Historical Ropemaker - How it was made

A short story about how I made my "1864" wooden ropemaker.
Like this video? Buy me a cup of coffee to help out making more! ko-fi.com/rope...

[@tomrichardson3107]

Fantastic precision craftsmanship! Thanks for sharing! 😎🇺🇸👍👍

[@richardc6269]

I'm years late for the unveiling but outstanding job!! It really is great to watch machines with human power being put together. Cheers!!✌

[@ruthcline5465]

I’m a fiber artist and I was watching tutorials on fringe plying, it led me down the rabbit hole to this video. Amazing!! That’s one of the most beautifully built machines I’ve ever seen! Just brilliant!

[@mikkosnellman]

Thank you for the feedback. It was fun building too and we have made hundreds of ropes with it on different events ever since.

[@jamesthe-doctor8981]

That is one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

[@SailingKateLouise]

Thanks for watching

[@jamesthe-doctor8981]

@@SailingKateLouise you’re welcome!

[@strengthchain]

Wow, what a lifetime of knowledge on display! This deserves so much respect!

[@SnowHunter44]

I have been watching you do amazing ropework and now I find this gem, you are a fabulous woodworker as well. Thanks for another quality video and a worthy reproduction... I think I want one myself now!

[@bigronxxxx]

I just found your channel and find it incredible how many trades or skills and your ability carry them out,thank you for sharing them with us,all the best to you and yours

[@davidpaul9365]

I am a carpenter cabinet maker and thoroughly enjoyed this Vid. Thanks again Mikko.

[@shipstern100]

Mikko, you are such a skilled craftsman. It is a pleasure to watch you work. Thank you so much for keeping ate art of rope making alive. You are an inspiration to all of us knot tiers.

[@WisdomJunkie1]

You are a craftsman in every sense of the word sir.

[@lindaaustin-morin7781]

Thank you for building this replica to keep the craft alive

[@hectorpristupluk1113]

Simply exellent...... Very nice job. Thank you..! Héctor, from Argentina.

[@loublomberg1180]

One word "Awesome" Thank you for sharing this, and all your vids..

[@palerose2011]

Absolutely fabulous craftmanship. Beautiful !!!!

[@bryansloesshillshomestead4523]

Very well made rope maker.

[@adamwhiteson6866]

Beautiful! Loved the design, the execution and the presentation. Thank you!

[@dankolar6066]

Thank you. Both entertaining and educational.

[@SpamMusubi308]

Absolutely beautiful ! Thanks for sharing

[@nomerc3608]

That’s for sharing this. It brings back a lot of memories.

[@davegehr]

Really, really nice Mikko, and thank you for all you do for the craft, from knotting tutorials to making fine cordage available for purchase. I'm also totally in love with your shop.

[@reginaromsey]

Th parts remind me of the old time Tinker Toys. The work and workmanship of experts is as beautiful as the finished pieces.

[@michaelstorto8658]

Whatva beautiful so instructive video, showing the Old Way of fabricating all parts So impressive, thank you

[@timbco475]

Nice to see the old ways being kept alive

[@mikkosnellman]

Someone has to do it! :)

[@BEARLAUBSCHER]

this was an amazing build

[@mikkosnellman]

Thank you, it was a fun project.

[@jimfiorentino7741]

As usual, another fine video from Mikko. Thanks! Loved it.

[@lmccluer]

I used to work for a mom and pop outfit that made poly ropes in different sizes, from lariats up to 3” in diameter. These were made on homemade equipment. Probably the hardest work I’ve ever had. Especially when it came to thing the knots at the end, because they were woven ends. Trying to get the rope ends even and laid out, required you to use your fingers splayed out, dragging the strands between your fingers. When I went home the first day after I learned how to weave the ends, my fingers looked like raw hamburger. Even using gloves didn’t work too well because it ate them up too. Eventually I used baseball gloves with two different sizes, one over the other. Even then they were wire out by the end of the week.

[@grumpybob5969]

incredibly skilled craftman thank you for sharing

[@o5245607]

Fantastic woodworking abilities and knowledge for a working machine.

[@windrider65]

Great Craftsmanship, don't see much of that today. Thank you for sharing.

[@csjmoore]

Thanks for sharing your skills. I can appreciate the time it took to make the vid & the device. Nice legacy to the world.

[@MrEddHard]

I've been building mini rope making devices if my own design. Thank you for all your inspiration.

