The Forum - Vol. 196 - Tools of the Trade

If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.  - Abraham Maslow

Hello all. Welcome back to The Forum - Disciplined Husbands & Disciplinary Wives.  Our weekly gathering of men and women who are in, or interested in being in, Domestic Discipline or Female Led relationships.

Well, we've had some fairly heavy conversations lately.  I hope I didn't burn a bunch of people out, or finally offend them to their core, but it's a bad sign when even stalwarts like Anna and Peter don't comment.  So, I'll lighten it up a little this week and go in a more practical direction.  We've done it before, but we have a lot of new folks visiting each week and, as Darren has repeatedly said, some of the couples who are newer to the Domestic Discipline lifestyle can't get enough practical advice.

So, this week, let's talk about tools.  Implements.  Those things She uses to blister our bottoms.  We've talked before about things like "most feared," but let's each talk about those implements we each get spanked, strapped, paddled, etc. with most often, and the "advantages" and "disadvantages" of each from the perspective of getting her point across.  Here are tools my wife and I have used, and my succinct thoughts on each category:

• Hairbrush: Iconic, but basically worthless. 
• Bath brush: Totally different animal from a hairbrush.  Hurts like a mother&%$#@! 
• Wooden paddles:  Something for everyone.  Iconic and, unlike a hairbrush, can hurt like hell.
• Belts: Can be effective, but she has to swing really, really hard.
• Leather straps: Generally much more painful than a belt, ranging from mild to OMG!
• Loopy Johnny:  Stings pretty damn badly.  Leaves welts like a cane.
• Rubber straps: If these don't get your attention, nothing will.
• Cane: Has never worked well for us, but I'm not sure why.

It's interesting how with some of these implements, seemingly slight changes in weight or length can make a huge difference.  Same with quality.  Like with good tools in any trade, you get what you pay for.  Looking at them in a little more depth:

Brushes

Many of us probably came to DD, or were first attracted to it, when we read stories or saw drawings depicting OTK spankings with a determined woman whaling away with a wooden hairbrush.  The thing is, all those scary drawings and stories notwithstanding, it just isn't a very effective instrument.  Most women would need Amazon-like strength and stamina to make any real impression on any but the most pain-adverse misbehaving husband.

Now, one can buy real paddles in the approximate size and shape of a hairbrush.  If made from thick, heavy wood, they can be quite painful. And easy to fit in a purse those impromptu "corrections" when out on the town.

And then there is . . . the dreaded bathbrush.  I would be going weak in the knees knowing a determined and pissed off wife was walking up the stair with that in hand.

Compared to the hairbrush, it is just a different animal altogether, capable of delivering a truly painful, butt blistering experience.

Paddles

Then there is the instrument that haunts many a former schoolboy or fratboy's nightmares -- the wooden paddle.  They too come in all shapes and sizes.  From small "spankers" good for OTK action and for concentrating on one cheek:

To the more fearsome "Board of Education" or "fraternity" style paddles:

After ten-plus years in this lifestyle, I'm still learning things about paddles.  I used to assume that big, heavy paddles hurt the most.  Not true.  Recently, I decided to sink some money into a couple of really nice custom paddles.  The person I ordered them from asked me right away whether it would be used by a man or a woman, because some women just can't swing a really heavy paddle with a lot of force.  It was better to go with something a little smaller (14 - 15"), not extremely thick, but made of a very hard wood.  I can testify from very painful experience, that was very wise advice.  The newer ones we are now using are much, much more painful than some of the larger paddles made from lighter (and cheaper) wood, such as ash.  One caveat with paddles -- I think they tend to be better used at the end of a long session, not at the beginning, because they can make me go numb after a while, thereby defeating the purpose of a hard disciplinary spanking.  Also, as for leather paddles -- totally worthless for anything but mild "funishment" scenes.

Leather Straps

Like paddles, leather straps come in all shapes and sizes.  For couples new to disciplinary spankings, by all means, start with a leather belt, but I think many couples graduate beyond them fairly quickly.  I realize they can be effective in some positions (face down on a bed, with a very vigorous downward swing) but many are too light, and she has to deliver a really serious swing even with heavier belts in order for it to have much real impact.

Real leather punishment straps are entirely different.  They are usually made from thick "harness" leather -- much heaver and more rigid.  The one my wife uses on me most often is similar to the 6th from the left in the picture above.  While not as "off the charts" painful as some of her other instruments, it definitely can get the job done when swung with purpose.  We did, by the way, try something like that big boy in the middle -- the long one with holes.  It's called a "prison strap."  While it is the centerpiece of one of my strongest spanking memories (early on in our DD relationship, she called me at work and ordered me to come home at lunch for a strapping, then sent me back to work to sit the rest of the afternoon on a very sore bottom), it was just too long and clumsy to handle safely and effectively.

Then there is this nasty little variant on a strap.  For those unfamiliar, it is called a "loopy johnny." They come in different varieties, including single and multiple loops and different materials.  It may not look that threatening, but it delivers the proverbial "sting like a hornets nest." Definitely not for the faint of heart.

 

Which brings us to . . . rubber straps.  I said last week that we had acquired some tools that left me truly dreading her spanking sessions.  A large rubber strap like the one on the left is what I was talking about.  It is just extraordinarily painful, and oddly unlike any leather strap.  The pain penetrates and radiates more than any leather strap, and it's far denser and less pliable.  It's like a very nasty cross between the flexible "sting" of a strap and the unforgiving "thud" of a thick paddle -- really the worst of both worlds. Worse yet, I find that it does not numb the bottom nearly as quickly as a wooden paddle.  If there is one tool I wish I had never bought for her, that one is it.  The one on the right is in some ways even nastier.  It has more sting and less thud, kind of like (I imagine) a really serious caning, but she largely stopped using it because it its small width had a tendency to break the skin.

Now, as I've discussed before, we have largely given up on that other most iconic punishment instrument, the cane.  While it may the bane of every English schoolboy, for some reason my wife just has not been able to figure out how to use one in a way that really hurts very much.  We're still not sure whether it is some deficiency in the canes we have tried, or some issue with her stance, swing, follow-through, etc.

Well, there is my overly long discourse on some tool options.  How do you rate those you have tried?  Are there some that are especially good at helping make her point?  Others that she shouldn't waste her time and energy?

As always, if you are new to this Forum, please go to the Guestbook (tab above) and tell us a little about your DD or FLR lifestyle or aspirations.

I hope you have a great week.