Serious and Large Leather Toys by Jack Rinella

I've got to give my friend Mark (not the one who asks the questions) credit for having the best basement in the mid West. It's the size of comfortable apartment and is absolutely loaded with toys. Sex toys, that is. The place could be a showroom for the best kink catalog in the industry.

Truth is, Mark does sell the stuff and has the uncanny knack of being able to get most anything legal. (Write FPN6D, Box 1014, Novi, MI 48376.) So if I'm going to continue that list of things too large to fit in a top's toy bag, all I have to do is reflect on his basement.

Where to start in this mind-boggling arena? How about with a two ton hoist with either boot straps or boots bolted to a cross piece so that one can hang one's submissive upside down. There is the usual dog cage that fits two. How about a bed? If that's not enough then try his sling or obstetrician's examining table. He doesn't have a dentist's chair but he does have a "table" with holes for roping your playmate down. The center drops out to expose the mid section of your bound salve for your pleasure.

There are (it seems) miles of tubing hooked to a vacuum pump as well as electrical devices such as violet wands, vibrators, low amperage generators, and a cattle prod. In the non-electrical area, there are tubes and containers for enemas (add water, wine, soap, catnip, but only if you know what you're doing). Needless to say, the walls are replete with smaller toys such as crops, whips, chains, ropes, hoods, hand cuffs, as well as cast iron restraints for neck, wrists, ankles, wrists at the waist, wrist to thigh, and cages for the head. All of these are also available in leather as well.

On the far wall, to the right as you come down the stairs, is a unique restraint device, called an Amsterdam box. It is a shallow closet (2 feet deep at most). It's back wall has appropriately placed leather straps, to hold one's boy or girl tightly within the closet. It closes with a sliding door to make the bondage complete. Not to deprive a Master of the use he or she may wish to make of the slave thus bound, there are small doors in the sliding door that may be used to gain access to the bound servant in the appropriate areas.

No dungeon is complete without a cross, so Mark has a St. Andrew's Cross. It is shaped liked an "X" and holds its chattel in a spread eagle position. Crosses also come in the traditional "T" shape.

For his annual party, Mark will assemble a full size (10x10) jail in his living room. The guy takes his SM seriously.

My favorite "large toy" is a "peg seat", a low stool or chair with a dildo firmly attached to the seat so that its occupant is happily but firmly impaled on it.

The list of furniture-sized accouterments can go on for pages of course, with stocks, beams, posts, benches, chairs, etc. One’s imagination can literally run wild.

And that is, in fact, how a good dungeon is put together. The peg seat mentioned above for instance is one of my home-made, not so expensive contraptions. I had read about peg seats in a book somewhere and decided to make one for myself (or should I say for my slave’s self?). One day while walking through a large department store, I saw a short stand used for a support a seat in a motor boat. It was sturdy and had holes in the right places to bolt a seat to it. Cost: less than ten dollars.

I brought it home, cut a square piece of plywood, fastened the end of a broom handle in its center and then put the plywood in place on the base. It then only needed a few holes drilled in it so that I had a place to fasten ropes for tying down nuts and a few hooks in the side for attaching wrist restraints. Voila, the best seat in the house!

Ideas are really the basis of good SM and good ideas spring from research, discussion, and observation. Visit the "sex toy" stores in your area, and patronize them as you can, but you don’t always have to drop a bundle. A good harness, for instance, costs over 60 dollars. On the other hand, the parts for one cost less than fifteen. Borrow a book from the library about leather crafting and you've got the genuine, home made version with a evening’s work.

Read magazines and invest in the catalogs that are advertised. There are even a few good books (illustrated) that show these large devices. Some even give directions on how to make them. And don't limit your reading to modern, glossy brochures. A book on the history of punishment, for instance, will give rise to lots of great ideas. Those puritans knew what they were doing.

When you "make your own", do so carefully. Test everything for strength and build it stronger than you think necessary. Try it out on yourself first to insure safety. Remember that big toys need to be cleaned just as carefully as small ones. I never use that peg seat for instance without putting a condom on the dildo. Safe is the first word in the credo, "Safe, sane, and consensual."

This talk about "large sex toys" makes me think about "large sex organs." But you knew that about me I'm sure! The largest and most important sex organ we have is our brain. Not only is that where we experience the thrill of the sensations, but that is where the ideas, the creativity, and the drive to realize them originates. The best scenes are well-planned. The best equipment comes from well-thought ideas, well executed.

There is more to SM than quick anonymous sex. The best leather encounters take time for planning and preparation. I once built a dungeon in the basement of a home I owned. After two years, there were still improvements to be made and new ideas to be put into practice. Fortunately, there is enjoyment in the getting ready as well in the having done.

Safe, sane, and consensual means that leather folk have to think. Thinking provides more than safety though. It provides excitement, diversity, originality, satisfaction, and pleasure. So the next time you fuck, and every time you fuck, use your brain. The results will be better because of it.

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