[@beatamafulu2405]

Hi, are you selling them? I am interested.

[@jmguerram1]

Great Job , congratulations, thanks for sharing.

[@cocotimbo]

You, Sir, are an amazingly gifted artist! 🙏🙏🙏 Thank you for this beautiful video, Mikko and God bless you!

[@ItAintMeBabe99]

You are freakin incredible and your workmanship is beyond belief !

[@gregmoyes3829]

lovely machine and music.

[@raeannuria5691]

You sir are amazing!! Thank you for sharing your craftsmanship with us!

[@focalplane3063]

Wow, Mr. Patience! Nice work.

[@pedromarinela]

Wonderful job, now i have understood how the ropes are made, thank you Sir!

[@darenlindley]

such amazing craftsmanship! well done!

[@SailingKateLouise]

fascinating thanks Paul

[@SailingKateLouise]

My pleasure thanks for watching

[@skullthrower8904]

So awesome This is really cool

[@jezzamarkham5285]

I’ve been watching your videos for some time now and i find the blend of watching you work using such skill combined with the wonderful guitar playing very interesting while being relaxing at the same time. Your videos have helped me through some bad times. Thank you for what you do so well. ❤️😊

[@mikkosnellman]

In that case the video has served it´s purpose. Thank you for the feedback.

[@Vince-ml9gw]

Just awesome

[@vincegordon6830]

Excellent work! 💥👏

[@huckleberry5653]

Very cool!

[@dafododada9]

You know everything ....great work

[@vDC2me]

Bravo. Thank you so much for such a great video. Your craftsmanship is wonderful. I could watch you all day. I want to make a wooden, hand powered, rope making machine, and this is the best I've seen. I am going to use recycled plastic shipping bags as my cordage

[@ninaspalace]

I so admire your skill. Thank you.

[@mntnman3616]

Really enjoy all your video's and appreciate you sharing them and have watched many. But this has been my favorite so far.

[@mikkosnellman]

Glad you enjoy it.

[@mntnman3616]

@@mikkosnellman love your appreciation of the old ways and the time you put into this project was well worth the effort in my opinion. Awesome piece of history shared, thanks.

[@Klanledarn]

I work at a ropemaker museum in Sweden and to see this is wonderful! Really nice work!

[@mikkosnellman]

Will have to visit the museum someday, which one is it?

[@Klanledarn]

@@mikkosnellman Repslagarmuseet i Älvängen :)

[@aex-blacksmithuk2111]

Fantastic, nice job. Thank you.

[@RavensHammer00]

Wonderful work, Mikko! I've been following your channel for a few years now, and I've watched this video perhaps a dozen times. I recently decided I would build a mini version of your rope maker, for my ship models ropework. I've never been really satisfied with what I could find in stores or online in regards to scale cordage for my schooners. As an asside, I went and replaced my old birch seam rubber with a new one I turned from a small board of lignum vitae. The board came off an ancient huge resaw, where it was used as a bearing board between the saws jaws. Beautiful stuff, thank you for the inspiration!

[@mikkosnellman]

Good for you! Would love to see your machine!

[@mrberryman]

That is just beautiful!

[@rupertrussell1]

Thanks, this is very interesting, I wish I had your skills experience and tools :-) Keep up the good work.

[@BrianTaylorMRM]

Fantastic job Mikko

[@rognavolter]

Awesome work

[@Old52Guy]

this is outstanding!

[@dalemeyer8207]

Knot Head !!!! Your King !!! Thanks

[@MartinHatchuel]

That's so beautiful!

[@GODSOFTHEGUITARS]

High Mikko great video, very educational and entertaining. I will definitely be trying this when I get a house and a shop. I actually came across your channel a few weeks ago thanks to the video on how to make tarred rope and I hand made cordage and wanted to try making the tarred cordage I need it for a project I’m making but I noticed you took the video down I was hoping you can re up load it it was the only tutorial I can find on how to do it and I must say it was a rather good one. Just as the rest of your videos are. Anthony ☕️😊

[@mikkosnellman]

Sorry, had to do some editing on the video. Will upload back shortly.

[@royalmaster203]

Very nice..

[@steveparker8723]

Most excellent!

[@abdulazizkaterji4064]

شكرًا لجهودك اسمح لي انت فنان بكل معنى الكلمة

[@Rustaholic777]

Nice video. Keep the past alive.... 40 teeth on the big wheel and 9 teeth on the small wheels make for 4.444 turns of the hooks for each turn of the wheel.

