About Us
Feb 09, 2021
Like most great ideas, deGiotto rope started in a garage. Back in 2009 I was invited to the Whatknot in Austin to help make some rope. Senor Jamie had a little hand crank machine, some simple tools and a lot of friends. We took some cheap hardware store hemp and flax twine and made rope. It was pretty good rope. I still have the first one that I made. .
I went home and ordered some twine and some plans for a fancy wooden geared rope machine. I spent hours cutting out the gears but I never could get them to align right. It was a very pretty wooden paper weight with hand cut gears. I was disappointed and a bit disheartened. I had worked really hard on all those gears. I tinkered with the machine a while but gave it up in the end.
I took a breather for a few weeks. Every time I went out to my garage workshop I saw the yarn and the dysfunctional machine. I remembered how cool it was to turn the yarn into rope. So I grabbed some scrap wood out of the pile and bent some metal rods I had lying around. Some washers, finishing nails and wood screws and a big bolt for a handle and there it was, my first hand cranked rope machine. It was a one twist to one turn, no gears, make your arm fall off eye sore. It has made thousands of feet of rope and I still grab it when I'm making tests or the new machines fail. It always works perfectly.
So, I took my little hand cranked machine, my son and my girlfriend and made a few ropes. It was fun. The rope wasn't bad. But my son had school and things to do and my girlfriend wasn't enthusiastic about laboring in the heat. I decided two things:
1. I knew I could make better rope than I had seen being used for bondage. I wanted to make the best or at least the very best that I could make with what I had.
2. If I wasn't going to have any help, I had to refine my process so that I could make rope by myself.
All these years later, I'm still obsessed with making the very best rope. I've done pretty good too. I haven't found any out there that comes close in consistency and quality. Not just in the bondage world but in the rope world.
I have really refined the process to get the consistency and the quality. I've invented a few gadgets to make that happen and to make things quicker and efficient.
Somewhere along the line I decided that making rope in colors would be a good idea. I think I was dissatisfied with the choices and the expense of the colored hemp yarns that were available. I bought some white yarn and some red dye. I made some rope and then dyed it. It looked OK. Then I looked inside the twist. The inside was still white. I looked at the colored ropes that others were selling. The inside of their ropes were undyed too. What was worse, if you cut the rope you could see the cores of the strands were not dyed.
I could do better. A lot better.
So I took the same white yarn and the same red dye and I dyed the yarn and then made the rope. It was a short rope with very little yarn. It looked FANTASTIC! Now I could make rope that had color all the way through and the color would be smooth and consistent. This rope was good enough that people would pay money for it.
It was a trap! An insane trap. It turns out that dying yarn in any quantity without tangling it was a monumental task and no other method would penetrate all the way into the yarn. It also turns out that red dye is the easiest to work with as far as penetration and consistency.
But it was too late. I was hooked. I was convinced that I could make tight but soft consistent rope in any color I could get my hands on.
After years of trial and error, of tangling (and untangling) 50,000 foot stretches of yarn, of designing and building rope machines, rope tools and a dozen other contraptions we were finally ready to go into serious production.
Now our colors are bright and consistent. The rope is firm and keeps it's shape yet is soft to the touch.
I'm proud of what we sell. Very proud. I couldn't sell it to others if I weren't.
Still the quest goes on to make it even better and I hope that part never stops.
-- Giotto
Master Rope Maker
Have questions or want to know more? Write us at info@degiottorope.com or call us (512) 923-8133
I went home and ordered some twine and some plans for a fancy wooden geared rope machine. I spent hours cutting out the gears but I never could get them to align right. It was a very pretty wooden paper weight with hand cut gears. I was disappointed and a bit disheartened. I had worked really hard on all those gears. I tinkered with the machine a while but gave it up in the end.
I took a breather for a few weeks. Every time I went out to my garage workshop I saw the yarn and the dysfunctional machine. I remembered how cool it was to turn the yarn into rope. So I grabbed some scrap wood out of the pile and bent some metal rods I had lying around. Some washers, finishing nails and wood screws and a big bolt for a handle and there it was, my first hand cranked rope machine. It was a one twist to one turn, no gears, make your arm fall off eye sore. It has made thousands of feet of rope and I still grab it when I'm making tests or the new machines fail. It always works perfectly.
So, I took my little hand cranked machine, my son and my girlfriend and made a few ropes. It was fun. The rope wasn't bad. But my son had school and things to do and my girlfriend wasn't enthusiastic about laboring in the heat. I decided two things:
1. I knew I could make better rope than I had seen being used for bondage. I wanted to make the best or at least the very best that I could make with what I had.
2. If I wasn't going to have any help, I had to refine my process so that I could make rope by myself.
All these years later, I'm still obsessed with making the very best rope. I've done pretty good too. I haven't found any out there that comes close in consistency and quality. Not just in the bondage world but in the rope world.
I have really refined the process to get the consistency and the quality. I've invented a few gadgets to make that happen and to make things quicker and efficient.
Somewhere along the line I decided that making rope in colors would be a good idea. I think I was dissatisfied with the choices and the expense of the colored hemp yarns that were available. I bought some white yarn and some red dye. I made some rope and then dyed it. It looked OK. Then I looked inside the twist. The inside was still white. I looked at the colored ropes that others were selling. The inside of their ropes were undyed too. What was worse, if you cut the rope you could see the cores of the strands were not dyed.
I could do better. A lot better.
So I took the same white yarn and the same red dye and I dyed the yarn and then made the rope. It was a short rope with very little yarn. It looked FANTASTIC! Now I could make rope that had color all the way through and the color would be smooth and consistent. This rope was good enough that people would pay money for it.
It was a trap! An insane trap. It turns out that dying yarn in any quantity without tangling it was a monumental task and no other method would penetrate all the way into the yarn. It also turns out that red dye is the easiest to work with as far as penetration and consistency.
But it was too late. I was hooked. I was convinced that I could make tight but soft consistent rope in any color I could get my hands on.
After years of trial and error, of tangling (and untangling) 50,000 foot stretches of yarn, of designing and building rope machines, rope tools and a dozen other contraptions we were finally ready to go into serious production.
Now our colors are bright and consistent. The rope is firm and keeps it's shape yet is soft to the touch.
I'm proud of what we sell. Very proud. I couldn't sell it to others if I weren't.
Still the quest goes on to make it even better and I hope that part never stops.
-- Giotto
Master Rope Maker
Have questions or want to know more? Write us at info@degiottorope.com or call us (512) 923-8133
4 comments
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We only sell 6 mm rope.
I was curious to know if I can be notified when the silk purple rope will be available
hello,
do you have any rope that is thicker than 6mm?
thank you
Andrea