A Complete Guide to BDSM Caning

Canes are among my absolute all-time favourite tools for administering friendly beatings. The features which make them so excellent are numerous: they leave nice marks, they make a cool swishing noise, they require minimal effort for a significant amount of pain, and are fun to use.

They’re also available in a quite a range of types. If you’re new to canes, picking the right one for you can be a bit of a trial. Here’s a little buyers guide to help you find the perfect cane for your particular brand of impact play… plus a few notes on how to put it to use once you’ve got it.

Contents

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Buying a BDSM cane

Caring for your BDSM cane

Using a BDSM cane

Troubleshooting

Buying a BDSM cane

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It can be kind of tricky to find a good cane retailer. Personally, I recommend Bondara, who have a great range of good-quality hitting sticks.

Natural vs synthetic canes

There are a whole bunch of different canes available, but they fall broadly into two camps: natural and synthetic. Natural canes are usually made from some kind of wood, while synthetic canes might be made from nylon, delrin, metal, or plastic.

Purists like to stick to natural canes as a point of principle: that’s how things were done back in the old days, and by golly that’s how they’ll do things now. Wooden canes feel authentic, look authentic, and have a history to them that, for some people, makes them the only choice.

Synthetic canes are, however, extremely versatile. You can use them to inflict a broader range of sensations, and while they might not look as nice, they are tougher, easier to care for, and pack more of a punch. Your mileage may vary, but for me synthetic canes are the best choice.

Stingy vs thuddy canes

Throughout this article I’m going to be talking about the different sensations produced by canes. To help with that, let’s get some terminology down now.

• Stingy Pain – Pain similar to a sting: short and sharp, fades very quickly, feels almost like being cut or swiped with a pointy stick.
• Thuddy Pain – Deep, bruise-inducing pain that has more akin with a kick or a thump. Usually heavier and longer lasting.

Usually whoever is being caned will prefer one of these two types of pain, and that preference will determine the cane that suits them best.

Which canes produce which sensations? Essentially, thicker canes will produce heavier, thuddier sensations and thinner ones more stingy, whippy sensations. But the material a cane is made out of also plays a role. Here’s a little more on that…

Natural canes

The canes listed below are all one variety or another of the rattan plant. You might also hear people talking about bamboo canes. These exist, but they’re for your garden, not your bedroom. Bamboo is brittle, and can split into a bunch of sharp, jagged pieces if you try and use it to beat someone.

Material	Notes
Kooboo	The stiffness and lightness of kooboo canes makes them easy to control – great for beginners. Most kooboo canes are quite mild, and tend towards stingy pain.
Rattan Heart	Just the heart of the rattan cane, removed and varnished. Good for stingy sensations. Quite stiff and light.
Dragon	The most common kind of natural cane – famous for once-upon-a-time being used in schools. Can produce a range of sensations. Slightly heavier than kooboo or rattan heart canes, with a more thuddy, severe bite.
Tohiti	Often referred to as “prison canes”, because of historical use in prisons. Very heavy, very thuddy – can really do some damage if aimed poorly. Not great for beginners.

Synthetic canes

Synthetic canes vary wildly. Different thicknesses of each of the below materials will provide different sensations. Take the notes here as a guide to the basic properties of the material, not to any individual cane made with that material.

Material	Notes
Delrin	A high-strength stiff thermoplastic, ideal for replacing precision machine parts or for ritualistically whacking your lover on the buttocks. Delrin canes are quite heavy and stiff, giving you a thud rather than a sting.
Lexan	Another thermoplastic. Similar to delrin, but a bit lighter and more flexible. Generally stingy. Even at thinner girths lexan canes are very difficult to break – ideal if you’re into heavier scenes.
Acrylic	Available in a range of colours. Often translucent. Very stiff and stingy. Acrylic canes look neat, but are generally brittle and prone to snapping if used too heavily.
Nylon	The most flexible kind of synthetic cane. Can produce stingy or thuddy sensations depending on thickness. Very light, very flexible… and thus quite hard to aim with.

BDSM cane variations

As well as the standard canes listed above, you’ll also find a range of cool variants on the standard implement. Here’s a little bit about some of those, just for the sake of completeness.

Electro canes

Electro canes are usually either made from a lightweight conductive material like carbon-fibre, or made from wood with metal wires running throughout. The point of that metalwork is to conduct electricity. When connected (safely, by someone who knows what they’re doing) to a power source, each hit with an electro cane will also deliver a short sharp shock to the receiver.

Metal canes

You can find canes made entirely from metal. Metal canes are relatively uncommon, but they’re pretty cool. They come in two varieties – thin and whippy like a car aerial and so heavy you could break a toe. Either is good fun to play with, although heavy metal canes can do a lot of damage. Use with caution.

Caring for your BDSM cane

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Canes – especially natural ones – do need a little bit of looking after if you want them to last. And, like any toy, it’s good to keep them clean, especially if you’re using them with several different people.

Cane cleaning tips

Synthetic canes are usually non-porous (nylon ones sometimes aren’t), which means you can be quite aggressive in your cleaning without destroying the cane. You can use antibacterial wipes or bleach to achieve a thorough clean, and thus render your synthetic cane safe for use with several different people.

Natural canes won’t stand up to this kind of thorough cleansing, and are porous anywho. Once you’ve drawn blood with a natural cane, you should only ever use it on the person whose blood you drew. It will have absorbed anything infectious that they have, and could spread it if you use it with others. Gross.

