Pine Sap on the flipline.

[bruce56BB]

butter!
i don't know if it will work on ropes, but it works great on your hands.

 

[polingspig]

The Acetone worked great for me. It didn't take much either.

 

[moray]

I was thinking of putting all 250 feet in a 5 gal pail of alcohol, let it
soak for an afternoon then put it in an onion bag and give it a run
through a big washing machine to make sure all the dirt and grit
gets washed out. I'd figure that the pail should be good for a few
soakings so just put a lid on it and keep it aside.

Does the onion bag sound crazy or could it be a good idea for washing
ropes in the washing machine?

-Jason

Let's do some simple math. 250 feet of 1/2 in rope has a volume of roughly 2 gallons. Once you stuff it in the bucket, you have room for about 3 gallons of alcohol. Leave enough room to move stuff around, and you have 2 gallons of alcohol and 2 gallons of rope. Let's say the rope has space between the fibers amounting to, say, 20% of its volume (this would be a lot less if the rope were under tension). So 0.4 gallons space in the rope. Of the 2 gallons of alcohol, .4 gallons ends up in the rope, or 20%. Since the pitch all ends up dissolved in the alcohol, 20% of the pitch remains in the rope, and 80% ends up in the bucket.

If on some subsequent day you decide to wash the rope again, in the same alcohol, but the rope is only 1/5 as dirty as the first time, the acohol won't clean it at all because it is exactly as dirty as the rope.

What's more, if you immerse the rope in alcohol, whether for the 1st time or the nth time, perfectly clean sections of rope will become impregnated with pitch.

The method I described earlier using a small (3" X 3") rag, is probably a little better. It won't sully clean sections of rope. You can throw away the rag when it gets dirty and pick up another one. You can get by with very little alcohol (I have used less than 3 quarts in 2 years, and I clean my rope and split tail almost every time I climb). But this method also will leave some pitch in the rope.

What happens to the pitch left in the rope? Since it was dissolved in the alcohol, and is left behind when the alcohol evaporates, it is distributed through the rope in a very thin film, probably only a few molecules thick. In this condition is would be very prone to oxidation because it would have an enormous surface area and because it (mostly various forms of terpenes) is full of double bonds, which are easy for oxygen to attack. The products of oxidation would almost certainly be various aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, and carboxylic acids, none of which should harm the rope, none of which should be tacky, and many of which would probably evaporate away or fall away as harmless powder. My guess is that this acceleration of oxidative degradation, rather than actual cleaning of the rope, is the major effect of cleaning the rope with alcohol or acetone.

 

[Tree Machine]

 

[fast*st]

That all makes perfect sense regarding the dirty washwater data,
though alcohol is pretty cheap, I wouldn't have a problem using the
leftover alcohol for something else. I've got about 200 feet of rope
that's badly drenched with pitch, I'd say of it there is the remaining
50' that's clean, and the 200' is about 50-60% covered, I left it up
for a couple days after doing most of the trimming and the tree just
poured a lot of sap onto the line over a couple 90+ degree days.
Seems like a bad idea to leave good rope airborne. will swap for
cheezy polypropylene next time.

What about washing rope in general, to get any grit out of it to
extend the life? Its done in the fire/rescue service when lines
get dirty.

Thanks again for the info
-Jason

 

[joesawer]

The alcohol breaks down the pitch and makes it so that the soap will wash it out. Use a seine net type of laundry bag, Do not wash a rope in a front load washer with a plastic window, make sure it is glass.
Try alcohol on the pitch in your clothes that has been washed and dried and you swear it will never come out, just wet it with alcohol and throw it in the washer.

 

[Sassafras]

Peanut butter works great
massage it in rinse with water or wash with mild soapy water if you don't like the smell of PB
Best of all peanut butter won't kill your brain cells like alchohol and acetone

 

[Tree Machine]

Sass, you just stepped into the mouth of the flame dragon......

 

[Tree Machine]

I have to call you out on a troll.

Trollmeister.

Trolling on the basis of impracticality, not necessarily mistruth.

 

[Sassafras]

:notrolls2:

 

[fast*st]

I'm not sure where I could get a 5 gallon pail of peanut butter
except for maybe the local school cafeteria. Alcohol is cheap
for now. I do like the idea of spot treatment, glob of pitch, use
a soaked rag to wipe it down. I've got a nice mesh bag and when
I'm done with this one tree, I'll soak then wash this rope before
tucking it safely back in its rope bag.

Of course used alcohol could be handy when it comes down to
brush burning season. At least nobody suggested to use lard.



-Jason