BDSM Whips and Whip Making: A Short History
In the hands of an expert, a whip can seduce with pleasure, punish with precise applications of pain, or induce a meditative trance with methodical pummeling. It is hard to picture a BDSM scene without a whip, whether a long bullwhip, fearsome cat of nine tails, or the ubiquitous deerskin flogger and its bundle of soft lashes. A whip is the quintessential implement of BDSM play, a symbol of power and instrument of pain, pleasure, and punishment.
Well-made whips in expert hands are remarkably versatile instruments. Yet, finding a quality whip, let alone assembling a collection of them, was quite difficult in the early days of the BDSM community.
A dizzying variety of flagellation instruments are available today, but high-quality whips specifically made for BDSM activities are recent creations. Their development parallels the growth and increasing sophistication and connectedness of the BDSM community. The term flogger, in fact, did not enter common use until the 1980s when several pioneering whip makers produced lush floggers with dozens of strands of soft leather, such as deer and elk. These designs remain common today: about two-dozen tails, each roughly half an inch wide and 15 to 20 inches long.
In contrast to floggers, some whips employ braided strands, often the traditional nine of the naval “cat-o-nine-tails.” Sailors made these from rope, and they could inflict grievous harm to those sentenced to dozens — or hundreds — of lashes.
Those made for BDSM play, usually called “cats” or “braided cats,” are gentler, particularly those made from soft leathers. Their braids may be round (a four-strand braid) or flat (a three- or five-strand braid) and terminate in either knots, or a flat, tab end. Most use a wooden handle, but so-called galley whips have a flexible, braided leather handle.
Round-braided cats slice through the air, allowing one to deliver forceful strokes with great accuracy. Unbraided and flat braided tails tend to spread a little, but are still quite accurate when well made. The knotted ends of either can leave small, distinct bruises.
Finally, there are single-tail whips — whips braided into a single length ranging from short quirts of one to two feet in length to four-foot and five-foot signal or dog whips (used to signal dogs in dog sled racing) and bullwhips of eight feet, ten feet, or even longer. Some of these employ a wooden handle, like floggers and cats, particularly longer bullwhips. Others are flexible along their entire length. These are braided over a rawhide core or a pouch containing lead shot. These “shot-loaded” whips can land with incredible force and require great care and practice to use effectively.
The first sadomasochists, whoever they were, made do with whatever instruments of flagellation and other equipment they could find, made their own, or “perverted” common items for BDSM use, such as belts, spatulas, or other kitchen items.
By the early 19th century, brothels specializing in BDSM scenes operated in most of Europe’s major cities, and these developed or procured specialized equipment for their clients, such as the Berkeley Bench, named after London dominatrix Theresa Berkeley. It was a padded bench with cutouts for the genitals so a person could be simultaneously restrained, beaten and sexually stimulated.
While many brothel clients requested flagellation, the implements involved, judging by those seized and documented by police, differed little from the whips and crops people used on animals.
Birch rods composed of bundles of birch twigs were also popular, perhaps because they were readily available. Their use remains common in Scandinavian and Slavic saunas. Their frequent appearance in Victorian erotica — and its later imitations, such as Harriet Marwood, Governess, John Glassco’s homage to Victorian flagellation stories — has preserved their popularity. They also have the advantage of being cheap and readily available. Birch trees grow throughout North America and Europe.
Whips did not become the preeminent tool of BDSM flagellation until their quality improved and several pioneering whip makers developed styles specifically suited to BDSM activities. Riding crops, canes, paddles, and similar instruments, are relatively easy to acquire or make on one’s own. Whip making, though, is a skilled craft that requires time (and a fair amount of ruined leather) to master. It also pays poorly and stresses the wrists, causing carpal tunnel syndrome and similar problems, which forced several whip makers into premature retirement.
Early BDSM Whips
Following World War II, relaxed censorship standards allowed fetish and BDSM magazines to flourish in the 1950s and 1960s. Professional dominants advertised in them, as did growing numbers of people seeking BDSM partners. A variety of whips and flagellation devices appeared in John Willie’s Bizarre magazine and various Irving Klaw publications. A synergy developed between BDSM enthusiasts and publishers, which encouraged the development of more elaborate fetish and BDSM costuming and equipment, as well as whips.
