Robin Wright, Managing Director of Wyedean Weaving in Haworth, demonstrates the traditional method of making rope using a rope walk machine. In this example he makes a horse lead for the Royal Horse Artillery King's Troop.
The shrinkage in length from the initial set up of strands of yarn, to the finished length of rope is between 25% and 35% depending on the rope thickness and its composition, for example wool ropes shrink up more than cotton ropes.
We are not entirely sure how old the rope walk wheel is, our estimate would be about 100 years old as it was designed to be driven by an electric motor. Ships hawsers were made with the same principle as we use but on much larger wheels and with a rope walk in much longer factories, often with a bogie for the operator to travel up and down to speed up the manufacturing process. We hope this was of interest. Thank you.
The original 25 metres length of threads draws up by 25% as they are twisted together to form the rope, so you end up with about an 18 metres length of rope. I hope this helps. Thank you for your interest
