George --
Are you asking about wax-impregnated rope and graphite-coated rope packings? The graphited-rope packing I've run into was waxed or greased before being graphited, and was pretty much the old-time standard for reciprocating water pumps. Ideally, the packing rope diameter was half the difference between the packing-box ID and the pump rod OD, and was installed as a stack of single-wrap split rings.
Cutting the rings was best done by wrapping several turns of the uncut rope packing around a wooden rod the same diameter as the pump rod, and then using a knife to cut down the length of the packing. Each packing ring is installed individually, turning each successive ring a half turn from the previous ring so that successive ring joints are 180 degrees apart.
A half-round "yarning" punch that slides freely into the space between the rod and packing box should be used to firmly seat each ring as it is installed. Once all of the packing rings are installed, the packing bonnet should be installed, but only finger tight. Run the pump a while, and then snug the bonnet a bit, repeating the run-and-snug incrementally until only a few drops a minute make it through the packing.
It should go without saying, but the area on the pump rod that the packing rides on really wants to be a smooth cylinder.
John
Edited to add a link that, while obviously written with an eye on a rotary pump, provides good guidance:
http://www.batescrew.com/faq/glands/index.html