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In: Blogging, Lion's Journal, Reviews

I’m an avid reader of other blogs about male chastity, spanking, and lifestyle power exchanges. I’m a big fan of Strict Julie Spanks, a blog that accurately reports BDSM scenes between Julie and her husband. The reason this site deserves particular mention is that Julie doesn’t just do scenes that relate to the fantasies of her husband and she. She incorporates the fantasies of her readers in her real-life activities.

It’s true that her posts are “enhanced” to make them more arousing to her almost-entirely male readership. But, she assures me that the activities described are real and the action is accurately reported.

I don’t normally do commercials for other blogs. Bloggers are selfish hoarders of their readers. In the past I’ve written about other blogs without any acknowledgment or reciprocation. Julie is the lone exception. That’s not why this post is about her.

Aside from being hot, her posts offer insight into how to build a successful BDSM scene. For example, even though I’ve taught many workshops on spanking technique, when it came to my own punishment, I felt that there needed to be a difference between punishment and play spanking. Julie taught me that I was wrong.

It turns out that punishment spanking is exactly the same as “play” spanking. Simply beating someone as hard as you can from the start certainly didn’t work when Mrs. Lion tried that on me. I couldn’t take much at all. But, when she used the tried-and-true technique of gradual buildup, a spanking went from eight swats to hundreds. It wasn’t fun for me. It hurt a lot and left me sore and red.

She could successfully send me a painful message in a way I could barely handle; but I could handle it. Julie’s explicit descriptions of her work on her husband were the inspiration I needed to suggest this change to Mrs. Lion. As a result, our FLR with discipline became more effective.

The reason I picked this particular time to recommend Julie’s blog is her most recent post, “Husband Made to Take the Breast“. She took suggestions from her readers and incorporated some in her scene. In this case it was simulated breast feeding. I have no idea if this is something either of them wanted before the suggestion, but based on her post she did a fantastic job of creating a living fantasy.

For the record, I’m not interested at all in Mrs. Lion breast feeding me. This example is a way of illustrating the kind of creativity that makes her blog so much fun to read. She’s been writing for about six years. Her content is always fresh. I’ve gone back and read her earlier posts. There’s a fun, consistent story of a couple’s evolution in BDSM. That’s rare in the blogosphere.

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In: Lion's Journal, Reviews
new spanking paddle
We’ll hang this where guests can see it.

In a recent post I created the image of a paddle that had “HIS” on the business end and “HERS” on the handle. It is a good symbolic way to describe our relationship. I decided that this image should come to life. Consider it. We could hang this paddle where guests could see it. Vanilla people would ask what it means. We can jokingly reply that Mrs. Lion is the boss. The visitor will see the humor.

If the guest is kinky, the paddle will act as a secret signal that we might be too. A joking question like, “Do you spank him with this?” could prompt an equally light answer of, “When he’s naughty.” See? a secret signal.

small oak paddle
7.95 oak paddle from Paddle Trams.

Unfortunately, you can’t buy this paddle. Well, you can get the oak paddle for $7.95 USD from Paddle Tramps. What you get is a beautifully smooth oak paddle that is a perfect size for over-the-knee spanking. Mrs. Lion loved the idea of actually having this paddle to hang in our camper or our home. So we took a field trip to the local craft store.

We found permanent-cement vinyl letters. We selected 1-inch black Helvetica. I would have preferred a slightly smaller letter, but this was the best we could do. We applied the letters to the paddle. On one side we have what you see in the image. On the other side, we put our real names in the appropriate locations. It wasn’t hard to do.

pour on epoxy
This is the high-gloss coating we used.

We thought that the letters wouldn’t hold on when exposed to spanking my butt. The paddle with just the stick-on letters also looked a little crude. We bought Pour On  high-gloss, epoxy finish. This is the stuff used to make those table tops with coins or pictures under the finish. The finish is not only very glossy, it is non-slip. That translates to the paddle “sticking” where it lands.

I used half of the 8 oz product. The process of applying the Pour-On is simple. However, you must follow the mixing instructions very carefully. This is a two-part product. Follow the mixing instructions to the letter. I used a piece of wire and hung the paddle from the hole in the handle. I used a disposable, 2-inch brush to apply the expoxy. I laid it on thick covering both sides and all edges. Be sure you have newspaper or something you don’t care about under the hanging paddle. A lot of the solution will drip off.

This product takes 48 to 72 hours to fully cure. I found that our paddle was usable after 24 hours. I’m sure it will continue to cure even though we are using it.

I’ve had a longstanding interest in creating something that would communicate our power exchange in a way that wouldn’t offend vanilla people who see it. I think this is perfect for that job, not to mention it is one mean paddle!

