THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 13, 1994 TAG: 9407130035
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LAWRENCE MADDRY
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
AS FAR BACK as the latter part of the Stone Age, Neolithic men and women weaved ropes and devised simple basic knots. The square knot that is used to connect rope ends goes so far back that the ancient Greeks believed Hercules had invented it and named it the ``knot of Hercules'' in his honor.
Indians in the Americas were making rope for centuries before the whites arrived. And pioneer women weaved flax fiber on their spinning wheels to make ropes.
Then came Mike Keller, the owner of The Rope Shop in Manteo, N.C., who is the largest supplier of fishing ropes in the Southeastern United States. If you have a crab pot in the water, chances are 1 in 3 the line on it came through The Rope Shop.
``We sell three million feet of crab pot line a year,'' Keller said.
So how did a fellow from the Outer Banks of North Carolina get into the rope business? Fishing? Crabbing? Maybe needing some rope for mountain climbing in the Blue Ridge?
Nah. It began with one of his wife's planters. The East Carolina University graduate was helping his wife sell planters back in the early 1970s. She filled aquariums with plants and artwork and sold them to folks.
``Then she decided to make hanging terrariums for walls and ceilings. Naturally you need rope for that,'' said Keller, who began buying rope for the planters and a few years later was selling rope for a rope company in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.
The Manteo, N.C., native then decided to become his own boss. He already knew a lot of rope customers, so he set up a rope shop in his mother's garage at Kitty Hawk.
The garage outlet grew into what is now a business that grosses $2 million a year out of a 7,000-square-foot building in Manteo. It specializes in rope and commercial fishing supplies. Although rope is the knotted backbone of his unusual business, sales of marine and fishing supplies are increasing. Mike Keller Ltd. Commercial Fishing Supplies now has its own catalog. Customers range from Brownsville, Texas, to Bangor, Maine.
That's not bad for a fellow who concedes he can neither splice a rope nor mend a net. ``I'd like to learn someday, but right now I'm too busy,'' he said.
To his credit, Keller has designed a crab pot latching device similar to the one at the end of a dog leash that is made of plastic. He sells a half million a year.
But The Rope Shop in Manteo has customers that want ropes for everything. Keller's most unusual request was for several 2-foot-long monofilament ropes that a rope dealer near Gaffney, S.C., said were being sold to a customer who staked out fighting hens.
``But it isn't unusual for a crabber to come in and order over 2,000 feet of rope, which he wants to cut into crab pot lines,'' Keller said.
This summer he's running a special on rope hammocks for $45 each. And, of course, he sells monofilament netting. The rope yardage adds up. He sells more than 800,000 pounds of rope a year.
And his fishing equipment ranges from foul-weather gear and ornamental fish pins to a 345-pound cable reel capable of reeling in 20 miles of fishing line.
If you're thinking about a turn-of-the-century rope shop with the odor of golden hemp rope - which has the slightly sweet and pungent odor of mild tobacco - filling the air, forget it. And don't expect to find much twisted manila rope either. Today's marine rope user prefers nylon or synthetic polymers such as polypropolene because of their higher strength and lighter weight.
The Rope Shop stocks nylon, dacron, polypropolene, polyethelene, dacron and even spectra (a lightweight high-tech rope). Some of the rope is twisted, some braided. A lot of the rope floats. And some has lead in it for weight when setting fish nets. And there are big reels of shock cord.
``We sell a lot decorative rope, too,'' Keller said. ``Dacron mostly, to folks who want to trim a sign in their yard or wrap it around a piling or simply use it to rope off a swimming pool.''
``Every rope shop should have a cat, and we've got one that has the run of the place,'' Keller said, pointing to a cat named Toonces that had jumped up on a nearby table and flopped for a nap.
I guess you don't sell 800,000 pounds of rope a year by sitting still. Toonces was the only one of five employees who didn't seem busy. by CNB