Whips specially made for BDSM play were rare and hard to find in the 1950s. People either made do with what equestrian suppliers and tack shops sold or made their own. Samuel Steward who later wrote erotic stories and novels as Phil Andros, learned to make simple leather implements. Others made paddles, riding crops, or simple, “slashed and rolled” whips by cutting a rectangular piece of leather, slashing strips along most of its length, and wrapping the remainder (about eight inches in length) around a wooden dowel to form a handle to which the leather is glued or tacked.
Other aspiring whip makers bundled boot laces or similar thin, leather lace, and lashed them together, the bound section forming a crude handle. Another option was to draw leather strips into a bicycle grip, which formed the handle. Friends traded the products of their craftsmanship among their BDSM contacts, which spread both knowledge and toys as BDSM contact networks grew.
By the 1960s, a handful of people supplied whips specifically made for BDSM play. These included Uncle Sam’s Umbrella Shop in New York and a few whip makers in Mexico where traditional leather craftspeople continued their trade. Located in Guadalajara, Luis Avila advertised in American fetish publications and offered a complete line of BDSM goods, including high-heeled shoes and boots, corsets, and whips. Uncle Sam’s devoted a small section of its New York store (and mail order brochure) to canes and whips. Many of the latter had soft tails designed for use on people rather than animals. The brochure explained these “unique items were “not meant to hurt . . . merely frighten. Especially if the animals you are riding are in charge of the situation.” Uncle Sam’s sold bullwhips, paddles, riding crops, a tawse (a strap with a split end), and a braided cat-o-nine tails with flat, rather than knotted, tips. They were probably imported from Mexico, as were the occasional high-quality whips that appeared in American fetish magazines alongside the generally crude whips of the era.
The other source of quality whips was Australia, where a dwindling number of traditional whip makers developed international reputations for bullwhips and other long, single-tail whips. David Morgan imported single-tail whips from R.M. Williams and other Australian whip makers and sold them in his Seattle store along with whips he and his occasional apprentices made. Morgan’s customers included performers and Hollywood studios for which he made both traditional long whips and whips braided around strong, steel cores for use by stunt people. He refused to sell to anyone involved in BDSM.
Whips and the Developing BDSM Community
The first BDSM organizations formed in the early 1970s: TES (The Eulenspiegel Society) in New York, Society of Janus in San Francisco, and the Chicago Hellfire Club. Over the next dozen years, more than a hundred other BDSM organizations formed in cities across the United States. These, along with a growing number of books and magazines devoted to BDSM technique, particularly DungeonMaster, launched in 1979 by Chicago Hellfire Club member Tony DeBlaise, increased the breadth and sophistication of BDSM play. Growing knowledge, in turn, raised expectations for both the quality of one’s toys and their diversity, particularly whips, which purchasers eagerly showed their friends.
Several retailers of leather clothing and BDSM gear launched their businesses in the back rooms of leather bars. By the late 1970s, several had moved to storefronts, including Male Hide in Chicago. Alan Selby relocated from Great Britain and opened Mr. S in San Francisco. Mail order businesses flourished, selling fetish clothing, restraints, and various whips, crops, and paddles. For the most part, though, whips were sidelines for these businesses. Whips are time consuming to make and the market for high-quality whips was small. With a few exceptions, such as corsets, restraints and clothing are easier to make and thus more profitable to sell.
The Pioneers of BDSM Whip Making
Several pioneering BDSM whip makers emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Most were members of early BDSM organizations, and these organizational contacts proved essential for marketing the whips they made. Connections between artisans and customers were often close. People purchased their best whips and bondage gear in person and for cash, since credit card companies refused to work with small sexual businesses. Whip makers relied on customer feedback and steadily improved their craft and wares.
Based in Denver, Fred Norman became well known for lush floggers, rich color schemes, and his refusal to make all-black whips. He experimented with several styles, including elaborate wooden handles carved on a lathe. Jim of London, who studied under Dave Morgan and R.M. Williams, settled in San Francisco, and made single tailed whips, including stockwhips and bullwhips. He also popularized “galley whips,” a cat-of-nine tails with a flexible handle. After a few years, though, he moved on to more profitable endeavors. Few whip makers in these years stayed in the business long and even fewer derived their primary income from whip making.
San Francisco’s flourishing BDSM community, which by the early 1980s boasted several organizations in additional to Janus, and dedicated play clubs like the Catacombs, encouraged innovation and helped launch the careers of several whip makers, most importantly, Jay Marston. A member of several San Francisco BDSM groups, she learned leather working from local artisans. In 1984, she launched her own business, Hedonic Engineering, which also made leather restraints and other bondage gear, much of it specifically designed and sized for women, a rarity at the time. Whips, though, were her specialty and she became the first person to derive her primary income from BDSM whip making.
