The Rod...a review

We were really delighted to try out S(A)X’s wonderful The Rod.

Steve very kindly gave us one of these new toys during our last visit, hot off the production line. It’s made of Delrin. S(A)X’s website describes it as:

“strong, hard and rigid. An excellent engineering plastic where dimensional stability combined with high creep resistance and the ability to withstand fatigue are a necessary requirement … The Rod … is a S(A)X masterpiece, it is flexible, long lasting and stings like HELL!“

He’s not wrong, there. Delrin is really interesting stuff. Here’s Wiki:

“Polyoxymethylene (commonly referred to as POM and also known as polyacetal or polyformaldehyde) is an engineering thermoplastic used in precision parts that require high stiffness, low friction and excellent dimensional stability. It is commonly known under DuPont’s trade name Delrin”

It has a wide variety of uses. Here are a few from Wiki, but it’s worth visiting the actual page to read the full list:

“Delrin has also recently found use in the manufacturing of Irish flutes (traditionally made of wood), tin whistles (traditionally made of metal), and bagpipes (traditionally made of wood). Delrin flutes sound similar or identical to wooden flutes, but have none of the shrinkage or cracking issues usually associated with wooden instruments in hot, cold, or dry environments. Builders such as Des Seery, Michael Cronnolly of M&E Flutes, Tony Dixon, and Rob Forbes build Delrin flutes.

“Delrin has become an increasingly popular material for guitar picks … such as the Dunlop “Tortex” pick gained popularity due in part to an international ban on the trade of tortoiseshell in the late 1970s, which was then a common material used for guitar picks.

“Delrin is also much treasured by many makers and players of harpsichords, being used for the plectra … Delrin has been used for many years by a number of cutlery manufacturers to make knife handles, especially for jacknives. Delrin is used to make combination wheels in most high-security safe locks … It is also used to make frame sliders and knee pucks for motorcycle riders/racers, as well as for slide gloves used when longboarding. Delrin is gaining popularity for the manufacture of diving equipment, due to its light weight and its low porosity to gas under pressure.. Delrin is also being commonly used as a substitute for horn in the koiguchi on modern-made Japanese swords”

And the list goes on and on … oh, and this, too:

“Delrin has been used increasingly to create body-piercing jewelry, especially tunnels or plugs for use in stretched holes”

And it makes a VERY nice fiendish Rod. We took The Rod with us on our recent long drive to Sydney. We stayed overnight in an old fashioned motel, and out came the new toy:

Impressive, isn’t it? It only comes in black and the hitting part of it is 60cm (24″) long. The total length including the timber handle is 90cm (36″).

We’d seen Delrin canes advertised on various sites but hadn’t had the chance to try them. They always sounded like they worked well. Cane-IAC writes about their Delrin collection:

“These canes are very strong and will stand up to just about anything you can throw at them or throw them at. The other very big advantage to this collection is that they are easy to keep clean and sanitized”

These all sounded like useful points for modern kinksters, especially those who share their implements with more than one person. Natural material canes may retain germs and it’s tricky to clean wood (which reacts to cleaning substances such as Clorox wipes or simple household glass cleaner) without damage. Acrylic and Delrin canes don’t have these problems.

So, how do they feel? Sherie of The Dixie Within reviewed Cane-IAC’s delrin Master’s Choice SR and found it:

“much thuddier and heavier than what I am used to … but it was nice in it’s own right. My ideal fun spanking starts with sting goes to thud and ends with sting so in a caning session this makes the perfect middle segment. It has just enough weight to it for a moderate “cooldown” in the caning before ending with the “big finish”"

We found The Rod to work in a similar fashion. For our first session with this new toy I directed sol to stretch face down and bum up on the motel’s bed. I warmed him up with my hand:

And then applied The Rod:

Delrin is flexible and it took a few practice strokes to get the feel of the implement. You do have to be careful because it’s length makes wrapping a distinct possibility. But once you work out how and where it’s going to land, it becomes much easy to use … and I could really begin to apply it. I loved the way it bounced on the skin. And loved the marks that soon appeared:

When sol and I talked about how it felt later we agreed that it somehow crossed the line between thuddy and stingy, being both. It’s density made it thuddy … and yet as Steve Sax so accurately observes on his site:

“it stings like HELL!“