So, I am about to embark on the journey of doing rope railings for my deck out back. If I season the ropes with Stockholm tar, will they be sticky, gummy or other?? The reason I’m asking is that I don’t want the ropes to start collecting dust, pollen and bugs acting like a huge piece of fly paper..
Can anyone tell me how this stuff wears?
Thanks
Tony
Don’t do it! It will be all of that and the smell will permiate everything for 100m around. I have only used it on animal wounds and hoofs as it is very sticky and a powerful antiseptic (I think it is the smell that kills everything in sight) but it does take forever to dry. It is the reason C18th english sailors were called “Jack tars” - they got covered in it.
However, if you thin it with turps and add Terrebine oil (Japan dryer) it is a bit more practical but that doesn’t help the smell much. There is a recipe here: http://www.maritime.org/conf/conf-kaye-tar.htm but I would still do a few trials to see how fast it dries.
I use a similar mix with linseed oil to protect black steel but even with hot days and low humidity it still takes a week to dry.
I would use a matt varnish. Dries to a waterproof finish in an hour or so and doesn’t stink the place out (and it’s all but invisible though it will darken and harden the rope slightly).
Barry
Lol… Thanks for the heads up. I may opt to use the varnish. Thanks lokiprime
If your rope is natural fibre - use SADOLIN wood preserver - the darkest one looks just like tar anyway.
Gordon
Well, let me put it like this: Last summer I found a roll of tarred hemp line that had been lying in the back of a shelf in my workshop for the last 15 years or so. It was not sticky anymore, but the smell was still potent enough. In other words, if you treat rope railings on your back deck with Stockholm tar, that will be THE dominating smell in the area around it for years to come. I would think at least twice before doing it.
Well, a month late on this, for which my apologies.
Under NO circumstances should you use Stockholm on your railings.
No circumstances. None, Nada, Nichevo, Zipposki.
So, now we got THAT taken care of, what type of line are you using for the coxcombing: Nylon, Dacron, Polyester radial braided, Cotton traditionally (RH laid) set up, Flax (I say! Could you possibly loan me a few hundred pounds? If you’re using Flax [sharrop Des!] you must be related to Croesus!) or something else?
In almost ALL exigencies, I would recommend a series of very light coats of coloured shellac (and DO buy the American prepared shellac unless you’re incredibly talented at working with flake and C6H6o6 pure!
Once a sweet and consistent shellac cover has been obtained (and it may be necessary to go ‘over’ the applied finish with a rag and some fresh alcohol to ‘even out’ the colour of the work) allow it to dry thoroughly and then using a REALLY good varnish (like Epiphanes clear), give all a GENTLE coat… allow to dry… re-coat…GENTLY… and so on until you’ve reached the depth of encapsulation you might want from the varnish.
I think that what we’re trying to tell you is: As long as it meets your criteria, AND it’s the best you can do. then it’s GOT to be outstanding!
As I am indeed from the very town of Stockholm, the header made me curious, as we never called tar by the moniker “Stockholm” around here. However, we do tar things with pine tar, and for many purposes, it is mixed with flaxseed oil and turpentine, which makes it penetrate better and the flaxseed oil hardens, making the sealing of porosity last longer. In fact, it’s often the smell we want, that genuine maritime smell of tar, so I would not avoid it because of the smell. In fact I carried a tarred knot for years in my pocket, the one on my keyring, made of hemp.
So tarred hemp has a particular smell, I won’t deny it, and some of us like that smell, particularly in and around the boat. Maybe others don’t.
And tar never dries.
However, it smears off on other things, so with time tarred items may have a less smeary surface, although the smell remains, maybe somewhat attenuated. When you really do like the smell of it and can live with that smell, there is no substitute. There is a very popular song here, by Carl Anton, about dandelions and the smell scent of tar. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucCxDDCZKsQ
So it boils down to whether you do want that smell or not.
When we want less smell and smearing, but still the look and feel, we mix a rather low content of tar with raw linseed oil and let it set well. The linseed oil hardens, although it takes some time, and the tar sweats through, so it will still smear a bit, but if there’s not too much tar in the mix, not much will set off at other things. Traditionally, tar is used for hemp and for wood, but you can also use it on the synthetic substitutes, although when going to the length of actually using tar, I wouldn’t do it with synthetics.
Hello
I work at the Swedish East India Man Gothenburg, all our standing and running rigging is made of hemp, therefore we use a lot of Stockholm tar to preserve the ropes, stays, shrouds ect… to prevent them from rot.
Stockholm tar is quite thick and if you paint it on a rail served with rope it will just be thick layer of tar on the outside of the rope that does not impregnate extremly well and it more or less never dries.
You want the tar to impregnate the rope thoroughly to prevent it from rot. What we do at Gothenburg is that we have a small electrical stove which we put a pot full of water on and then we put the pot with tar in in the water. We heat up the tar until it is not thick at all, like water (about 60 degrees celsius i think, for the tar). Then we paint the tar on the rope, since it is like water, you do not get a thick layer, instead it impregnates the rope and when it dries it forms a very thin black layer on the rope which is no problem to tuch and it will not be sticky. This black layer might not from the first time you tar the rope but the rope will not be sticky anyway once it has dried.
The one thing that makes the tar dry best and fastest is the sun, if you use heated tar on a rope an leave it out in the sun it will dry in a few days, however it is important to paint thin layers if you want it to dry. Of course tar never completly dries but the sun makes it dry enough so that you can tuch it without getting dirty.
All this is based on our experience with our ships rig and natural fiber ropes ropes.
Concerning the smell, in my experience, if you tar a small rail with a thin layer of tar and it is outside, the smell will not take over and you will get use to it. Others who are not use to the smell will most likley notice it but I do not think they will be bothered by it. Once again this is based on my expreience, and I do walk around a ship daily that has all its rigging soked in tar and therefore my sence of smelling the tar might be a bit “damaged”.
I hope this helps
Good luck