Review
Last night, after admiring the workmanship, Mrs. Lion took the paddle for a test whomp. She liked the weight and heft. She was concerned that the edges weren’t rounded and could somehow cause a problem. I didn’t notice them and Mrs. Lion didn’t see any marks they created. She remarked that I got pink very quickly. She likes the paddle and promises to use it.

From my perspective, I could feel the weight and sting from the smallest starting swat. This is definitely an effective tool. The weight and the non-slip finish contributed to making my butt hurt from only a few not-so-hard swats. As I sit at my desk writing this, I can still feel the sting.

Of course, the unfinished version of this paddle provided many really painful kitchen lessons over the years. When you consider that you can create this attractive, personalized paddle for less than $25 and it provides pain so efficiently, it is a true bargain. We have a large collection of paddles made from exotic woods like bloodwood. I wouldn’t have guessed that this simple, oak paddle could work better than most of them.

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In: Chastity hardware, Lion's Journal, Reviews
resin sample of ghost chastity device
This is the crude, weak “resin sample” of my custom device. It was way off, but was so weak that it broke before I could even try it on.

I just completed ten days wearing a Custom Chastity Ghost chastity device. I reviewed in a prior post. Once I put in several hours sanding the roughly-finished device, I was locked into it. The device was extremely comfortable throughout the test period. Last week, Mrs. Lion decided to put me back in the Mature Metal Jailbird. This is the device I have been wearing for almost four years without a single problem.

I inspected the Ghost after it was removed. To my surprise, the back of the base ring (the part that touches my abdomen) had a really bad smell. It wasn’t a urine smell. It was a new one to me. I have years of experience staying clean while wearing a chastity device. In the shower I always soap the device, including the back of the base ring. I rinse with a shower massager that does a great job rinsing me off. Over time, some body oil and proteins will get on the device and won’t wash off in the shower. My Jail Bird never picked up a bad scent. The finish just got a bit dull. That’s why I bought an ultrasonic cleaner.

I started thinking about why the Ghost would smell bad. The only cause would be bacteria. Then I remembered that the device is 3D-printed. A 3D printer is a three-dimensional dot matrix printer. It deposits little droplets of plastic as the printing head travels across it’s path. When it finishes printing a layer, the head moves up and it prints the next. So far so good.

If you look under a magnifier at a color picture in a magazine, you will see lots of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black dots. The colors look solid when you take the magnifier away. Well, the 3D printer does the same thing. What it prints isn’t really solid. It is very porous with voids between the 3D dots deposited by the printer. An object cast with a mold will be much heavier than the same device printed by a 3D printer.

The couple that own Custom Chastity like to claim the nylon used in their cages is the same material used for medical devices. They may be right. But medical devices are solid-cast in nylon. Yes, you hear of devices that are 3D printed. The printer makes a model of the final device. Then the device model is carefully polished. All 3D -printed objects have a rough, sandpaper-like finish when they come out of the printer.

Once the device is sanded and polished, it is used to cast a mold. The final product is solid nylon that was cast in the mold. 3D-printed devices are much weaker than cast ones. I overlooked all this when I did my first review.

Ok, fair enough. I figured that the design of the Ghost took into account the loss of strength of 3D-printed objects. They did. The chastity device is strong enough for its intended purpose. What I didn’t consider is that those little pores in the device could be a problem. My theory is that my body oils, sloughed skin cells, and other proteins found their way into those pores in the base ring. Bacterial came along too. The bacteria reproduced in the lion soup I provided. Voila! Stinky base ring.

Normal washing with soap and water in my shower couldn’t clean those millions of pores. Only my ultrasonic cleaner with a special ultrasonic cleaning detergent could get rid of it. Yuck!

Another demerit for Custom Chastity is the price. A custom-printed Ghost costs $250USD plus shipping. Custom Chastity, modifies their standard design for the device to match your measurements and then uploads the design to a public 3D printing company. When they get the device back from the printer, they put it in a cheap, blue plastic zipper bag along with a decent padlock, a couple of numbered seals, and a sample of silicone lube. They then ship it off at your expense. Oh yes, they provide a “resin” sample to give you an idea of the size. That sample is produced on their inexpensive home 3D printer. The one they sent me was dreadful. It broke before I could even try it on.

Based on my research, it costs about $50 USD, tops, to print the device. The lock probably costs another $5 USD. So they make almost $200 for their trouble. That’s a very unfair profit, especially since the device is so flawed. You could argue it took them a couple of hours to modify the design for your custom cage. Ok. I invested three hours sanding it so it would be wearable.

