Jute care - Cleaning and Washing

The aim is to avoid needing to wash your rope. Ideally, you will never wash your rope and will instead just run a cloth over it to remove any dust or debris it has come into contact with. When jute rope gets wet, it swells, and if this happens in an uneven manner, either in the washing process or drying process, it will damage your rope.

Please note: Rope that has been treated with oil or wax cannot be effectively cleaned unless the rope is brought to a temperature that can separate out this oil or wax—and that carries the risk of damaging the rope fibres.

I am aware that some people recommend methods such as boiling ropes (for treating industrial ropes with high JBO content that smells like petrol) to remove some of these chemicals. It is unclear what impact heating jute rope in this way has on its strength. However, this process does cause JBO to be released into the air, which can cause respiratory collapse and death. Ropes should NEVER be boiled.

If you are in a situation where you have to wash your rope, either hand wash your rope at a low temperature or use a handwash setting with minimal spinning, and then hang your rope to dry with light pressure on either end of the rope to stretch it out a little as it dries. Please note that washing dyed ropes may cause colors to fade or run.