Toy Collection #10

It has been awhile since I wrote a toy collection report. I was doing them pretty regularly for some months, and then I guess I got distracted. It wasn't like I'd run out of toys to talk about -- not even close. Anyway, maybe it's time to return to "our regularly scheduled programming."

Floggers. I think, that when I got started into exploring BDSM, and before I really knew anything much at all, the whole idea of floggers was perhaps one of the scarier things on the horizon. What I thought I knew about floggers came from historical accounts of slavery in the United States, and accounts of maritime justice, and it was pretty intimidating. In my mind, flogging was about blood and torn flesh and horrible shame and extremely harsh punishment. It was not something that I was inclined, in those days, to see as erotic.

So, in a sense, it seems odd that one of the very first things that we explored together, at that very first face to face meeting at Ohio Leather Fest, was floggers. I learned, then, that a flogger was simply a short whip with a number of tails or falls, and that the intensity that might be experienced during a flogging was widely variable depending on both the construction of the flogger, and the intent and skill of the Top.

Today, in our collection there are a variety of these short whips. This post will deal with the ones that are simple, straightforward, leather floggers. Master likes to do two-handed flogging. That isn't the very elaborate, and showy, florentine style that some employ, but a much more prosaic style that lands a rapid fire volley of strikes. Two-handed flogging is more intense for the bottom, and more physically demanding for the Top. In order to accomodate that prefrerence, we have two matched sets of floggers; a pair of suede floggers, and a pair of buffalo hide floggers. We also have a single flogger made from the very stiff and very intense leather known as latigo. All five were purchased from DeTails Toys, and are lovely pieces of leather worksmanship.

Floggers can be manufactured from almost anything, and we have some rubber floggers that I'll get to in another post. I've seen people make floggers from a wide variety of materials -- everything from boot laces to licorice whips. I've experienced some very sensuous floggers: deerskin floggers -- very light and soft; and elkhide floggers -- heavier than deer, but incredibly soft and sensuous with the most overwhelmingly lovely leather scent. Those went away with the former husband, but I imagine that even if we'd kept them, Himself would find very little reason to use them. They are the quintessential "service top" implements, and hardly the sort of thing that a sadist would get excited about.

The lightest floggers in our collection are suede. Suede floggers are great scene toys. They make an impressive slapping sound when they land, and a bottom with a flair for the dramatic can make an uninitiated observer believe that she is being hideously beaten. I find suede floggers abrasive, and sometimes "sharp" at the edges and tips of the falls. Depending on the condition of my skin, those sharp places can leave me with a sort of very mottled buising. They have very little in the way of sting, and are generally light weight enough that the thud is more like an intense and choppy sort of massage. Like most floggers with fairly wide, flat falls, suede floggers can whip up a significant breeze, and I often have to concentrate to avoid becoming obsessed by the wind tunnel effect.

Personally, I like buffalo-hide floggers. Buffalo has a weight that is impressive, but the leather itself is soft and supple without any of the roughness that suede has. It is possible to create some sting with buffalo, but the predominant sensation is going to be thud. Buffalo lands heavy. The other thing about buffalo, is that it has a unique, pebbled sort of surface texture. It isn't rough, but that texture seems to allow it to channel the airflow in such a way that the falls land flat against the surface. I never notice the edges with buffalo floggers. Unfortunately, swinging a pair of buffalo floggers is heavy work, and most Tops are easily worn out by the sheer effort that it takes to use these implements.

Last, in our group of DeTails leather floggers, is the Latigo flogger. Latigo is a very heavily tanned cowhide that delivers a very intense sting with very little effort. Most often, latigo is used for the cinch on a saddle. It is stiff and hard, and when used in a flogger, it creates an outrageous cutting sort of sting and burn. Latigo can be pretty brutal -- a very high-end toy.

Our floggers don't come out very often these days. They take a lot of work and physical stamina. Of course, right now, while we are all wrapped up in our OTK phase, floggers are just not a practical choice. Still, sometimes, there is a flogging that happens, and that encounter with leather is almost always something that I appreciate.

swan