Odd Questions for Leatherbeaten...

Hi Gary
thanks for the question - I like the image you create of our workspace, apart from the bears. I'm a bit bearophobic. Don't mind bars, though!

Most of the custom pieces we do, or have done, have been either refinements of things we already make, thus not tremendously exciting, or variations on existing themes, esp cbt and chastity devices. We do have one great older guy (84), who drops by every so often (five hour drive away) for a new tweak on his cbt gear. Also a very secretive man who calls us from Washington DC, talks for hours and doesn't like giving his name.

Long time ago, we made leather dildos which were. like, you know, er; and a pretty spectacular heavy hand sewn studded paddle with a shot loaded handle, that snapped like a whip. What else? Chain skirts, leather kilt, freaky looking leather bra, full body harness; one great little singletail (Hi Red!) and a couple of really huge, ugly badly performing ones.

I do have some pics, but they're not digital, so I'd have to dig them out, scan them in and figure out/be told how to upload them if you want to see them. We tended to do more arty type product shots back then...

Thanks, Red, that's very kind of you, and I have to say that I always appreciate what you have to say. You strike me as thoughtful, intelligent, adventurous, capable and fun. Great combination! Wanna start a mutual admiration society?

But tragically, we don't make singletails. We used to; just a very simple, little black snakewhip, 36", four lace, braided over a shotloaded leather core with a fall but no popper. They sold so well we had to stop making them, because we weren't able to charge what we needed to to make them viable as a wholesale item, and because they're pretty hard on the body. I really don't know how singletail makers survive. I suspect they must have a long series of unsuspecting apprentices coming through...

I'm somewhat ambivalent about singletails, though generally leaning away... I think you are dead right in thinking ahead before you get one, and I wouldn't say don't get one, because in the right hands (ie knowledgeable, well prepared hands), they can be very impressive. The stupid thing would be to rush in and get one (any one! the cheapest one!) on the spur of the moment. That would be kind of like buying a crocodile on eBay.

Anyway, this is my take on them, for what it's worth...and Red, this is not necessarily aimed at you; from what I have seen of you on this forum, you will do your homework thoroughly and know exactly what you're getting into. This is mostly because I have a hard time resisting a rant, and don't see why I should!

Singletails are the archetypical bdsm instrument, no question, and a lot of people who have seen or read just about any vaguely themed BDSM film or book from the divine Marquis onward find themselves drawn there. But the fantasy is very much removed from the reality, and singletails come with some serious limitations and potential problems.

Funny (scary) story. Several years ago, we were vending at IML in Chicago, and a nice young east Indian couple dropped by the booth, interested in picking up their first whip. I directed them to our whip section (braided multitails, no singletails) and then some other people came in and distracted me. IML can be very distracting! When I got back to the nice young couple, they had wandered off and were at another vendor's booth, a flogger maker from GA who carried singletails by Jim Hurlbut (or possibly Axel Wright, I forget). You see her floggers all over the place, they're the ones with the bottle openers on the ends (he bitched).

Anyway, this woman had the husband against the wall, facing out, and was pressing a singletail into the wife's hand and urging her to take a shot at him. Luckily, she wasn't able to throw the thing straight or there would have been blood, potential blindness and a lawsuit or two. That is what decades of misrepresentation of BDSM play does...

My issues with singletails are that people get them who don't understand what they are, or what their limitations are; they subsequently hurt themselves and/or their loved one(s) and come away thinking all BDSM tops must be sadistic scum and BDSM itself is dangerous madness.

The main limitation of singletails is that if it has a popper, or cracker, on it, you cannot use it to strike a human being.

If you catch a human with the cracker it will carve out a nice (possibly triangular) flap of skin. If you don't use a cracker, you won't get that lovely whipcracking sound, which is the whole point of the things in the first place.

Many people also imagine that to crack a whip, you essentially lay it out in the air ahead of you and then snap it back. Terribly wrong. What you have then is a whip accelerating toward your head, where it will break the sound barrier. Lay it out in the air behind you, and throw it forward. You'll be needing those eyes to find the phone number for the ambulance.

Singletails, by and large, are tools designed to make noises in the air at a distance, so as to persuade large thick skinned herd animals to move in one direction or another. They're not actually for hitting cattle with, never mind people.

Having said that, they can produce some impressive effects. You can throw them to wrap around a partner's arms, legs or torso. You can pop them right by their ear. You can turn the light out with them, or do the old cigarette trick. But you can't do any of these things safely unless you a) have a really well made singletail that you have broken in so you can consistently throw it in a straight line, and b) really really really really know what you are doing. You should be able to hit small points with a 10/10 kind of consistency before you go anywhere near anything alive.

If anyone is going to get a singletail intending to use it, my advice is, don't go cheap. Personally I would recommend a snakewhip rather than a bullwhip; they're more sinuous and whippy, and compact better for transportation. The guy I would recommend is Victor Tella who does some amazing work, as you will see.

Hopefully this has been useful for someone, or if not, at least entertaining.
And Red, I hope it answers your question! Seems a long time ago now, don't it....

Billy

Seconded!

When I think of a big badass BDSM top, I generally picture a pink heart shaped paddle and frilly pantaloons. Am I alone on that?

"My issues with singletails are that people get them who don't understand what they are, or what their limitations are; they subsequently hurt themselves and/or their loved one(s)."

I was recently at an event where someone dear to me was singletailed by a woman who had just learned to throw that day. The throwing was gentle as can be, but wouldn't you know, the tail wrapped around my friends face. Terrifying doesn't begin to describe it.

Excellent rant, much appreciated. More food for thought

"When I think of a big badass BDSM top, I generally picture a pink heart shaped paddle and frilly pantaloons. Am I alone on that?"

Perhaps not, Red, but I don't want to think about what you'd have to do to get anyone else to admit it in public!

Billy

well . . . it's been a few years since we've done any shows, and we don't have any plans to do any. We did go to Vancouver a couple of years ago for the (insert adjective) Taboo show, but it wasn't really our thing. Don't get me started; there's yet another rant there! Suffice it to say we just about clubbed the organisers and many of the customers. With liquid truncheons actually, because they would inflict the most damage while incurring the least damage themselves!

We do sell to a couple of stores in Vancouver - Womyn's Ware, Art of Loving, Love Nest and Trinity Romance, up in Squamish.

We've also got a tiny and permanently understocked showroom here in Peterborough, Ontario, and we'll definitely be microvending there! We're this town's best kept secret. Visitors are welcome, and we even make them tea if they've come a long way!

Billy