The good birch rod

That's my (Marcus') butt, after some minutes of warm-up and about 7 minutes more of birching...
As we are currently residing at the countryside, we have experimented a lot with birches. The birch rod is, or rather was, the preferred implement of corporal punishment in Sweden in the old days and Carolyn and I are intrigued by it. Just having to go out in nature to get the twigs for your own butt is punishment enough, not to mention that Carolyn has to approve the "quality" of the birches I pick for maximum effect.

But more about the pros and cons later. Now to the issue of this post: how to make a birch bundle, which I call birch rod from now on.

A birch rod consists of twigs -- even if it's not really from a birch tree -- in a bundle. For us, the actual birch tree provides the best material, since its twigs are both durable and flexible. Other flexible twigs are good too, like these ones we found during an afternoon walk:

They won't break during the spanking, and it's so flexible it almost sounds like a whip. Birch twigs are also the traditional material in Sweden for birching rods. Remember: the swishiest twigs come from young birch trees. The fresher, the better (and more painful! Picture below) We also try to take the straightest twigs possible, which prevents the twigs from getting to unwanted places like back, thigh and sides.

Less is more, also when it comes to birch making. While thick and big birch rods look impressive, it’s the small, thin ones that sting the most. Five to seven twigs in a bundle is usually good. So, after cutting 5-7 twigs we trim them of leaves and other branches to lessen the wind resistance. We also try to make the branches equally long, somewhere between 50 to 70cm. We also usually make two at a time though they tend to wear out after aproximatly 5-10 minutes of hard continous spanking, when they look like this:


Why the fascination about the birch? After all, there's the hassle of getting them in the first place (they are best fresh, otherwise you can keep them for a day in a vase with water), and the swishing branches leave so much mess inside the house that I have to have a "second punishment" of cleaning up after getting spanked.

But the pros? It just gives a wonderful --or terrible--sting. It's wonderful now when I think about it, but awfully terrible during the spanking itself. It's also so much more dreadful getting them when you know what awaits you. I usually can't hold position when being birched, especially when it’s hard and fast because the effect really is cumulative. With effective tying of my arms and legs though, I scream but I can't get away!

Although it hurts really much, another pro is that it leaves only superficial damage: no risk of injury, but it can leave you with welts, and sometimes very light bleeding. This is one implement you can actually be spanked with everyday, opposed to for instance the hairbrush. For the spanker's part, she/he can hit as hard as she can with this in mind. Except for being conscious of the neighbors hearing my screams, Carolyn says she can go on with it for a loooong time. My butt surely knows this from, um, experience.

/Marcus, who now has his own profile