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Care and Feeding of Floggers and Whips - 7/17/2006 7:30:17 AM   
Elegant


Posts: 1024
Joined: 3/15/2005
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In another post someone wrote:
quote:

  As I have learned:

Conditioning leather is good when: you apply to whips and the handles of floggers

Conditioning/leather is bad when: you apply it to the tails of floggers

Cleaning floggers: if you want to refresh a flogger from time to time you may dry clean it without fear of damaging

Disinfecting leather is bad. It is harsh and unnecessary.There is an article floating around about the inability to pass pathogens from leather to people once the item has been properly stored a few days.

Horsehair: the critical element is keeping it combed after each use. you may get crazy and use salon conditioner or mane and tail or you can use dish soap and warm water the times you use it. it's preference and neither will hurt it.


I provide the following information as a toymaker, bootblack and leathercare (vanilla and kinky) professional.
 
TOPGRAIN FLOGGERS
Cleaning
Keep all toys clean and in good condition. Wipe topgrain floggers with a soft, barely damp cloth after each use. Handle and tails can be cleaned a few times a year with a quality saddle soap used sparingly. A quality leather conditioner (such as Feibings Aussie Leather Conditioner or Pecards) should be used sparingly as needed. Need is dependant on aftercare, storage, climate and amny other factors. When conditioning the tails only apply conditioner sparingly on the smooth, top grain side, not the suede like side.
 
Dr. Charles Moser, a nation’s leading authorities on sexuality-related medicine recommends hanging up floggers in a ventilated place for a week after use. HIV and Hep C viruses, cannot live outside the body in the air.

 
Storage
Leather is porous and needs to breathe. Floggers are best stored hanging. Use a cotton covering if possible (pillowcase or specially made flogger storage bag). You should store your leather in an airy, dry area that is not too hot or cold and certainly not damp. Do not store in direct contact with the flow of heating vents or near heating units and avoid direct sunlight as this will dry and fade leather. Avoid storing any leather items in plastic bags, plastic containers, tight drawers, car trunks, bathrooms or packed jumbled into a toybag or toybox.
 
SUEDE FLOGGERS
Suede really isn't very cleanable. It is too porous and generally you end up having to rub and scrape off the soiled surface of a suede to clean or remove stains (Almost like sanding it off a piece of wood). We tend to advise against suede because of this. The thing many people don't realize is that suede will last only about 1/4 as long as a topgrain leather toy of the same type. So in the long run buying a topgrain flogger is more economical, even if the initial cost is twice that of a suede one.
 
Cleaning
Keep leather toys item clean and in good condition. Let your suede flogger air dry after use, as moisture cannot be removed with a cloth.  A special suede brush or suede stone will bring back the nap of the suede and might remove some dirt. Do not use cleaners, conditioners or scotch guard on suede.

 
DRYCLEANING LEATHER
The solvents used in 'dry cleaning' will damage the structure of leather. Many dry cleaners do offer 'leather cleaning' but send off these leather items to a speciality leather cleaning professional.
 
WHIPS
Use a soft cotton cloth to buff the whip after each use. Clean a few times a year with quality saddle soap. Sand and grit are a whip's enemy so pay special attention to cleaning and brushing out granules.
 
Use a quality conditioning dressing such as Aussie Leather Conditioner or Pecards or The Whip Man's Beeswax Dressing. Avoid neatsfoot oil as this will break down the fibers in the leather. Care must be taken that you do not over consition your whips. The best and most active whip enthusiasts usually fully condition their whips no more than every six months, with light exterior coatings in between.
 
Do not condition a whip to break it in. A whip must be used to get it 'broken in' and get the proper memory signature.
 
As with floggers, use conditioner on the handle sparingly! Conditioner will cause some loosening of the leather and overuse on the handles can cause the leather to twist, stretch and slide off the base material.
 
Use a cracker only on one person!

_____________________________

Elegant
~Slave To Master Archer

http://www.FantasiesInLeather.com
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RE: Care and Feeding of Floggers and Whips - 7/18/2006 3:47:16 PM   
MasterCurios


Posts: 156
Joined: 4/4/2006
Status: offline
thank you for the information you posted,i have been told for years to use needsfoot to care for my floggers so will in the future will head what i have learned

                    Master Curios

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may the pain be with you

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RE: Care and Feeding of Floggers and Whips - 9/9/2006 6:27:41 PM   
BD123


Posts: 201
Joined: 8/12/2006
Status: offline
Very informative...thanks

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RE: Care and Feeding of Floggers and Whips - 6/22/2008 7:28:01 AM   
SirDragon1961


Posts: 31
Joined: 2/14/2008
Status: offline
He dips, yes very informative

(in reply to BD123)
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RE: Care and Feeding of Floggers and Whips - 6/22/2008 1:26:00 PM   
BootBlackBlast


Posts: 378
Joined: 10/23/2006
Status: offline
Thank you Elegant again for sharing your wealth of knowledge with the rest of us. I cringe everytime I see someone spray their flogger and whips with Matricide.

