I recently came across an absolutely brilliant page with answers to over 40 frequently asked questions about bell ropes.
Written by Philip Pratt, owner of Avon Ropes and ringer at St Mary, Redcliffe, it gives some practical advice regarding what kind of ropes may suit your tower best as well as sharing insight into the art of making bell ropes by hand.
Here are some of the questions – you can find the answers at avonropes.co.uk/bell-ropes
Andy Waring
Website Editor
- How do I know how long I need for my bell rope?
- My old sallies are 3ft 4″ inches long (1m) can you make the new ones this length?
- My sally has started fraying at the top, can it be repaired?
- Does a sally have to have stripes?
- How long does a rope last?
- My polyester rope has frayed quite badly near the garter hole and we cannot find what it has been catching on.
- Do you supply Terylene ropes?
- How can I clean my tail ends?
- Is my rope going to be strong enough?
- What is best, knots or re-tucking tail ends?
- How long does it take to make a bell rope?
- How do I know if i need a longer or shorter sally?What gauge of rope do I specify when I order a rope from you?
- How many colours can you put in a sally?
- Is it worth me ordering extra-long tail ends so I have sufficient rope to repair the tail when the time comes?
- How long should the turn back (doubled rope) be for my tail end?
- How do I make my tail ends last longer?
- How stiff should my tail ends be?
- Can you splice polyester rope into natural fibre rope?
- What is a machine splice?
- Short splice or long splice?
- Can I use a light pull bell rope for my mini ring or model bell?
- Can you put a thicker, or thinner tail end onto our rope for us?
- My rope has broken, or someone has cut the rope too close to the sally for me to repair, what can I do?
- My Sally has come undone, can you fix it?
- Why Dyneema® ropes?
- My new bell rope sally is a lot longer than I have ordered; it looks like my rope maker has given me extra sally for free.
- My new bell rope has been stored in a box and I’ve just got it out and noticed the sally is very thick and looks a bit short.
- I’ve already got a splice close to my sally, can you put a new top or tail end on it?
- I put my ropes on, set the sally height, and have just pulled on the rope and it’s got a lot longer and my sallies are all too low.
- It says my ropes are pre-stretched, what does this mean?
- MOD spec, what is it?
- When were polyester ropes first used for bell ropes?
- How do you ensure you use the best quality hemp and flax?
- I have a springy bell rope, can you fix it?
- Why are natural fibre ropes ‘hairy’?
- Do 100% wool mats reduce the wear on tail ends?
- Can you machine splice a new polyester top end onto my bell rope
- My sallies are too big or have lots of bits of wool sticking out of them, are you able to trim them to tidy them up, or make them smaller?
- My sally has broken half way down, what does it mean?
- If you are using 100% British Wool, what’s everyone else using?