All that notwithstanding, it turns out that the porous nylon the device is made from can easily become a petri dish breeding bacterial despite efforts to keep the device clean.

I think the future of right-out-of-the-3D-printer chastity devices is not very good. If someone would use the printed device as a matrix to build a mold and then pour the nylon, that would be perfect. But that would require work to finish the printed device, make a mold, and cast it. I would pay $400 for a device created that way.

As it stands, I can’t recommend the products from Custom Chastity. There are just too many reasons to avoid them. Save your money and get a steel, or cast plastic device.

 

 

By:
In: Chastity hardware, Lion's Journal, Reviews
ghost chastity device
This is the nylon device I tested. It’s 3D-printed. While the material looks solid, it’s actually quite porous. (Click image to enlarge)

As you might remember, I reviewed the Custom Chastity Ghost chastity device a while ago. This device has proven to be one of the most difficult to review I have ever tried. It manages to be a combination of the best fitting device I have ever worn and the most difficult to actually wear.

This device is 3D printed. The makers don’t admit it, but it is obviously from a public 3D printing company. That’s actually good news. Many use a medical grade nylon material. It has  low melting point, but nothing that affects wearing the device. It does, however, figure in to the big problem.

Let me get right to the point. 3D printers do not output glass-smooth finishes, far from it. The surface is almost like sandpaper. It’s very abrasive, particularly to sensitive genital skin. What frustrates me is that I have contacted Custom Chastity about this issue and they either claim it doesn’t bother others or just silence. Interestingly, they pack silicone lube with every unit. They know the low quality finish is difficult to wear without some protection.

Ordinarily, I would leave it at that. I would consider the custom cage to be an expensive failure. Expect to pay about $250 for a custom Ghost like mine. But I can’t let it go. The reason is that once the sandpaper finish is removed, it is the most comfortable device I have ever worn. The nylon material is very light and strong. I am generally unaware it is on me.  The padlock (included) fits into a slot (you can see it at the right side of the photo) that keeps it in place so it is always lying flat on the top of the device; no more rattling.

The design, even after being reworked to my very-short 1-1/4-inch length, is perfect. It fits me like an invisible glove. The owners of Custom Chastity are a married couple. She, apparently does all the 3D design work. He does the website and presumably wears one of their devices. Their website is improving, but is truly difficult to understand. Their fitting instructions are obscure, at least to me. I got my measurement wrong the first time because the diagram they provided confused me.

The wife communicated with me. Most of the time she didn’t seem to understand what I was saying/asking. It was a frustrating process. When I wrote them about my review and my problem with the finish, they just brushed me off saying they have the device tumble-finished. Guess what? It doesn’t work. In contrast, Mature Metal is very responsive and will do anything they can to make their devices work for each customer. The Ghost is a plastic version of the Mature Metal Jail Bird. It is smartly designed.

Because this device has such good potential, and because I invested so much in it, I decided to try to fix the finish. I had two cages: the first one that was too long, and the one that actually is a perfect fit. So I experimented on the one I couldn’t wear. I tried using a Dremel machine with sanding drums. It melted the plastic.  Tom Allen suggested that I just hand sand. So I bought a package of sand paper from Amazon.

I started with 150 grit. It took about two hours to smooth the areas that touch my skin. I then worked through progressively smaller grits until I finished with 400 grit. I then cleaned the device in hot water (100 degrees F.) using my ultrasonic cleaner. I got a smooth finish that I can wear. It took me about three hours for the ring and cage. It wasn’t hard work, but it was tedious.

I’m wearing the device now. Mrs. Lion put it on me on Thursday night. I asked if I can wear it for at least a week. I want to be sure that when I go on my next business trip, I can be locked into it with a plastic seal and be able to stay in it for the entire trip. It’s a bit irritating, but so far wearable.

I am impressed with the use of 3D printing to create a truly custom device. The other device by Pedro isn’t wearable at all. The design makes peeing without a ball bath impossible for me. The ring is super wide and therefore difficult to wear. The Ghost’s base ring is thicker than the stainless steel Jail Bird’s. That’s needed since nylon is weaker than steel. It’s possible that there may be too much friction with this device. If there is, I will try the silicone lube as a way to help.

lion penis in ghost chastity device
I’m wearing the Ghost. Note that the generous front opening allows my urethra to peek out. If it moves, it is easy to recenter it. My balls are out of the way so peeing is easy. (click image to see larger)

I’m trying so hard to make this work because as far as I know, there is no other custom plastic device out there. I need a very short cage. The “small” versions of the other products on the market are generally longer than 2-inches. I want a device that fits like a glove. If my urethra peeks out, my ability to pee is improved a lot. The device works with numbered, plastic seals. That means there is no metal, so airport metal detectors won’t be tripped by the device. You can also use a small plastic tie to fix it tightly and still fit in the numbered seal. This is great security for travel.

numbered seal
Numbered seal on Ghost. The red-colored area on the ring is there because the original color of the ring was red. You can see how intense the sanding needed to be extensive. It took off the paint.