Marston revolutionized BDSM whips and introduced what came to be called “floggers.” Instead of the traditional nine tails of a cat, floggers had two-dozen or more leather tresses. Instead of the stinging/cutting sensations of earlier whips, floggers with numerous wide tails produced a massage-like thudding sensation. Marston added weight to handles so they balanced in the hand, aiding control. Tight braiding and round finish knots at the top and bottom of handles allowed her whips to roll easily in one’s grip and further contributed to their accuracy and ease of use. Her whips attracted rave reviews and appeared in the toy bags of BDSM cognoscenti as quickly as they could acquire them. Demand for Marston’s work strained her production capacity, and customers often waited several months to receive their whips.
Marston was also among the first to diversify from cowhide to other leathers, creating both softer and harsher whips. She used leathers ranging from soft deerskin for sensual play to bull hide, bison, and other thick, dense leathers for heavier scenes. She made long floggers for flashy, twirling displays and short ones for use in the bedroom and during sex; floggers with wide, heavy tails for deep thudding; and others with few, thin tails that cut and stung. Marston even made whips with extra-long handles for self-flagellation.
Where, exactly, a whip should balance is a matter of personal preference. A whip balanced too far forward pulls against one’s grip in use. One balanced too far back will feel slow and ponderous. Many people like their whips to balance roughly where their forefinger rests when holding the handle in a comfortable grip. Others, though, prefer to hold their whips at the knot. This requires a balance point roughly in the middle of the handle. Marston pioneered this design and whipping technique, which places less strain on one’s wrists and encourages a smooth, rolling motion that almost effortlessly brings a flogger back into position following each swing. Unfortunately, Marston’s whip making career was cut short in the early 1990s by carpal tunnel syndrome.
After Marston
Marston’s design innovations and business success inspired other craftspeople, and whip making flourished in the 1990s. Attendees at Living in Leather and the growing number of other BDSM conventions even clipped a flogger or two to their belts showing off their best equipment. Like hankies and keys, a whip clipped the left signaled one was a top; on the right, a bottom.
“Adam and Gillian” (Mitch Kessler and Gerrie Blum) launched Adam’s Whips and Gillian’s Toys (ASWGT) in 1987. They followed a typical progression of first making BDSM implements for themselves, then for their friends, and finally launching their business full-time. They created several dozen styles of whips “to suit the preferences and tolerances of a variety of play partners,” and employed materials ranging from soft deerskin, moose, and elk to harsh bullhide and latigo. They were among the first to offer a large variety of colors other than black. They also made floggers from cabretta, a leather so soft it was almost impossible to hurt someone with it. “You can’t play with just one whip,” they suggested, comparing BDSM flagellation to golf and the many clubs required for the latter. Adam was an experienced sailor, and his first designs were inspired by nautical ropework. He was the first BDSM whip makers to make whips from nylon rope and cord, conveniently available in a variety of colors, and these remain a centerpiece of ASWGT’s catalog. Even their leather-tailed whips often have braided nylon cord handles.
In 1989, Jeanette Heartwood began offering “sensual floggers” in a dizzying variety of colors. Like Adam’s Whips, she offered a large selection of leathers and colors, and explained their differences in her illustrated catalog. Her bison whips proved particularly popular for thuddy whippings, as did her enormous floggers boasting 50, 100, or even more tails. More tails meant more weight, which produced more thud. For a time, people referred to floggers with several-dozen tails as “Western” or “California” floggers, since Marston and Heartwood popularized these styles.
Heartwood’s wide color palette and tightly braided handles and finishing knots, won her admiration from some of the biggest names in the BDSM scene. She also made the colorful whips for the movie Exit to Eden (1994). Heartwood developed a number of techniques that increased her production and proved more prolific than any of her predecessors. Her work became so well known that for a time people referred to any well-made flogger as a “Heartwood,” much to the annoyance of other whip makers.
Lashes by Sarah (Sarah Jones) and Draconian Leather (Metz) began making similar, California-style floggers in the 1990s. Both attracted devoted followings. Sarah favored lighter whips (and preferred the term flail to flogger) while Metz favored denser leathers and heavier whips. Sora Counts, whose company Sorodz specialized in canes, rods, and similar implements, popularized horsehair whips and rubber whips. The former produce a unique, stinging sensation, which can be changed by wetting the whip with water, usually from a spray bottle. Rubber, in turn, is dense, and can raise bruises easily, particularly heavier, thicker rubber.
