How To Make Hemp Rope

Hemp is a rapid growing plant and is probably the most perfect plant for making rope. Why? Hemp grows really fast, will grow well on poor soil, no fertilizer needed, no pesticides are needed, it produces lots of material per acre and it seems like it was designed for rope production.

Check your local laws regarding its legality as growing Hemp (marijuana) is not legal to grow everywhere.

To make hemp rope first you will need some hemp. Then you simply unwind the hemp fibers from the stalk. Now take your hemp fibers and fold them in half. So if one fiber is 20 foot long it will make an unspliced rope 10 foot long. Loop the fiber over your stick. So the stick if lifted would support the fibers with half of the fibers draped on each side of the stick.

Grasp all of the fibers at the stick and gently pull taunt to smooth out the fibers.

Now, separate the single smooth bundle of fibers into two separate tails, like two pigtails on a little girl, but obviously much longer.

Twist each bundle clockwise until the cord you are creating begins to kink up on itself. Don't be bashful, you must pull hard to get each bundle as tight and twisted as possible.

Next, twist each of the cords together to make one continuous cord (rope). It is important to do this step in a counter-clockwise motion.

Secure the ends with a knot. You might think that the end at the rod doesn't need to be tied into a knot but you would be wrong. So tie a knot at both ends to prevent the rope from unraveling. Obviously remove the stick before attempting to tie off that end of the rope.

Ropes can be twisted together with each other to make bigger and bigger ropes. It is best, however, to just use more hemp strands to start with to get the desired rope thickness.

Thanks to hemp, making rope really is as simple as this sounds.

A quick tip: When growing hemp for ropes you want to grow the plants densely together. This causes them to compete for sunlight and grow taller and with less leaves and stems.