I am certainly no S&M, BDSM caning expert, but I have heard it said over and over again that the cane is the most advanced toy in a top's arsenal. What is meant by this is that the cane is not something you can use properly and responsibly without receiving training—not without causing bruising or injury to the person being caned—and they certainly are not as easy to use as, say, a flogger, slapper or paddle!
A cane "can split a fanny like a water balloon," as it is put in "Screw the Roses, Send Me the Thorns" - one of the best books for beginners (and pros alike) that we sell. That book continues on to inform us that, "Cane strokes compress the skin leaving two welts with a U-shaped trough between them. There are two sensations to the cane, as well. When you strike there is an initial sting, then, a few seconds later, the nerves that were compressed with the skin begin to return to their original size and a new, searing pain fires up radiating outwardly from the twin welts."
Ouch!
I'm definitely not interested in trying to teach anyone how to use a cane here in this little blog entry. They are just too hard to learn to use properly without receiving the guidance of a competent sadist who has had plenty of experience. In fact, I really want to emphasize that. You should just change your mind about buying a cane—if you don't have access to some BDSM organization or group that gives seminars on the subject, or access to an experienced individual who can show you first-hand how to use one. The cane is just too darn easy to do wrong! So, unless you can get individual guidance, forget about the canes for now. Really. I'm not kidding. Please forget about the idea. Stash any canes you've bought already. Sure, they look so innocent and all, right?
(…well, *I* look quite innocent! That should tell you something!)
Finding Cane Instructors
How do you find such sage guidance? The big national groups, like the ones now owned by Penthouse Magazine, Bondage.com and Alt.com are good potential resources for such a search, as are collarme.com and fetlife.com. These sites all require a membership of some kind, but all offer a free option (some are entirely free, run with donations)—with those that are pay sites having limits set to your membership level with gradients of privileges depending on the level of membership you go for.
(Tread carefully - read the first entry I wrote in the Dungeon Zone series, New Submissives Seeking Play Partners - BE CAREFUL!!! even if you aren't a submissive but especially if you are using these services for the first time.)
Also, you can perform a search for local groups using Google or another search engine, using the keywords "BDSM group" and perhaps your state initials or the name of a local city or region. Here's the search for North Carolina's Raleigh area.
(We will not be held responsible for any experiences you might have trying out these groups or services.)
Some (a little) information:
I will tell you right up front - do not buy bamboo canes. They splinter and split very easily, and can cut and tear skin if they do. If you already own some bamboo canes and want to use them, keep them soaked in salt water. I assure you, oils or other treatments will not work. Wicker and rattan are good, as are ones made of birch and yew. Rattan usually comes with a finish of either a water-based polyurethane or raw linseed oil. One can also obtain rattan canes without a finish that do well if they are kept moist or soaked in salt water, but the finishing really helps these last much longer. Birch ones are very flexible and are often classified more as "switches" than as canes, and sting very well.
Some good synthetic materials include aluminum arrow shafts (carbon shafts tend to fracture) of varying diameters (these are sold at most sports shops), wooden dowels, and Lucite rods for some suggestions, but there are many others with all kinds of coverings, coatings, and materials as varied as the minds of enterprising sadists have come up with over the years.
Thicker canes (often called 'rods') give the experience of more of a thud-like effect than that of a sting. They can bruise very easily—and that is NOT the point of using a heavier cane. The thud is the experience you want to impart, so a light enough touch is needed to avoid bruising at all costs. Rods are intended to be a part of the caning experience, not the whole thing. One should have an arsenal of different kinds of canes and understand their use and their effects individually, using several effects to build upon one another and break-up the experience into several kinds of smaller experiences.
Even after you have received training from an experienced teacher, practice a lot – on pillows and other materials – before taking the cane to a human subject. Canes work with very little effort. If you are swinging hard, you are doing it wrong. Many experienced people cane with a "backhand" stroke, using only their wrist, just to give you an idea as to how lightly caning is done, and having a very light grip on the cane allows the cane to naturally reverberate by its own "bounce" off of the subject. Keep the cane off of the tips of your index fingers – let it rest instead off of the pads between your fingers, for instance. This again is to allow the cane's natural "bounce" to occur.
Those are just a couple of the things people usually get "wrong" when learning to use a cane, and I hope they have helped to emphasize why you need a competent personal guide to learn from in order to responsibly use a cane on anyone yourself!
Using a Cane As A Sensual Tool
The cane can also be used as a sensual tool all over the body. That is, they aren't only used for raising endorphin levels! By combining gliding strokes and light brushing of either the tip or shaft, they can be used in a very sensuous manner. If you have a cane and want to use it before you have received some good training, use it this way, with very light strokes and brushing movements for now. Eventually you will find someone to help you learn to use it properly for other purposes! Till then, use your floggers, slappers and paddles for topping purposes. (Much of the above applies to whips also - they really require good training and tons of practice on pillows and such before ever using whips on a human, in a similar vein and for the same reasons!)
Meanwhile, perhaps start building up your collection of canes in anticipation of that training forth-coming. There is nothing like having a bunch of canes hanging in a closet (the best storage method) to give you the impetus you may need to find that right teacher! And thank you for waiting till such a teacher comes along.
