Suspension Hand Slings

The Mr S Suspension Hand Slings

Vendor: Mr S Leather

Construction

The body of this restraint pair is a curvated piece of bridle leather straps.  The bottom is slightly convex to follow the autonomy of the hand’s bottom; the top is protracted. While the body is made out of sturdy leather, it is padded and lined with soft garment leather. Unlike on their cuff-style restraints or the Four Buckle Hand Restraint (more on that later), the padding is rather stiff. This supports the wrist and keeps is upright yet makes the restraints comfortable to wear. For perfect and tight fit on the wrist, the restraint is tightly closed using Velcro and then secured with a roller buckle belt. Next to the buckle is a welded D-ring.

The top of the protracted tip is folded and secured with two rivets to house a tooled aluminum bar. On both end of the bar, panic carabiners with big, welded O-rings on the end connect the bar to another strap of bridle leather. This is threaded through the two O-rings. Between two rivets which hold the strap together sits another panic carabiner.

The Roller Buckle and D-ring on the back

Like all panic (or security as they are also called) carabiners they can turn to adjust a bit to the sub’s movement. There are no sharp edges to prevent damage on ropes. The release for the opening is tooled and textured for best grip even in stress situations.

Playing with the Suspension Hand Slings

When I have gotten these restraints this summer, they marked the end of era for me: For almost 10 years I have been using the Four Buckle Hand Restraints from Mr S for any kind of bondage and fettering. They were actually part of my first ever order from Mr S. But, when fettering someone on a standing position like on a St Andrews Cross, the Four Buckle Hand Restraints were not the best choice. The D-ring positioning was not perfect if you needed to hold onto something and panic carabiners were always a given in case the bottom collapsed (which luckily has never happened to me yet but happens more often than you probably think).

Connection of the Panic Carabiners with the Aluminum Bar

The Suspension Hand Slings fix all that! It is rare that a piece of (specialized) bondage gear instantly becomes part of my standard (or in this case flogging) play bag but the Suspension Hand Slings did just that. They were designed for the anchor point being above the restraint so there is no stressful horizontal pull on the wrists like when the D-ring is parallel to the arm. The layout and material choice is the perfect sweet spot between rigidity and stiffness for wrist support but not cutting of circulation and allowing enough leeway for the fingers and hand to move bit. Even when broken and getting softer in, they retain enough stiffness.

Stressful situations like being subjected to pain or being suspended can lead to circulation problems even on fit subs. Because of this, when doing suspension or just having a subs fettered standing, you should always use panic carabiners yet I rarely see them in public play spaces. Luckily, in these restraints they are built in. They look and feel like professional sailing equipment though sadly there is no kN value printed or engraved on them. In order to release them, twist the capsule 180° and even under pull they will open. The capsule is kept in place with a coil spring which is just strong enough to keep it in place but prevents the capsule from turning. Because twisting the capsule is such a satisfying feeling (yeah, I know that sometimes I am weird), I often just play around with the capsule. I have not counted how often I turned it but I have not noticed the spring getting any softer or the capsule developing any give.

The Velcro Fastener next the Padded and Garment Leather Lined Inside of the Restraint

Speaking of carabiners: Despite the rigid fettering, due to the twisting carabiners, there is a bit movement possible for the sub to work out sensations. This is important because swift, uncontrolled movements caused by pain could otherwise lead to injuries when the wrist is constrained by the cuff. Especially when whipping someone, I have subs doing pull-ups in these restraints because the bars provide such good support. So when doing extreme pain play I highly recommend also to put the ankles in bondage.

While this toy is called Suspension Hand Sling a word of caution is in order: Suspending someone solely vertically from their wrist, puts extreme stress on the joints, especially the wrists and the shoulders. There are some very well trained subs with extreme upper body muscles who can endure this stress position for a limited time. But neither your sub not you should over-estimate what he can do. So when doing suspension, check-in more often as usual.

The Panic Carabiners

I have also gotten a few reader questions about horizontal suspension with these restraints. In theory it works when the bottom is lying on his back. But you have to thread a tension strap or rope through the D-ring on the body to the major pull of the arm weight is caught there. But still what little pull is left, will make the tip bend upwards causing stress on the wrists. So for horizontal suspension I recommend the Four Buckle restraints.

If in a scene the need for another wrist restraint arises and you have these restraints in your play bag you can detach the part with the carabiners from the bar completely and use what is left as a standard restraint cuff. But since the restraint cannot be turned on the wrist, the D-ring always stays on the bottom of the hand which is a bit unpractical.