[@MrBlack751]

"The Craftsman" Nice work.

[@iplayzthegames6968]

This is incredible but I can't help but wonder how such a talented woodworker can pull all this off but still hadn't made himself a mallet lol

[@mikkosnellman]

I have but never got comfortable with a mallet... 😉

[@billy19461]

Two thumbs up!

[@endlesszadvinskiy5115]

Golden hands at you the good fellow !!!

[@mikkosnellman]

Thank you for the compliment.

[@josephsisson]

Amazing project and craftsmanship. You deserve high praise. I was disappointed to read in the comments that you did not produce a set of plans for this amazing replica. Although I am an amateur woodworker I would like to take on the challenge of building one of these. Any chance you could produce a set of plans from your replica and make them available for sale? Cheers and all the best from Canada!

[@mikkosnellman]

Sorry, making plans is not my best talent.

[@billwessels207]

Very well done. And nice to see that you still had most of your fingers at the end. I was worried at various points. I too am somewhat self taught, however for those of you who watch this, be very careful. I really enjoyed this video.

[@mikkosnellman]

After 40 years of experience, you learn not to be afraid of machines, but to respect them.

[@jonathansimmonds5784]

@@mikkosnellman After over 40 years of machining wood and metal in a shop and on site and still with all fingers I too wasn't happy a couple of times watching this....! Even the best of us can have accidents, be careful, lovely work.

[@Josef_R]

You should have put a link for the auction in the description.

[@BushImports]

Nice job.

[@kevinorr6880]

I love this every time I watch it. I don't suppose that our sketches are available for a guy to build from? that would be amazing.

[@tawakerakarawa1064]

That's what love is.

[@NesteEventyret]

beautiful!

[@manwar999]

gold star for you

[@robinwilliams1253]

Can i get the plans. Love the video. Thanks for sharing.

[@mikkosnellman]

Sorry, I didn´t have any plans, just made it up as I go.

[@GuitarraLisboa1977]

that was very nice

[@josephspringer4889]

we love to hear the equipment1 can the music! great job

[@sergiokiwon6688]

Amazing congratulations recommendations

[@wimmaenhoudt5963]

The smell at about 9:57 should be awesome :)

[@mikkosnellman]

It is, believe me :)

[@jackmatranga2539]

I'm inspired

[@dkruitz]

Very nice work! There doesn't appear to be anything holding the steel hooks in place. Was there a pin added but not shown?

[@mikkosnellman]

Yes, there is.

[@hankwiest8369]

This is incredible! I don't suppose there's anything in the way of blueprints to try and build this oneself, is there?

[@mikkosnellman]

Sorry, I used no blueprints, just made it up as I go.

[@hankwiest8369]

@@mikkosnellman I assumed, but you never know. Thanks again for the vid!

[@fredcoleman1765]

I've been looking into the knot tying lately, since I have more time on my hands, and I have found a lot of your videos. I must say, I am getting more inspired to make thing (tools and such) because of watching you, Thank you! first and foremost, for putting this out there for others to be inspired, but I do need to ask this... when you inserted the hook into the gear... I saw no shear pin or shaft key... Is it just friction that turns the hook? and if so.. wouldn't that wear with time? Thanks again!

[@mikkosnellman]

My camera died at that point, sorry. There is a piece of flat steel bar welded to shafts and riveted through gears.

[@fredcoleman1765]

@@mikkosnellman Thanks, that makes more sense, I guess I had to think of how it was made back in the day and not with the techniques of today. I will be contacting you soon about some of your cordage, once I learn a little more!

[@andregranum7896]

Hi Mikko, very impressive! Here´s a link to a docu-short from Oslo, showing an older, simpler type of ropemaking machine without gears. I´m sure you know the type. The film is grainy, but it shows both spinning the fibre and making it up into rope. Sad film really, as it was a last-minute documentation effort on the very day the old guys emptied out their shop. The equipment got sent to the same museum that made the film. The machine in question is shown in almost complete facsimile in the French "Encyclopedie" from the Enlightenment, 1750s to 1790s. But machines like that were used long before, of course. BTW, I plant my own flax for sewing thread for leatherwork. Your channel is very inspiring, I added a subscription. Thanks, André (P:S. I only wrote in English because someone else might like to know what I was saying)

[@mikkosnellman]

Thanks André. Good you write in English, my Norwegian is a bit rusty :) Did you forget the link to the film? It would be interesting to see.

