Balance on Floggers and How to Trim a Flogger

by Kim with thanks to Visa

When you buy a flogger, one of the most important things is the "balance." Balance on a flogger is the point at which you can balance it on your finger, tresses hanging on one side, the handle on the other. The balance of a flogger should be just about where your finger closest to the tresses lies as you grip the handle. A well-balanced flogger is a joy to wield. It doesn't tire your arm. It sings in your hand.

I've bought inexpensive floggers (my very first flogger is the $50 cat we offer, and that was AGES ago and it is still in beautiful condition...a good introductory flogger and that's why I carry it) and I've bought top of the line.

I have a few Lashes by Sarah, and I have one dearly-prized Heartwood (which was a gift). That's about as top of the line as it gets. I have had to trim the tresses on almost every single flogger I've ever purchased, except the Heartwood. Sarah does great floggers, but her balance is a little low for my tastes,so I trim up the tresses a bit and then it's perfect.

Beginners don't feel it right away, but I assure you once people work with floggers more they do feel a difference in a balanced versus an unbalanced flogger. It makes a big difference.

To trim the tresses on a flogger! BE CAREFUL! If you trim them too much you've destroyed the flogger. Once the balance goes too far towards the back of the handle, it's ruined. Which is why (I would presume?) flogger makers err on the side of what I call a "lower" balance than a "higher" balance. If you follow these directions, you'll never go wrong.

1. Find the point of balance on your flogger. Hold it on one finger. Hang the tresses to one side. Your finger should be on the handle somewhere close to the tresses.

2. See if that balance point (when it will hang without falling to either side) is where your finger closest to the tresses naturally hits when you comfortably hold the flogger. Some people hold higher up on the handle, some lower. It's up to you.

3. If the balance point is closer to the tresses than you like, you can trim it. If the balance point is further away from the tresses than you like, you're out of luck. In that case the balance will never be perfect for you with that flogger. You can't "add" to tresses, although you could add weight to the handle where the tresses meet the handle I suppose. I've never run into that problem.'

4. Put your finger on the handle where you want the balance point to be. Start by picking up one tress, and laying it back into your hand. What you've just done is removed the weight of one tress from the weight hanging from the tresses. Make sense? Continue picking up a tress at a time, and removing the weight from the hanging tresses, until the balance point is where you want it.

5. Count the number of strands in your hand. Let's say it's one.

6. Count the number of strands in your flogger total. Let's say it's 20.

7. Find how long your tresses are. Let's say it's a 20" flogger. ("bedroom length" is 18" for anyone who cares)

8. Since you were holding ONE tress in your hand, and it's 20" long you ideally want to remove 20" of weight from your flogger to get your perfect balance. Since there are 20 tresses, you will want to remove ONE inch from each tress, for a total of 20" removed from the full weight of the tresses.

9. I personally get so paranoid when trimming tresses, that I will actually start with HALF the length I think I should take off. It's hard to be exact when cutting. I would rather have to trim more than ruin it. So if this were me, I would start off by removing 1/2" from each tress. Then see where the balance point is again. If it's still off I'd take another 1/4" off. Believe it or not, that normally does it. Like I said, it's hard to be exact when trimming the tresses. After that if it were still off, I'd trim tiny little misicule ridges off the ends of each until I got it right.