This basically means you’re either being very careful with how you use your natural cane, or you’re only ever using it on one person. In each scenario, if cleaning is necessary, it can be done with soap and water between each use

Cane storage tips

Transporting canes to and from the places where you want to administer your beatings can be tricky. They’re long, after all. I recommend using a poster tube or (if you’re feeling fancy) an instrument case to carry them about.

As far as storing goes, you can do more or less what you like with synthetic canes. So long as they’re dry and clean when you put them away you won’t have much trouble.

Natural canes, however, are a bitch to store.

Firstly, they are moist. Even when dry to the touch, there is some moisture in the fibres of most natural canes. This means you can’t store them anywhere airtight, so don’t:

• Wrap them in plastic
• Keep them in your fridge
• Put them in Tupperware containers
• Send them into space
• Store them permanently in a poster tube

Secondly, rattan is a plant – a plant which (much like my best friend) isn’t used to being straight. Over time, a straight rattan cane will try to return to a shape that’s more natural for it: somewhat curvy and difficult to hit someone with.

The best way to prevent this is to hang your canes up. Many canes come with a small eyelet or leather thing in the end of the grip for exactly this purpose. By dangling them from a hook you ensure that gravity will work in your favour and keep them from bending.

Storing your canes lying flat also sort of works. They won’t get so curvy you can’t use them, but they might take on a slight bend over time.

If you find that your natural canes have started to bend, don’t chuck them out just yet. You can usually gently straighten them back out after a soaking (more on that below).

Cane maintenance tips

Natural canes lose moisture over time – particularly if you clean them between each use. A dry cane is a brittle cane, and a brittle cane is one that could snap, leaving a sharp edge that could become inconvenient, to say the least.

To avoid this, soak your canes every so often (I do mine every six months). Do this by hanging them up overnight with the tip of the business end submerged in water. The cane will soak up the moisture overnight and become more supple and springy.

You can also use oil for this. Linseed oil is perfect, but any oil is fine so long as it definitely won’t spoil over time. Don’t use, for example, lard.

It’s okay to soak a cane in oil when it has previously been soaked in water, but the same thing doesn’t work vice-versa. Once you’ve soaked a cane in oil, you’re going to have to soak it oil every time you want to soak it – otherwise the soaking won’t actually do anything.

Some people also steam their canes – this is another way of ensuring that they stay moist. You don’t need to both soak and steam your canes to keep them healthy, but you can if you feel like pampering them.

The easiest way to steam your canes is to hang them up in the bathroom and run the shower on hot for 20 minutes or so. Leave them in the resultant steamy cave for an hour, then dry them down and return them to storage.

With synthetic canes you don’t need to do any of this stuff – but do give them a quick look over each time you use one. Keep an eye out for cracks or splinters, and discard the cane if you find any. You probably won’t find any though. Most synthetic canes last for ages.

Using a BDSM cane

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Hold the grip. Hit them with the other end. That’s the basic idea. Canes are usually quite long as implements go, though, so it pays to get your aim in.

Once you’re reasonably sure of your accuracy, you can apply the cane to a range of different areas. Low risk areas include:

• Buttocks – Aim between the crest of the buttocks and the top of the thighs to ensure you steer clear of the kidneys, et al.
• Thighs – The fleshy backs of the thighs. Much, much more sensitive than the arse, but still relatively safe for impact play.

And here are some higher-risk locales to be approached with caution:

• Feet & Hands – The soles of the feet and palms of the hands are wonderfully sensitive and very satisfying to whack.
• Inner Thighs – Even more sensitive than the backs of the thighs.
• Genitals – This is, I’m sure you know already, a really sensitive area for almost anyone. Be gentle. Go slow. Get feedback from the person being hit.

Different impact play sensations

You can create a whole bunch of different sensations with a cane, depending on how you hit someone with it. Bounce it off their skin for a lighter, stingier sensation, or whale on them if you want something thuddy and heavy.

Lightly tapping the same line over and over again creates a sensation that’s maddening for some people. As does interspersing a series of light taps with a severe slash. Find what makes them regret their life choices, then do that.

Troubleshooting

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Wrapping

When you hit someone with a cane, the tip of the cane is moving real fast. If the middle part of the cane hits their arse before the tip, the tip will keep moving, wrapping around and smacking them on the hip.

While this is deliciously painful, it’s also a bit untidy. Some people don’t like it – and with good reason; maybe being hit on the hip isn’t as much fun for the bottom as being hit on the arse. Plus letting the cane “wrap” like this makes it more likely to break.

To prevent this from happening, aim to land the tip of the cane squarely on the fleshy part of the buttock. It’ll make a more satisfying sound that way anyhow.

Train tracks

Most traditional canings leave the bottom with a series of parallel marks, like train tracks. These look fun and distinctive, and have the added advantage of not criss-crossing cane strikes.

When you criss-cross you’re layering damage to the skin in some areas, and might do more damage than you intend. If that’s something you want to avoid, aim to lay your strokes out neat and parallel to one another.

Personally, though, I really like a messy, angry caning. Your mood may vary.

Swooshing

With natural canes in particular swooshing your cane through the air will weaken it, and eventually make it more likely to break. If you want to avoid this, avoid swooshing your cane… or get a synthetic one. Have I mentioned how much I prefer them?