Alas, its time to talk about some of the most appealing implements known to bdsm. The bondage aspects. Now, some of you may talk to me on a regular basis, I have touched on my career, and informed you of my professional credentials. With those credentials, I am a certified (Occupational Health Safety Administration/ Mine Safety Health Administration) OSHA/MSHA Rigger. I feel that is important to state right out of the gate as it pertains to this particular topic.
Now, with all that stated I feel the need to pay homage to our beautiful rope bunnies of the community. You guys are absolutely amazing individuals, and I love my rope bunnies.
I use ropes, and wire rope/steel cable in alot of my implements and creations. They are wonderful apects of play. They are extrmely versatile and can be used in very many different ways.
I use ropes primarily for for bondage. I am also into suspension play, and use the ropes as an anchor point while steel cable does the lifting. I implement a series of pullies to distribute the stress on the cable which allows easier lifting.
I wish to challenge doms and subs alike. When playing with ropes, chains, and even wire rope there are a few things to take into consideration. All ropes are not equal, all chains are not equal, all wire rope is not equal. Im fairly confident that most of the community knows this.
In terms of suspension, not equal means that any implement you choose to use, needs to be safe to use. Meaning, not frayed, cut, or burned in any way that may cause a weak spot in your material of choice. Each material you use should be inspected thouroughly before each use. The last thing you want is to hoist your sub up, just to have your rigging fail and cause injury to your sub.
Tensil strength is another factor you need to think about. Tensil strength is a mesurement of the force required to pull a material apart. All materials have different tensil strengths. Now, in terms of ropes and chains, there are different grades that will support certain weights. In terms of hoisting a sub...100lbs-350lbs...you should probably choose material with an appropriate tensil strength and load rating.
Now, for the doms who play it really safe and like to "overdo" their rigging. Each material has a safety rating. Primarily, what you are looking for is materials with a safety rating of 1. Which means that material has been tested to hold its capacity times 1. A safety rating of 1 is plenty for hoisting a sub. Depending on the material you choose. Most capacities, load ratings, saftey ratings of any material you choose can be found online and I encourage everyone to seek out and know your materials intimately. Subs put their trust and faith in us. Lets not let them down.
Now that i have bored everyone to tears, there is 1 more thing I would like to touch base on. Bondage saftey in general. There is nothing more beautiful than a sub in full ropes unable to move, unable to resist...what my goal with this entire blog, is just to get you thinking. While your beautiful sub is tied, suspended..or other..do you have a plan in case of emergencies? What happens if something were to happen and you would need to free your sub in a hurry? Do you have a plan in place? Does your sub know what you will do in the event of an emergency? All of this is food for thought. I never would want anything to happen to any sub during play that would be an emergency. But it is still possible.
Im not telling every sub or dom, they need to go and become a genius in rigging or a boy scout expert in ropes and knots. But i do encourage everyone to learn basics and understand rigging safety. Everything about play revolves around trust and safety, the more you have, the more empowered you become.
Thank you all for reading and if you have safety plans in place, leave me a comment, Id love to hear about them.
