I've read a lot about making floggers on this group. but no one seems to have laid out the basic physics of it so here goes...
Floggers have a variety of sensations available:
Stingy, thuddy and smacky.
You get this from thin, slick, stiff or round (Aerodynamic) tails. but also from very long tails "speed equals sting regardless of material" (To an extent)
You get this from wider, softer, heavier tails. The components of the fall spread striking as a mass with fewer individual strikes. "Fewer tails are more stingy more tails are more thuddy.
Is what you get from a fast moving but heavy fall designed to spread is a mix of thud and sting and usually moderate in power."
There is also a factor of weight and power. More mass means more impact.
A massive STINGY toy will welt. A massive THUDDY toy will drive into the muscle and give you deep mucscle bruising. thicker denser material will enhance this softer less dense will moderate it. (8oz bullhide has more impact that elkhide even if the fall has the mass.
"Heat" falls are either warming or cooling depending on material
this is a subtle but important issue. Bullhide, elk and bootlace tend to be warming. Bungie cord guts and frayed out nylon rope are cooling heavier denser rubber and plastic tend to be "Hot" even burning.
So...
- Longer, thinner, faster, fewer, denser means stingier.
Shorter, wider, thicker, more, softer means thuddy.
Mixing the two makes smack.
Tighter, faster, denser falls are warm.
Looser, diffuse falls carrying more air means cooling.
Master_Errant
(Tiny of Tiny's Toys)
This discussion refers to the actual mechanics of flogger design, i.e. how long, how heavy, how many tails etc.
These rules are very general and mean to give an understanding of how floggers work and why a given piece "feels" the way it does.
In general I use a 5" handle for short close up toys for "Tender parts" this gives a controlable toy for use at an intimate range, and with a properly proportioned fall no weighting is needed
For most general duty floggers I use a seven inch stock. this gives the best balance of power and contol. if you grip at the balance you get presicion and then you can let the stock slip out till your grip is at the butt and gain a considerable increase in striking force and speed
I also use 8" or 9" stocks for very heavy or very long mops and beaters.
/Mop being designated as a very heavy fall of softer less dense leather. And beaters being very large falls of denser harder leathers i.e. bullhide, buffalo and latigo/
Choosing the size and mass of the fall depends on two main factors. The sensation desired and the nature of the material used. you also have to take into account the size of the Top and the way they use them.
First what is the toy for? Heavy deep muscle thud on the back and butt? Sensual warm thud on the breasts? CBT?
Don't worry about the number of tails in the fall, the "Weight" of the fall is more important.
- A 12" blank of 7-9oz (bull, buff and latigo for example) material yields 20-24 tails (there is always some waste from errors or flaws in the hide.)
- The same weight of 4-5 oz material (elk, moose and chap weight garment hides) takes a blank of 18-24" width and produces half again as many tails.
- Lighter leathers such as butterball and deerhide even more as much as 30-36" blanks width.
The most common and useful width of tails is 1/2" the vast majority of floggers are cut this way. it gives the best balance of contact area and drag. in general but not always narrower give more sting wider gives more thud. mops of elk and deer cut at 1/4" are almost indescribably sensual. While bullhide cut that way becomes surprisingly subtle.
Trimming and finishing the tips of the fall a finished flogger needs to hang for a day or three so the tails can relax and stretch. Then you can trim then even.
Please note softer hides especially game hides will never be perfectly even, so don't stress over trimming them. There are methods of treating the hide so that they will be even, you can dampen the hide stretch it and let it dry, but I personally don't recommend this as the reason to have a deer hide flogger is for the sensuality, and this will remove much of that. How you finish the end of the tails affects how they fly.
You don't have to trim of course but it gives a more finished look.
For most leathers the longest fall feasable is 24". I just know I'm gonna get groused at over this one lol. Let me explain. The longer the fall the faster it moves. The faster it moves the stingier it is. Even deerhide starts to sting if you make it long enough (A little bit. lol...)
