Erotic Caning : a Two-phase Sensation

Pacing. To explain the pacing of caning, first I have to explain a bit about what happens when a cane strikes skin; it’s not exactly like any other implement. Oddly enough, canes have more in common in at least one way with clamps than they do with other flagellation implements like floggers, paddles and straps.

Please refer back to page 7 where I described the sensations of my first hard cane stroke – the immediate jolt of pain, the momentary ebbing, then the slow secondary blossoming. This is very typical. Now look at the photograph of the classic “two track” cane welt on page 37.

So here we have two cane-related phenomena that are not like other flagellation implements: a two-phase sensation, and a two-track welt. On the other hand, we sadomasochists do have one other pain implement in our toybag that does have a two-phase sensation: the lowly clamp, that notoriously “hurts for a moment going on, then calms down, and then hurts worse coming off.”

Obviously, I have no scientific data to back me up on this. (If any reader is willing to fund a study, write to me care of Greenery Press.) But it seems clear to me that what happens when cane strikes skin is essentially the same as what happens when clamp meets skin, compressed into a much smaller time frame, as follows:

The cane descends rapidly and forcefully onto the skin. (Look closely and you can see a momentary flash of pure white, like a lightning strike, as the skin is compressed and the blood forced out of it.) The pain is instantaneous. The skin on either side of the cane stroke is suddenly and dramatically stretched, hence creating the “two tracks” of the classic cane welt. This phase of the sensation is comparable to the sensation of the clamp going on, and fades almost instantaneously.

One to ten seconds later, depending on the force of the strike, the blood flows back into the compressed tissue – comparable to the sensation of the clamp coming off. A second, slower, more intense wave of pain washes over the recipient, often followed by a flood of endorphins (and, sometimes, by a corresponding flood of giggles).

What this means to you, the caner, is that pacing is essential to creating a symphonic caning. If you want your caning to go on for a long time, at a majestic pace, you wait until the second wave has subsided before you start your next stroke. If you want to build to a crescendo, you challenge your bottom by building wave on top of wave. This is your composition to create: but you must create consciously, mindfully, and with knowledge. Learn to watch your bottom with the utmost of care; you will see these waves travel over the skin like ripples on a lake, and they will become as lovely to you as any beauty that ever inspired an artist.

Janet Hardy, quoting her own, The Toybag Guide to Erotic Caning on soc.subculture.bondage-bdsm.

My first caning sketch: Too Many Canes