Review Thursday: DIY Rope Flogger

A while ago my girl found some online directions for making rope floggers.  Cool stuff actually, it wasn't a material I would have expected to use for that.  Since I have my own love of rope this seemed double great for me.

We went to Totem and spent about $20 on supplies.  Finding the rope wasn't any trouble (braided cotton), but it took forever to finally locate the solid rings that had been recommended.  We ended up finding them and probably bought ones that are a bit too large, but it was better to have too big rather than too small.  I think everything was less than $20, so definitely a good deal.

Put together they actually looked pretty cool.  I know I expressed my reservations about the knotted ends when I saw them, since I'm the one that actually throws the flogger I know how it ends up landing.  Much of the 'thwack' comes from the ends, especially when you're working high on the back near the shoulders, or on the bottom directly from behind.  She assured me that this was how the directions had explained things.

Well the other day I decided that a good flogging was in order - I'm sure you know how that goes, sometimes you are just in the mood for it.  Since these new rope floggers are all we currently have it was time to break them in.

I decided to start with the heavier rope, the lighter looked like it would be stingier and better for use later on.  I'd practiced a bit with these so I knew what to expect throwing them.  I landed a few (what I considered) light blows and she was already yelling.  I could tell from the sound that the knots were landing quite harshly on her skin.  This wasn't really the kind of sensation I wanted to start off with.

I continued working with it, giving liberal breaks.  Her skin started to redden in small little dotted patches, which really proved what was causing the impact on her skin.  During this first process she was quite wiggly and I could tell it wasn't all 'fun' for her.  Finally when I had properly leathered her skin she seemed to relax and enjoy it.  At that point I assume the sensation must have changed to something more comfortable and the 'thuddy' impact was more enjoyable.

I also found a good use for the tufted ends of the rope flogger, they'd frayed to a point where they felt like small cotton balls, which made her shiver nicely when I worked them across her red skin.

I tried to 'spank' her with the flogger as well, but it wasn't well suited for that.  The tips are too heavy with the knots to snap properly.  Using it across her bottom worked but again the knots landed more solidly, so to get an even sensation I would have to keep changing sides I was beating her from.

I broke out the smaller flogger about half way through.  It was more easily controlled, but even light strokes with it caused her to jump and cry out.  I didn't try to push it too far since she'd had a hard enough time warming up to begin with.  I'll break it out again for a full try another day when I have something else to warm her up with.

During the use I found that it performed well.  It flew and stayed together until it landed and splayed.  I managed to get a good rhythm going in multiple permutations.  Having the rings at the end was actually a nice benefit for some situations.

I'm not sure how the handles were created exactly but the woven grips worked wonderfully to keep it from slipping.  It was also solid enough to give me the control I needed to properly throw it.  Overall it was a fantastic project, and I'm quite happy that she found it and took the initiative.

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Review Thurday: The Rope Flogger

A few months back, I found directions online for constructing rope floggers.  They were pretty simple, really; Buy a ring and a length of rope, cut the rope into 5-foot sections, double it over through the rings, knot the ends and wrap a twine handle round the top.

Cotton on top, Cotton-poly blend on the bottom.

I can do that, I thought.  It was off to Totem I went, to procure a couple of different types of rope.  I chose a thinner, tightly woven cotton and a thicker, "meatier" poly-cotton blend.  The rings were a bit more trouble to find.  I couldn't imagine where they'd be located, but they were in the section of little drawers that have all the different types of nuts and bolts.  They come in a multitude of sizes, and I think I went a little bit too generous on the sizes, but I wasn't sure exactly how tightly the rope would compress within the rings, this being my first time making them, so decided safe was better than sorry.

All in all, the supplies for both floggers cost me well under $20, including the twine I already had at home from previous projects.  Inexpensive, and they didn't take too much time to complete either.  The handles were created by tying overhand knots snugly around the outer perimeter of rope, the ends woven inside.  While I cut the smaller rope into four foot lengths, I cut the thicker into five feet lengths (thus the differences in the sizes of the floggers.

As to the actual use of the floggers, let me just say first that the knots have a lot of power.  Because of the intensity they create, these are absolutely not warm-up floggers.  Yowch.  Though the Masterly one seemed delighted in telling me how polka-dotted I became, the sensations were a little too intense at the beginning.  And when the knots wrap up over the top of a shoulder or around the side of a waist/hip region.... well holy crap.  It hurts like hell.

The intensity at the beginning made it pretty hard to relax, and I had to concentrate on my breathing and my muscle control (not easy when every inch of you is trying to reflexively react to what is physically going on) just to manage to stay in place.  It seemed as though I could feel each individual knot as it landed, which was really unnerving.  It took some time for the "leathering" of the skin to take place, at which point the sensations really shifted.

Instead of intense pain from the knots, it became an overall, thuddy and heavy sensation.  Ahhh, that was much better.  I could feel the tension and jumpiness dissipate as I relaxed into the sensations.  It actually became really, really nice after a while, and I started to revel in it, as I usually do with a flogging.

As for aftermath, there was quite a bit of soreness that evening, and some pretty little dotted bruises which bloomed to life in the morning.  I was pretty achey and stingy the next day too, which is one of the best things about a flogging in my opinion.  As time went on, I had started to crave harder and more serious blows, which I'm guessing would have left some pretty serious marks with those knots, so just a word to the wise on that one; this is not a non-marking play toy.

I think in the future, with a different flogger used for warm-up, this will become a fun and useful toy.  The heaviness of the knots, though, mean you need to already have some blood rushing to the skin surface and those lovely endorphins flowing before they land.  If you are interested in trying one out, it's worth the cheap investment and little bit of time it takes to create one.

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