An example: 7-9oz oil tanned leather (bull, buffalo and waterbuff) is dense and supple. It strikes with great power delivering deep impact and body moving force. It is also "expensive" at 24" and longer the tails start to move so fast that they sting and welt rather than spreading and gripping the flesh to deliver the impact.
Elkhide does the same and is even more expensive (you would be better off sticking to suede if you must have longer toys). Additionally longer toys spread and tangle more than shorter. (Though this can be countered with technique)
As a general guideline floggers meant to be used at arms length. should be from 18-24" in length and those meant to be used closer (as in intimate contact range). I often use short toy to strike the breasts and other "sensitive" spots with one hand caressing the body and the other flogging. Those should run from 10-18".
In general the stock of a flogger should be 1/2-1/3 the length of that of the fall. Thus a 7" stock should carry a fall of 14"-21" an 8" 16-24" and so on. A lower proportion gives better control a higher gives more power.
The only thing about this is the the flogger should be short enough to not hit you or the ground when playing. A good rule of thumb is that the fall should be shorter than the length of your arm from wrist to armpit.
This is a tricky one. The test you usually hear is to find the balance point by holding the stock on you finger and that it should balance an inch or so from the fall. I don't really agree with this. Here's what I do. First take the flogger in your hand and hold it the way you would while swinging it. Let you arm hang down at your side with the hand relaxed and the fingers loose. If it rests comfortably without pulling in either direction. Now swing you arm back and forth gently in an arc of a foot or so is good...
Does the flogger feel light in you hand? Does it evenly rather than towards the fall or butt? If so it has good balance. Now find a target at shoulder level. Start striking the target in a basic figure eight. Is it easy to keep you grip where you want it? Then close your eyes, can you continue hitting you mark? If it makes half of the tests it is a decently balance flogger. If it hit all of them it is excellent.
The only thing that is really important is that you can swing it accurately and comfortably. The above assumes you hold the flogger in the most common type of grip.
Usually this is the leftovers from splitting cowhides to uniform thickness to make garment or upholstery leathers top quality suede is cheap and available in many of lovely colors. Used lightly striking with just the weight of the fall it is warm and sensually thuddy. But swung harder and faster it moves into a medium sting making it a versatile GP toy. It is also "loud". This is the ideal first toy for beginners. Suede should be made in medium to heavy fall of 16-21" length and longer and you start to lose the versatility.
These are usually top slits. They are even in thickness also available in a vast array of colors (My favourite garment is "butterball" cowhide which is available in sixty odd colors). It is fairly pricey but the sides are very even and very clean with few flaws and blemished so you have less waste than most other leathers.
This type pf leather is smacky and tends to flutter and spread trapping lots of air making it cooling it is not accurate as some materials, but for large areas that is less of an issue. It mops well and works in all lengths it does need a medium to heavy fall as lighter weights are...well useless. Having little sensation think your generic cheap junk flogger from a porn shop.
This is the most sensual leather of all it has little mass and makes a nice sex toy. You are not likely to reach many bottoms limits with it. But it does feel very nice on the skin. And makes a wonderful cool down between more intense toys.
Deer should be in shorter heavier falls. Not only is it expensive but in longer lengths it feels like garment without the power. Deerhide is also the "loudest" or all the floggers it makes quite an impression on spectators...LOL.
This soft, sensual like deer but with enough weight to make some significant thud these make warm thuddy floggers and are my favourites. While unlikely to push many limits for all but the more serious masos' elkhide can do complete scenes. To best make use of its qualities, elkhide floggers should be heavyish and 18"-21" in lengths shorter than that and you might as well use deer any longer the thud starts to fade into smack and sting. BTW moosehide is like elk but better thicker and denser it ROCKS but top quality moose is hard to get. This is one of the "God leathers" along with elephant, hair-on angora, and 10-11oz water buffalo oil tan.
Oh my drool!
SOURCE: https://fetlife.com/groups/80/group_posts/2874485