[@andregranum7896]

@@mikkosnellman Yes, I certainly did forget- here it is: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j3PQqqiwramsic0

[@reginaromsey]

Needs voiceover telling why they made the choices they did!

[@mikkosnellman]

Thank you for the feedback, I'll have to try if it's possible do voiceover afterwards.

[@user-yb9ct6hv3q]

WAY COOL

[@davidmcbride3843]

Rope from start to finish. History is so interesting and thank you for the video. Does anyone know the wage for rope makers of 17th century or before that? I can't find anything on wages for rope makers on KZbin or Google.

[@mikkosnellman]

1665 master ropemaker had a salary of £44 In 1780 a master ropemaker had a salary of £100

[@davidmcbride3843]

@@mikkosnellman Thankyou so much. Information like that is valuable. When doing research on this it hard to find anything on Google or KZbin. Wikipedia has an agenda and has many mistakes they won't correct, even when freinds of mine approach Wikipedia about correcting them they refused. Has a result, today academics will laugh at you if you are writing a paper and quote Wikipedia has source of information. But what you have given me is gold. Thank you ✨🙏✨

[@mikkosnellman]

@@davidmcbride3843 I use Google Books as source for historical material.

[@nssdesigns]

...just need to work out the ratio of the 3 small wheels with 9 dowels to the ratio of the large wheel... I'll draw this in a 3D application first I think as it's my day job tool...

[@user-wg6fe5uj8r]

Is it better to crank the travel side while it’s traveling or to let it spin free?

[@mikkosnellman]

With small size ropes it makes no big difference.

[@user-wg6fe5uj8r]

@@mikkosnellman thanks! What about for long ropes like 100ft?

[@mikkosnellman]

@@user-wg6fe5uj8r Works fine for me with free spinning swivel hook.

[@user-ih4gt8kv8u]

good

[@gordondeitz7838]

How did you determine the gear diameters for you gear train?

[@mikkosnellman]

Trial and error with paper template.

[@thomaswilkinson2995]

Do you use this to make your hard laid cord?

[@loveengelbrecht2814]

Hur lång är diametern på det stora kugghjulet?

[@mikkosnellman]

Siisådär 40 cm.

[@jackparry9485]

What’s the diameter of the hooks? And length? I am attempting to make a four strand contraption, and am curious.

[@mikkosnellman]

The measurements are not at all precise or important.

[@jackparry9485]

@@mikkosnellman haha thanks. Any tips?

[@mikkosnellman]

@@jackparry9485 I have made several ropemakers and not two are alike. Hooks I make usually from 6 - 10mm material to a long taper that sticks out 30-80mm

[@jackparry9485]

@@mikkosnellman Thanks!

[@jjjvclub]

Very Nice! Thanks! Do you sell those Finn Fids?

[@mikkosnellman]

Only to order at the moment. www.snellman.ax

[@beatamafulu2405]

@@mikkosnellman, I will buy from you. But do you offer workshops? I will like to learn that skill and teach it to people in Congo. Great craftsmanship. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@mikkosnellman]

@@beatamafulu2405 Thank you. I will start with workshops again when COVID situation allows it.

[@beatamafulu2405]

@@mikkosnellman , I will definitely register as soon as you re open. Thank you. God bless your hands.

[@jetegtmeier71]

I missed it ... how did you lock the iron hooks to the small wooden gears ?

[@mikkosnellman]

Sorry, I welded a piece of flat iron to shaft and riveted through gears.

[@nssdesigns]

Is this the third or fourth time I'm watching this.... love to give this a go... next life I guess... this one is too full.

[@mikkosnellman]

It´s all question of prioritizing :)

[@nssdesigns]

Too right about that... I just get excited about everything craft related... the less time spent in from of a computer the better, if it was left to me... P.S. next up becket kit... that's for sure :-)

[@annarboriter]

I missed how the pinion gears are attached to the hooks

[@mikkosnellman]

The hook is welded to flat iron that is riveted through the gear.

[@annarboriter]

@@mikkosnellman Is there anywhere in the video where the iron is visible?

[@mikkosnellman]

@@annarboriter Not really, you may get a glimpse at 0 : 38 in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/g5iYm3Vjg8mZfas