I just noticed something. After I lost all my bondage equipment a number of years ago, I went to the hardware store where I used to buy 60% of my bondage gear.
This store carries the 4 most common supplies I used in self bondage.
5/16” woven nylon rope, 1/4” all cotton rope ( no core ), 1” x 3/16” chain, 1 3/16 brass padlocks and for some reason, every size of steel O-ring from 3/4” all the way to 2”, in 1/4” increments.
No other store within 80 miles has what this hardware store has.
And now, this question?
What length should rope be for self bondage.
I think....
Two 50 foot lengths, two 25 foot lengths, four 15 footers and some 6 footers.
Any ideas or takes ? What lengths do you use ?
My major ties are
wrists, about 2m (7 ft)
ankles about 2m
legs (ankles, under knees, above knees) about 9 m
a "complicated" box tie with a lot of wrapping around the torso including or not the arms, about 20 m
Body harness (diamond style) takes 20 m too, I think
I do have different types of rope, but most of the time, I am using a nylon rope which is soft and about 8mm in thickness, which should be around 5/16".
I would rather buy a big roll of perhaps 300 foot and cut it to length as you go. And if you don't cut it all up right away, you have stock to replace ropes, that you had to cut by accident.
Here is something new about crossed wrists (see post 1):
Usually, I have two rings of rope vertical and four rings horizontal. The knot has to be on the "inside" of my wrists, because this is the only way to tie it off. So it is also in reach for untieing.
If you have a bit more rope or do two horizontal rings only, you can alter the tie to be much more secure:
Make the vertical rings, slide your hands in and then wrap horizontally, as in the first post. At this point, you still need more rope.
Tie a single overhand knot and then get one end of the rope through your arms backward, and the other end forward. This is supposed to make another vertical ring around your wrists. You have to be careful to incorporate both wrists in this, which isn't as easy as it sounds. You need a good idea of what you want to do, without being able to look at it. Two loops around are fine too, whatever you like. Now make an overhand knot on the side between your hands and your back and try to get it as high as possible. Feed the upper end of the rope through your arms again and secure it somewhere (I used a drawer that closed just tight enough to hold the rope in place). The rope in the drawer pulls up, so you can use your fingers to move the knot pretty much between your forearms. Now the hardest part: Get the "drawer rope" back to make a second knot and pull it tight the same way as the first one, without moving or losening the first knot. This actually sounds harder than it is, provided, your rope ends are long enough but not too long.
Result: You have made a knot, that you cannot reach. If you got it tight enough, you cannot even pull it over using the rope ends. You could wiggle your wrists and move it a bit back and forth, but perhaps not enough to get it near your fingertips.
I got free eventually, by using a door handle to pull off some coils. But it was quite difficult and a bit painful. I only did it, because I didn't want to cut the rope.
If you have questions, ask! I might add some drawings or even images, but right now it is past midnight...
Another quick addition to the crossd wrist tie (see post 1, not the last one):
If you have enough rope left, you can cinch the tie between your wrists. You do this be wrapping one end between your wrists until it come back to the knot, then the other end the other way. Then you tie it off with two overhand knots. Be careful positioning the knot of that cinch. you don't want it between your wrists, because that will hurt soon.
Apart from being a tighter tie, it is quite difficult to undo because your hands and fingers are less mobile and the knot will be difficult to reach. And because this tie is so tight, even the door handle method might fail.
If you like sour wrists and a good challenge, try it out. I have, but it is not my cup of tea. Perhaps I cinched too hard, and the tie itself was painful.
And one more idea:
After tieing off any knot, tie one knot into each end of the rope, shift them as close as possible to the main knot and pull them tight. This is especially useful if you have rope on which knots sometimes get lose. And it also makes it harder for you to untie the main knot, because you have to get rid of the end knots first.
I think, I haven't mentioned my other rope harness. It is a very simple one that is tied around waist and crotch only. It provides a good anchor for the other ties. And it only needs a short length of rope.
Like this: Double the rope, wrap it around the waist and pull the ends throught the bight. I usually do that in front of me, then move the bight to my back. Then feed the ends of the rope through the crotch, left and right of your jewels, then back up through the bight. You might consider some symmetrical way to to this, in order to make the harness rather immoblle. If you have enough rope, wrap the ends around your waist and tie off in front. If not, you can tie the ends to the bight. I recommend to wrap the open ends around the waist like, so you don't get confused with other ends of rope. Actually, if you have enough rope, you could make some loops, stick them through the bight and use them to tie your wrists. But it is difficult to get the right tightness (usually too lose, but if it seems right for the wrists, it might compress your belly after a while). Alternatively, use another piece of rope for the wrists and simply pull it through the crotch rope first, so your wrists will be fixed to the harness. You have to be a bit creative here. Before tieing the wrists, you can also tie your ankles and secure them to the waist rope AND the crotch rope - so it won't be able to move up and down OR left and right. now you can tie your wrists and have a sort of hogtie. Remember, you cannot reach a door handle in a hogtie and it might be impossible to untie the legs before you get your hands free, so have a pair of scissors where you can find them.
I don't usually do the full hogtie because it is quite hard on the belly and it bends the lower spine, if it is too tight. I think, a healthy hogtie includes a chest harness which leads the pressure to the shoulders.
What i usually do, is tie off my ankles and leave them alone.