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Leather Rubbin and Dubbin

Bootblack Blast
Mama's Blast

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RE: Care and Feeding of Floggers and Whips - 7/1/2008 8:00:33 AM   
MsStarlett


Posts: 1879
Joined: 12/23/2007
Status: offline
I just learned a good lesson on the 'care and feeding' of the flogger hand!  If your handle is NOT wrapped in leather, wear GLOVES!   My new floggers are just wooden handles which look great, but left my fingers bruised.  Maybe I shouldn't hit the boy quite so hard?

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii172/MsStarlett/Fingers.jpg

_____________________________

It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed,
the hands acquire shakes, the shakes become a warning,
It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.

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RE: Care and Feeding of Floggers and Whips - 7/1/2008 6:07:04 PM   
SNoB


Posts: 145
Joined: 2/26/2008
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: MsStarlett

I just learned a good lesson on the 'care and feeding' of the flogger hand!  If your handle is NOT wrapped in leather, wear GLOVES!   My new floggers are just wooden handles which look great, but left my fingers bruised.  Maybe I shouldn't hit the boy quite so hard?

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii172/MsStarlett/Fingers.jpg


Maybe you should change your technique so you arent working so hard.

(in reply to MsStarlett)
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RE: Care and Feeding of Floggers and Whips - 7/1/2008 7:27:08 PM   
Leatherist


Posts: 5149
Joined: 12/11/2007
Status: offline
A well balanced flogger should flow as an extension of your arm.  Unless you are throw five pounds or more of leather-it should not tire you out or strain your joints. The biggest problem with poorly crafted pieces is that there is much more weight in front of the wrist than behind it. This gives a "dead" feeling to the toy. Putting weight in the handle intself is absolutely useless. It just makes the unit heavier, with no mechanical advantage. Ideally-the counterwieght should balance the piece at the front of your hand-on the thumb side at the web. And the counterwieght be in the pommel,behind the joint of the wrist. You work less to throw the weight-it feels natural,and gives smooth, easy flow-spins and figure eights crisply-not with lag and resistance......and lets you put that extra weight in the FALLS.
 
 Where it belongs. I can always tell the work of an amatuer who does not understand the physics of impact play by how they balance-and where. And the work of a competent craftsman by how "alive" a toy feels when I pick it up.

_____________________________

My shop is currently segueing into production mode.

I'm not taking custom orders.

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RE: Care and Feeding of Floggers and Whips - 7/2/2008 7:17:40 AM   
MsStarlett


Posts: 1879
Joined: 12/23/2007
Status: offline
After this obviouse error, I have far more respect for the craftsmanship and artistry of a good whip/flogger maker.  I bruised my hands because I as using the floggers I personaly made a few weeks ago.  I am a TOTAL, admitted amatuer at such things. 

I got excited about the Video posted in another thread about the Reverse Florentine technique, had a session planed and no time or money to get a good pair of matching floggers in time.  I decided I could just make a pair!  As a costumer, I was more conserned about the asthetics of the project and had no concept of what this would do.  I knew the balance was 'wrong' but was to stubborn and over confident in my ability to compensate for it. 

WRONG ANSWER!  I learned a new lesson.  Appreciate the quality of my more expencive flogger and invest in a properly made pair if I want to go Florentine. 

_____________________________

It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed,
the hands acquire shakes, the shakes become a warning,
It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.

(in reply to Leatherist)
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RE: Care and Feeding of Floggers and Whips - 7/2/2008 7:46:30 AM   
Leatherist


Posts: 5149
Joined: 12/11/2007
Status: offline
You do get what you pay for-and a clean design of good quality materials takes a great deal of time and effort to create. I'm currently working on machining and casting adjustable molds for making floggers. Each flogger tends to need to be balanced in concert with it's falls. Which means you need to carefully measure and adjust the counterwieghts according to how heavy they are-and the length of the handles.
 
 A friend brought me over a flogger she had bought online to look at a few weeks ago. I tried flipping it-and it was totally fall heavy. I realized that I could not even get it to spin properly in my hand-it was absolutely useless in any real manner or accuracy or throw.
 
 Not only could I not target with it properly-it would have torn up my wrist.
 
Remember folks-a flogger is more than some leather glued to a stick. A good one is dynamic.
 
 Just because it looks good in a picture-does not mean it is. Ask around for some refferences from people who OWN some of a craftsman's work. If they don't give any-that says a lot right there.

_____________________________

My shop is currently segueing into production mode.

I'm not taking custom orders.

(in reply to MsStarlett)
Profile   Post #: 10
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