup the end opposite the rope making machine is on a very free spinning swivel which is tied to a line which leads through a block and is then weighted. That's to keep a constant tension on the line while still allowing it to shorten which it'll do as it twists. The cross piece (or clover - depending on the number of strands) holds the strands apart. As that piece moves towards the machine the rope will form itself behind it. The swivel allows the rope to spin freely itself so you don't need another turning crank at the other end. The machine I build uses wooden gears which I hacked out of an old sunfish daggerboard using a template I generated here http://woodgears.ca/gear_cutting/template.html which spins some home forged hooks. It's not authentic by any means but works handsomely. On the smaller diameter lines I typically make it's not unusual to crank that handle a thousand times and the wood is still holding up just fine. I grease everything with Lanocote. It'll produce line up to an inch or so but I use it primarily to make hard laid cotton, flax, and hemp line for fancywork.

[Dutchman]

how do you determine the length of the end piece. in otherwords, if you start with X feet of untwisted line how many finished feet do you end up with? I know the length of the walk could in theory be indefinite, but whats a good minimum ammount of room to set something like this up?

[MarkG]

i'd like to add a rope walk to the school of the sailor/ colonial maritime festival in june. I have heard of one being set up at an event- paynetown maybe?? this is out of my area of knowledge, but i'd love to learn. has anyone set one up and operated one? would anyone be willing to make the trip to Deltaville in June to run one?

They do set one up at Paynetown. Maybe Nate could help you find someone to set one up.

One of the volunteers for the Santa Maria set on up a few times in 1992. He made his from some pieces of plywood with screw hooks. He couldn't get a very tight twist with it but it showed the principles.

Google "rope making" for instructions. Here's one site. http://www.mkdrafting.com/Rope_maker.htm

One of the longest rope walks in the country used to be in Plymouth, Mass. Part of it was converted into a mall. The rest was disassembled and moved to Mystic Seaport.

Mark

[MorganTyre]

how do you determine the length of the end piece. in otherwords, if you start with X feet of untwisted line how many finished feet do you end up with? I know the length of the walk could in theory be indefinite, but whats a good minimum ammount of room to set something like this up?

You do lose a certain percentage but how much depends on the diameter of the line, the stretch, etc. I'm sure there's a formula but it's going to be in the neighborhood of 5% or less. I normally set it up inside my shop which allows for approx 25' finished pieces but the are easy to set up temporarily so doing it outdoors is easy. I've done stretches well over a hundred feet and have room to produce about 250'. Because everything is small and lightweight you don't need a permanent set up, just drag it out when you need it. Next time I do I'll do some before and after measurements.