How to Keep a Hank of Rope Untangled

Rope simply left in a pile will often fray in addition to developing tangles..

All varieties of rope and cord have at least one thing in common: they are prone to develop tangles, knots, snares and other unsightly and frustrating messes when not put away properly. To keep tangles and knots from your rope, whatever the variety, wind it into a butterfly coil whenever you've finished using it. A butterfly coil will keep the rope neatly arranged and always ready for immediate use.

Instructions

1. Untangle the rope by guiding it through one hand with the other, from one end to the other. Allow it to fall into an unknotted pile on the ground beside you.

2. Pick up an end of the rope, holding it in your nondominant hand. Pull the length of the rope across the backs of your shoulders and behind your neck with your dominant hand.

3. Hook your thumb around the rope where the length of rope falls and touches your dominant hand when it falls to your side. Bring the length of the rope back up around the backs of your shoulders, so that you are creating lengths of rope along your arm span.

4. Hook the thumb of your nondominant hand around the length, so that each hand is holding a loop of rope. Continue passing the rope in this manner, with each hand holding loops.

5. Stop coiling the rope when you have roughly 8 feet of rope unwound. This length will be used to tie the rope securely together.

6. Lift the loops of rope from your shoulders, and place the center of the loops over your forearm, so that half of the loops fall to either side of your arm.

7. Begin tightly winding roughly half of the remaining rope around the center of the bundle underneath your forearm.

8. Form a loop between the ends of the remaining 4-foot tail over the top of the coil draped over your forearm. Guide the end of the rope through this loop and pull it tight. Your rope can now be carried by this length, set on a shelf or on a hook.

Tips & Warnings

• Use the time spent coiling your rope to check for fraying or any cuts.

References

• Field and Stream: Tying the Butterfly Coil
• Slackline Express: How to Butterfly Coil (aka Lap Coil) a Slackline