Counts also dramatically improved the quality and variety of canes, by introducing a host of synthetic materials, lengths, and handle styles. Arguably, she proved as important for the development of canes and similar implements as Marston did for whips.
Joe Wheeler apprenticed under David Morgan and brought those skills to the BDSM community through contacts among Chicago BDSM organizations. Like Marston, Wheeler’s work quickly attracted fans, among them Peter Fiske, famous for his whip handling and large whip collection, and customers had to wait many months before receiving their whips. For a time, Wheeler also made unique floggers and cats with unusually narrow handles. Built around quarter-inch steel rods, they had the weight of thicker, wooden handles, but allowed the wielder great flexibility when wielding them.
Wheeler’s arrival, openness to feedback, and willingness to experiment kindled interest in single tail whips for BDSM play. These ranged from short, four-foot signal whips, which Wheeler helped popularize by offering well-made examples for as little as $80, to bullwhips of ten feet and longer. The latter required exceptional care and skill to wield, as well as constant practice. Thanks to the growing availability of high-quality single-tale ships, experts in their use emerged in the BDSM community, including Bob Deegan, who regularly presented seminars at BDSM conferences, and Robert and Mary Dante, a Canadian couple who published Boudoir Noir, one of several practical BDSM magazines that flourished in the 1990s.
Numerous small whip makers flourished in the latter 1990s and early 2000s. Two Ohio businesses, Bedroom Whips and DeTails, illustrate the differing approaches many of these businesses took and how BDSM whip making changed. Bedroom Whips kept few items in stock and emphasized custom work, making anything a customer desired. They favored complex knots and handle braids of as many as sixteen strands. They even braided customers’ names on whip handles.
DeTails, in turn, aimed toward mass production, underpriced many competitors and steadily grew its business, in part by employing subcontractors to do some work. It was probably the first BDSM business to take advantage of overseas suppliers, doing what growing numbers of mainstream Americans businesses did. This, of course, stimulated overseas production of a variety of fetish clothing and BDSM gear, which provided increasing competition to North American and European fetish/BDSM businesses. Nonetheless, it allowed DeTails to produce a high volume of whips in a variety of styles, colors, and materials, and keep them in stock. Not surprisingly, Bedroom Whips — like so many small, artisanal whip makers — is long gone, while DeTails continues to thrive after more than 20 years in business, making solid, reliable products.
After 2000, the Internet helped customers find whip makers and fewer banks and credit card companies discriminated against small sex toy businesses. This helped small whip businesses secure orders quickly, but this rapid scaling up came at a cost. Whip making is a highly skilled, labor-intensive craft. One can only work so quickly. Marston, Wheeler, and other high-quality whip makers became famous for the months-long waits for whip orders. In the Internet era, dozens of whip businesses flourished briefly and then failed as the whip makers burned out or injured themselves. As of this writing, Adam’s Whips is probably the oldest active BDSM whip maker still in business. Few contenders are likely to surpass his record. The common advice of the 1980s still applies today. If you see a whip you love, buy it, because you never know when the maker will leave the business.
Sources
Brochures and catalogs across several years for ASWGT, Bedroom Whips, DeTails, Draconian Leather, Heartwood Whips of Passion, Hedonic Engineering, Lashes by Sarah, Sorodz, Uncle Sam’s, and other companies. Many are available at the Leather Archives and Museum in Chicago and the Kinsey Institute in Indiana.
Ron Edwards, How to Make Whips (1999). By an Australian whip maker.
David W. Morgan, Whips and Whipmaking (2009). A standard with useful information on braiding, whip construction, and materials.
Gayle Rubin, “Milestones in Modern Whip Making,” DungeonMaster 48 (1994), 22–23. A detailed look at the first generation of San Francisco BDSM whip makers by a noted anthropologist and BDSM activist.
Stephen K. Stein, Sadomasochism and the BDSM Community in the United States: Kinky People Unite (2021)
Carol Truscott, “Interview with Jay Marston,” Sandmutopia Guardian 7 (1990), 13–19. A great interview with Marston in which she discusses her business.
“Joe Wheeler: Master Whip Maker,” Skin Two 15 (1994), 18. A short discussion of Wheeler at the time his work was gaining increasing notice outside Chicago.
For more on whips and their use, see also issues 5, 12, and 24 of the Sandmutopia Guardian, which was pretty much the journal of record for the BDSM community in the late 1980s and 1990s.