Hand crop - flogging toy by Spartacus - review by Darkness Withinus

This is a crop for all users. It has the cute novelty that a lot of casual users enjoy, and can be used to create intense amounts of pain for those more "hardcore" users. If you are looking for a cute toy to lightly spank your partner with this crop will be just fine. If you want something to cause your partner pain you can get that here too.

When it comes to crops there is pretty much a single basic design, a handle connected to a fiberglass (or other material) rod with a striking point at the end, usually leather. In the case of the Hand Crop this striking point is a hand made out of leather. The hand is two pieces of leather that are both glued and stitched to a cane (likely fiberglass or some other flexible yet ridged material) that provides the connection between the striking hand and the handle.

Here is a potential flaw that I saw when I first looked at the crop; the cane extends about an inch and a half into the striking pad. This isn’t a really common thing for crops in general so I took a few test hits against my hand and arm to look for any sort of indication that this would be problematic during use. There was very little indication that this presented much to worry about as on the whole I couldn’t feel a difference between the center of the hand with the cane and the rest of the striking pad.

Just after the striking pad the cane is wrapped in a very fine wire. Personally this worries me as I am not sure if the wire is glued to the cane or not and if it were to break it could create some sharp ends that would be very painful if they struck the skin of your partner. I will post more about this potential problem in my follow up.

The cane is wrapped in a braided plastic mesh that gives it a feel that is akin to a very stiff piece of rope. The cane itself is ridged, which allows this crop to be used to inflict larger amounts of pain with a stronger swing. When looking for crops the more ridged the cane part the more sting the crop will have as a general rule. You can usually test this by bending the toy in your hand a bit, if it is easy to bend then the blows will carry less of a sting because the shaft will recoil and take a fair amount of the impact. The handle itself is a rubber like material that has some give to it.

Finally this crop lacks a wrist strap. While not a huge problem it does make using it at times a little inconvenient. I say this because there are times when you want to just hang the striking toy you are using on your wrist for easy access while still being able to use both of your hands for something. Toys with a wrist strap are a definite plus when it comes to floggers, crops, or canes.

This crop is very pleasing to use, it makes very nice noises against the skin and can range from a dull thudding sound to an exciting pop. It is very well balanced making it easy to control, use for extended periods of time, and vary the sensation that your partner receives.

The first thing that I would say to watch out for is striking your partner with the cane of the toy. This can be really painful, and if your partner isn’t ready for that kind of pain could pretty quickly kill the mood. To help avoid this kind of problem I would suggest not striking across the body and rather switch from one side to the other to change the location. That said this toy pretty solidly performed well above my expectations. I expected it to be somewhat flimsy because of the novelty nature of the hand shaped striking area and what I got was a good crop that I think will last a long time. And if your partner has a sense of humor you can use this for some very fun foreplay as well.

One more note for those not accustomed to stingy toys, if you aren’t careful this toy could leave marks on your partner. I know that even from the light use I have gotten out of it so far it has left the skin pretty red. So as a word of caution take care with how hard you swing this toy if leaving marks might be a problem.

There are a few things that you might want to be careful to keep an eye on as this toy ages. First as I said in the design section there is the wire that is wrapped around the cane just below the hand. If this started to break and poke out you should clip it down and make certain there are no sharp edges as soon as possible. Second, I would suggest treating your leather with something to help keep it soft and pliable and never get it wet and leave it to air dry. As with any other leather if the piece is left to air dry the leather will dry out and potentially crack. Other than those simple things I would keep it stored in a cool dry place to help prolong the life of the toy.

There was really no packaging to speak of with this toy. It came in a plastic sheath and was tagged with a simple tag bearing the name of the manufacturer.

If you get this toy and find the sensation is too much for you even at the lightest your partner swings it try using it with clothing on. Having clothes between your skin and the crop will dramatically lessen the sting.

For a change of pace I am going to let my partner fill this section out. All things after this statement are her accounts of what happened with this toy.

When we played with this toy, it was actually the first time in probably about five or six years that I had had a crop used on me. The sensation was really very pleasant through clothing, but when we got down to the bare skin I found that I had to re-acclimate a bit; I was more used to the duller pain that one gets with heavy floggers and hands. This one's definitely got some bite to it, so there was probably a lot of squirming on my part (alongside some rather half-assed escape attempts), but all in all I greatly enjoyed playing with this toy. Or... being the subject of playing with this toy, as the case may be. I did get hit with part of the handle once, but other than that... yup, honestly can't complain.