Feline Design has been a brand trusted by our many dealers
and loyal retail customers, constructing quality cat furniture and scratching
products since 1986. This is our bread and butter, and our primary activity
day in and day out. Before you embark on your project, we'd like you
to consider letting us make one of our great cat scratchers/condos for
your cherished feline companion. Our basic sisal scratching posts are
currently on sale starting at $19.99, and we encourage
you to at least check out this option. The advantages of having us do
this work for you are many, but perhaps the most significant one is
the valuable time you will save. How much is your free time worth? And
what could you do with that precious time that could be gained by investing
in our professionally made product as opposed to doing this work yourself?
We began selling bulk sisal rope as a service to those who are determined
to make their own cat furniture. We often have a portion of our rope
inventory that can be sold to the do-it-yourself-er. It's evident
that most other rope suppliers either don't actually sell the type
of rope needed for this application, or they really aren't tuned into
you as a cat lover. So when we have more than an ample supply of our
rope to meet the needs of our production, we're happy to offer it
here.
This is Genuine sisal rope, a product we have used for
well over 25 years (yes, you read that right). It has a rough
finish which cats prefer scratching, as evidenced by our loyal
return customers, and repeat business from our dealers throughout
many years. The diameter of this rope (3/8") is 50% thicker
than the leading popular imported brand of cat furniture uses
(1/4"). As a result, your cat gets more scratching per post,
and you do not need to replace your cat scratchers so frequently.
You can now buy the same rope we use on our products.
How much rope do I need
(a serious factor which needs to be addressed)?
Over my many years of sharing my sisal rope supply with
the "do-it-yourself crowd," questions about individual project
requirements usually haven't been answered to the asker's satisfaction.
This is primarily due to the wide variety of sizes of posts/columns/shapes
being wrapped. It would be great to hear from another gifted cat owner
to let the others know about what size rope length to purchase. If
you are this genius, please
click here to share your genius with the rest of us.
You are likely to find several web sites with what look
to be perfectly logical and completely flawless mathematical models
of how to arrive at this figure. Valerie's ( one of my geniuses )
formula considers some factors which these others do not. The factors
are not likely to be discussed at length in your old, dusty geometry
textbook. So with all due respect to Mrs. Miller, my H.S. geometry
teacher ( who told the class that I was "on the road to ruin"
one time! heh, heh, heh.....are we THERE yet?), I know this from doing
it, and your formula won't work in this instance, Mrs. M.
Fact is, I've taken the time to prove this in my own
shop, using several widths and lengths of columns, and so I feel confident
in offering this particular equation for someone who wants to do the
job right the first time.
I know that there are some of you out there saying to
your computer screen, "Math is math. You can't argue with math."
Let me just ask you one question: "Is a 2x4 board EXACTLY 2 by
4 inches?" Well, for those who don't know, it isn't. In fact,
it's not. The geometry of your project isn't exact, either. But you
can account for some variations by taking some practical measures,
rather than theoretical ones.
Thanks to Valerie, I am able to provide you with one
possible way of arriving at the footage needed for your project. You'll
see a "footage kit." shown below as a purchase option. This
kit contains a 5' length of our sisal rope, as well as instructions
on how to apply Valerie's calculation to your project. This length
of rope is plenty to make such a determination for most common sized
columns, posts, and tubes from the smallest tube on up to 16"
& even a bit wider. The formula that will be provided is most
applicable to ROUND structures, but you can use the rope provided
to estimate what you'll need to wrap 2x4's, 4x4's, etc... This purchase
is non-refundable, but its $15 cost of this is fully applicable to
your future purchase of a larger quantity of this same exact rope.
The kit will be shipped within 24 hours of your payment, since we
are mindful that this is only step one of getting your rope.
Where is this rope from?
In recent years, most likely due to their shaky economy,
Brazil has been an unreliable supplier of sisal rope. We switched
to a Mexican rope, which actually did meet all of our quality standards.
So we had used this Mexican rope for two years or so, & might
need to return to it at some point. The 2 ropes are virtually indistinguishable
from each other.
As of October, 2014, we secured a reasonably predictable supply of
the Brazilian rope once again, and it is even better quality than
our previous one in terms of appearance, texture, and lack of any
industrial smell. It's a very nice rope which will look great on our
cat furniture, and will hold up well under heavy scratching. So we're
confident in offering this newer Brazilian rope to you.
Thinking about buying
this rope at a HARDWARE store?
Buying from a home center or hardware store can
be a disappointment. There are plenty of sources offering 50
and 100 foot coils of sisal rope. They can be from pretty much any
country, and also can be pretty much as old as your grandchild
on up to your grandpa. These coils have been produced in
huge batches and shuffled around from warehouse to warehouse, possibly
for decades. When you cut into the shrink wrap on these, be
careful not to cut the rope, which may be so dry as to be brittle.
Our rope is always in the pipeline. We are always using
it for our own production, and so you can rely on it being FRESH.
How our rope is packaged:
The largest size (1200 ft.) is coiled, banded, &
sealed in a carton at the rope mill. Sometimes the coils are packaged
upside down in the carton - not by us, but by the boneheads
at the mill. If your rope from these coils kinks as you draw it
from the original opening, just flip the box & cut a similar
hole. This will avoid kinking.
Our 732 length is broken out of a 1200 ft. coil
(which has had 468 ft. removed from it). So, it will be unbanded
until further notice. It will still be in a relatively compact coil,
and will draw from the box in much the same way.
The 150, 200, 375, 500, & 732 foot lengths are
always taken from a larger coil, and are therefore shipped loose
and not in a coil, sklein, spool, etc. However, every effort
is made to place the rope in the carton so it can be dispensed easily,
and the rope end is clearly marked and easily located. Typically,
we tape the rope end inside one of the box flaps.
Please note that rope
which has been broken out of its coil is not returnable for any reason.
We do not take returns on rope which has been
broken out of the coil under any circumstances, unless we've just
shipped you the wrong length (i.e. you ordered 500 ft. & we sent
350). You can send back coils that you decide that you do not want,
but you will pay shipping. We've taken great care to describe this
rope as thoroughly as is practical, and are not making any other claims
about this rope (implicitly or explicity) other than what you are
reading here. The shipping timeframes on
our rope are also laid out and explained for the buyer, & may
change from time to time. Our personal confirmation of your rope order
will confirm how long it will take for us to ship your rope.
Other Tools for the DIY-er
Feline Design makes wrapped sisal rope columns for
you folks who want the most tightly wrapped and carefully
secured components for your cat tree project. If you use our columns,
we can handle the business end of the design, and you can focus
on the aesthetics! Each unit comes complete with hardware.
From this page, you'll also be able to access information
on our replacement parts & other components.
CLICK HERE FOR PRE-WRAPPED POST DETAILS