I can’t pack a nail clipper due to security requirements. So, removing a plastic seal requires shopping for a clipper and then removing the seal. Since the seals are numbered, I can’t hide the fact I took it off from Mrs. Lion. You can see the tag (left). It nicely fills the hole. The red color is from the ring. We misplaced my white ring. It’s probably around because I was sanding it. You can see there is very little red color left. The sanding took it off.

Here we have a very well-designed device with a flaw that under most circumstances would disqualify it from consideration. But, and this is a very big but, there is nothing else out there that in my case, will work.

I think that most people who wear chastity devices full time will agree that the best way to live with a device is by having one that fits perfectly. Long-term wear with an off-the-shelf product frequently becomes unbearably uncomfortable. Once a custom made device has been adjusted (most of us send our devices back for adjustment), it can stay on as long as desired. I’ve been wearing a Mature Metal Jail Bird for over 3 1/2 years.

I’ve worn the Ghost for about ten days. After a few hours of sanding, without lube it is completely comfortable. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the nylon its made of is porous. That shouldn’t surprise me. 3D-printed objects are always porous. That’s not a problem in terms of strength, but it does cause me a bit of concern. Those pores in the nylon pick up organic material and start to smell. After ten days, the back of the base ring had an unpleasant odor. I shower every day and make sure I wash the cage as best I can. I move the base ring away from my body and soap it up and rinse thoroughly. That isn’t enough for this device.

To be fair, the smell isn’t detectable unless you actually sniff the ring. When I was removing the ring for play (I remove and put on the ring, Mrs. Lion handles the actual cage.), I noticed a faint scent. Further investigation revealed the back of the base ring (the part that touches my body all the time) had an unpleasant smell. I put the device through our ultrasonic cleaner with the special detergent. That removed all traces of the odor.

I expect that soaking the device in a cleaning solution would also work. My concern is that with long term wear, which is what I do, the smell would build up and become detectable to others. Also, there is a real chance that organic material in the porous nylon could incubate bacteria in the warm, damp environment and eventually cause skin problems for that area.

This isn’t a problem with the stainless steel Jail Bird. Steel is not porous at all. Any crud it accumulates is easily washed off. The fact that the smell (not urine scent by the way) remained after daily showers is concerning to me. It means that I can’t prevent the problem while I wear the device. That’s too bad. It’s super comfortable and very light weight.

Because of this potentially dangerous defect, I don’t recommend long term wearing without regular cleaning with an ultrasonic device or some very strong solution that can get into the pores of the device. Weekly cleaning should keep things safe and sweet smelling. I will still be wearing this device for trips that include air travel. Twenty-four hour wear for a week or two is probably safe. When I wear it in the future, I will pay closer attention to the back of the ring and try to scrub it with soap and a washcloth while I am wearing the device. Anti-bacterial soap is a good choice for this.

There is another plastic device, at least mostly plastic, made by Steelwerks. I’m unlikely to try this device. For one thing it is a full tube, and I prefer a cage. For another, it costs well over $1,000 USD. That’s much more than I can afford. For now, at least, if you want a plastic device that fits, Custom Chastity’s products are the only ones on the market. To make their products wearable, you will have to sand them for hours. Maybe someone will see the need for a well-finished plastic device and give us a choice.

The Custom Chastity devices are very well designed. That have two potentially-fatal flaws: As delivered, they have a rough finish that irritated me in just a few hours and actually removed sensitive skin on my penis. Two or three hours with sandpaper will fix that. The other problem is that the nylon is porous and will collect material from your body. Normal showering, with attention to the device, didn’t prevent a bad smell after ten days. Combined with the irritation from the rough finish, if you don’t smooth it yourself, is a great opportunity for infections. This can be prevented by regular cleaning with an ultrasonic cleaner with detergent.

My advice about this product is that if you are willing to smooth the rough 3D-printed finish and sanitize the porous nylon that the device is made from, I think you will be happy with this as a long term or travel device. With a plastic, numbered seal, the device is comfortable, secure, and undetectable when you go through metal detectors. I will be wearing mine on my next trip.

In summary this is a Buy with caution recommendation.