DIY: Make a flogger

To start with, you'll need rope.

This stuff is what I bought to use. 100 feet gave me enough to make my two, but you'll want the 100 for just one as well - I used more than half of it.

"It is great for camping, tie downs, emergency and survival uses," says the description on a different listing for the same product. Heck yeah. Flogging emergency, years without a flogging over here. Survival definitely at stake. Lovely purple paracord to the rescue. Of course you can choose whatever color you fancy, or use a different sort of rope altogether. If you choose a different rope, or a thicker one that you'll need to unravel, you'll want a smaller cord as well for the handle. With this flogger, I bought some small white cord at Lowe's for the handle so it would show up better in the photographs - I previously just used the paracord for both. It could look quite.. striking if you wanted to splurge and get another color for the handle.

I wondered what kind of person buys nylon paracord as a gift.
I had a good giggle out of that, my husband chuckled as well.

Step 1
Make sure you have some good sharp scissors. A helper wouldn't hurt either, to cut the cord while you hold it tight. This stuff is pretty tough. Decide how long you want the entirety of your flogger to be, from tip to tip, including the handle, and start making loops that are that long. Also decide if you want individual tails or neat loops. With this flogger, I went for neat loops, as they are just prettier to me than ragged ones, and I already had some like that. If you want individual tails, hold your loops with the loose ends all the way at the bottom (not the part in your hand). If you want the flogger to stay looped, then loop the loose ends around so they will become part of the handle and not seen - somewhere close to your palm.

Try to keep the loops in your hand neat. Make loops until you're satisfied with the thickness/weight/quantity of tails. This could go a lot of ways. I'd say make at least 5 loops, at a minimum, for this flogger to work well. I did a lot more. If you're using thick rope (1/2 inch), 3 loops would work.

 

Step 2
Take the rest of the cord (or the other color), and make a loop of the length you want your handle to be (about 6 inches) with an end that passes over the top of it quite a bit. You'll want this long because you have to apply a lot of pressure to it in a little while. Note: mine wasn't long enough.

Lay your loop against the coils with the loopy bit facing the tails, and the rest of the cord still attached to it.

Step 3
Begin to wrap the cord around the coils and the loop. After each pass, pull it tight. I'm not kidding. Really tight. You'll feel it when it's right, everything just sort of squooshes together and becomes firm.

Do not hold it like this. Hold it in your fists and keep the pressure up. This was the only way I could get a photo.

Step 4
When your wrapping has almost completely covered the loop and there's just a little tiny bit of loop left showing, cut the cord and leave a little extra. Pass the cut end through the loop. Pull on the end that you left long back when you started wrapping. You'll have to pull hard. Pull until the loop is pulled up under your handle coils and disappears. You want it up there pretty far, but it won't go terribly far if your wrapping is properly tight. 1-2 coils under is about as far as we've managed, even with both of us pulling.

Step 5
Trim the ends of your handle cord as close as possible. Then, decide if you want loops or loose tails on the business end. I did about half and half on one of mine, but as mentioned, I prefer the loops. If you want them, go ahead and cut your loops loose. Individual tails will also poke the white insides of the paracord out, which you can trim later after some use for appearances. If you're using bigger rope, go ahead and cut the ends and untwist the rope to your desired level.

Step 6
Go flog and/or be flogged! Or hide it in a drawer from where it will never see the light of day again, y'know, your choice.

If all that seems like too much work, and, indeed, I've given myself quite some few blisters doing this, you can always buy one (blisters totally not included!) from my etsy shop.