Safest and best sap remover for your climbing rope

Followed the recommendation from earlier posts and tried lukewarm water and dawn. Only progress made was with aggressive scrubbing. Wasn’t about to do that with 150’ of line. So threw it in the wash on warm water with a full cup of Oxiclean. Let it soak for 2 hours before it ran through the cycle. Super pleased. She’s shining more than she has in a while. Hopefully there aren’t any chemicals in it that are harsh on the rope. Time will tell!
 
Woodwork said:
. . . Side note: A doctor friend of mine said that if you get a real bad injury and your guts are falling out or whatever, and you have no way to stitch or staple things up, and need to close the wound until you can get to a hospital, Crazy Glue will work in a pinch...apparently water is what makes it "kick off" and you can accelerate the adhesion by wetting the bonding surfaces...
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I always heard that this is actually what Crazy Glue/Super glue was developed for, with MASH units in Vietnam.
 
TECNU, the poison ivy cleanser is a great solvent free way to clean up sap. The ingredients that make it so effective at dissolving the oils from poison ivy that cause the itch also are extremely effective at breaking up the oils in pine sap. I use it often after climbing pines, usually just on my hands, handsaw and climbing devices, but have used it to lean up sappy sections of rope as well.
 
So I should probably update my comments here to reflect another thread somewhere on Buzz. After more materials compatibility discussions there, I've now settled on Everclear for ropes - as close as you can get to pure ethanol. In the other thread, someone suggested this (if I could find it I'd give attribution). Apparently isopropanol isn't recommended for nylon or poly (still use it on metal stuff though) but ethanol is OK on rope textiles (I don't know the molecular basis for this). As an aside I just purchased another bottle of Everclear today and the store clerk added some interesting info when I told him it was for cleaning sap on rope. He stated that you should watch alcohols around new water based car paints too - he was having the door on his Audi repainted after using Everclear to try and remove some tar and bugs from the door exterior. On older isocyanate paints or epoxies it's fine, but maybe beware on the new water based/ low VOC stuff. Cheers all.

Addenda: I should say that if our rope is getting generally dirty besides sap or even "honeydew" from our elms last couple of summers, they get de-sapped with EtOH and a wash in mesh bag (Wesspur sells em to or used to) with Teufelbergers rope wash. Do the same with gooey prussiks I've saved up. This usually leaves the rope or prussik in pretty much like new condition (minus wear/ bit of fuzzing of course). Some of the other stuff I've tried will get sap off but doesn't clean the textile as much to my liking. Then it gets more dirt in it and the cycle continues. Will it work - yes. But we always washed our alpine ropes this way esp. after an alpine doddle about on gritty glaciers in the summer - 'cuz of the rock flour - so maybe just habit.
 
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ghostice said:
So I should probably update my comments here to reflect another thread somewhere on Buzz. After more materials compatibility discussions there, I've now settled on Everclear for ropes - as close as you can get to pure ethanol. In the other thread, someone suggested this (if I could find it I'd give attribution). Apparently isopropanol isn't recommended for nylon or poly (still use it on metal stuff though) but ethanol is OK on rope textiles (I don't know the molecular basis for this). As an aside I just purchased another bottle of Everclear today and the store clerk added some interesting info when I told him it was for cleaning sap on rope. He stated that you should watch alcohols around new water based car paints too - he was having the door on his Audi repainted after using Everclear to try and remove some tar and bugs from the door exterior. On older isocyanate paints or epoxies it's fine, but maybe beware on the new water based/ low VOC stuff. Cheers all.
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backing your post up, this compatibility chart lists ethyl alchohol as having excellent compatibility with nylon, contrasting with isopropyl alchohol as potentially being severely degrading:
What Chemicals are Compatible with Nylon?
although of course as they note 'nylon' is a class of plastics and not a specific formulation so specific types could have different strengths and weaknesses. interesting they note it as highly resistant to acetone. i couldnt find a similarly clear chart for polyesters which listed both ethyl and isopropyl alcohols with a quick search but there are a million of them out there to dig into
 
treestyler said:
Depends on the type of friction saver, work a day or two with the old school ring and ring cambiumsaver and it will wear off much faster compared to the pulley saver ;-)

Best way is just to use natural crotch for some time and the sap will come of pretty fast....most preferable to use them for removals in that way ;-)

Just got out off a nice and sappy Abies Grandis and all my gear is covered in sap including myself.....

Tomorrow some old school climbing and it will be good as gold.
The lanyard mostly gets the most sap on removals and that will harden during the night and after a couple of days use it will be ok.

Worst for me is the chainsaw, all covered in sap and hard to rub that of even with oil.
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Carb cleaner is a help on saws.
 
Merle Nelson said:
Wespur sells ZAP cleaner for ropes.

Just used oven cleaner on a handsaw blade the other day for the first time. Wiped sap/pitch etc right off.
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It's very oily; basically orange oil with some kind of carrier oil. It must be used sparingly in order to be washed off, but it it very effective against sap, especially in combination with a good washing afterwards, to have the soap remove the oils.
 
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