My purchase of the A080 back in May, along with my tweaking and modifying, has sparked a renewed interest in chastity devices around the Edge of Vanilla Labs. The open cage design of the A080 promised to be a winner, but as the summer warmed up, I ran into some issues. The wide, flat cuff ring 9more of a band than a ring, really), was comfortable enough after I brazed the tips to keep it from opening, and then sanded, buffed, and polished the hell out of the edges to make things less sharp and pinch-prone. However, the cuff, during the hotter days, tended to push my loose testicle skin up and under the cage. This would be more pronounced as the day wore on, making it difficult to even get in and out of a car.

One weekend, during which I became so tired of the St Vitus’ Dance of making little pulls and adjustments, I had to give up and try some lube between the cage and my skin. And while it helped a little, at first, the lube managed to get around the cuff ring itself, causing it to slide down a bit. Later, lube managed to get into the cage itself; those snug, circular rings that held so firmly onto my were useless when a bit of silicone got in there; my shaft ended up in the most uncomfortable positions, and I finally had to remove the device entirely.

There are three main considerations when buying a chastity device: Comfort, Convenience, and Security. While we all like to think that we’re getting these things for the Security, if the device isn’t Comfortable, then you aren’t going to wear it, and if the device isn’t convenient, then you aren’t going to wear it consistently.

I wrote about this on The Chastity Forums:

It’s been a couple of months, so I thought I’d update this a little further. While I still like the device, I’ve discovered that in the warm weather, my testicle skin gets more elastic (i.e., saggy), and there’s more of a tendency for it to fold up and get trapped between the device the the ring. I’ll start off great in the morning, but by the end of the day at work I get frequent pinching that is distracting, and difficult to adjust. That is, I’ll often pinch myself even *more* when trying to alleviate the initial pinching. I’ve tried different underwear, switched from jeans to shorts, but it doesn’t make much difference. Oh, and driving can be tricky; more than once I’ve needed to adjust myself with passengers in the car. The issues seems to be mainly that the wide, flat ring, which is great for keeping the cage in place, also presents more surface area to catch loose skin. I tried putting some lube on, but that made the cuff ring move around too much, plus it kept my from being “secure” inside the cage. I was hunting around on DH Gate, and I found a style with a thicker cuff ring – with a bonus that is also has one of those integrated locks. I’m a little concerned that the only sizes are 45 mm and 50 mm (1.77″ and 1.96″ respectively) which surrounds my comfort zone of 47mm (1.87, or 1-7/8). I’d imagine that going for the smaller diameter would make more sense, but I’m also concerned about the entire ring being *too* tight, especially if the cage is off and it’s just a cock ring for the evening.

Since I didn’t remember this being such a problem back in the old days, I dug around in the back of my sock drawer and started pulling out all of my old devices, figuring that I needed to start from scratch. I hunted through a series of rings, pins, cuffs, etc., and started trying things on.

Although the CB6000 has become the most popular device on the market, I’ve discovered that it doesn’t fit me well. I even cut one back to be a little shorter, in order to shove everything inside, but it squeezes things in a way that was never comfortable for me. I put that aside and pulled out my old CB3000. Rings, pins, and a little KSD to help hold things in place, and it fit like a glove. I remembered why we keep using this, long after other models were flooding the market. Our anatomy is different from person to person, but for some reason, this particular device is so comfortable that I’ve often forgotten I was wearing it.

I hadn’t worn it in over a year, so I spent a week or two, trying it with different rings and spacers; I already knew which ones worked for me previously, but now I was on a mission to determine just what was going to cause discomfort. I stopped using lube, switched out the plastic ring for the steel one I had made for the Fort, and did other things. I discovered that I’d get some testicle skin pinching, although not nearly as much. So I tried some silicone lube between the tube and my skin. That worked better than on the A080 because the tube is, well, a tube, that is, solid.

Unfortunately, that brought up one of the few issues I have with the CB3000 — it’s an odor trap. Even with the teeny little bit of lubricant that I used, some ended up inside the tube, where it picked up sweat and urine. Daily showers kept things fairly okay, but there was definitely a bit of odor after a week or so of non-stop wear. I didn’t remember it being as much of an issue, but the warm weather probably was a factor. After the weather turned a little chilly at the end of September, I gave it another try. Things were better, and a two week stint, including lots of yard work, and helping at a local fair, and things seemed mainly okay… except that wearing it doing a lot of outdoor work exposed some stress fractures around the locking pin areas that I knew would cause breakage soon.

And that’s how I ended up back in The Fort.

I wrote about The Fort just about a year ago, when I pulled it out of the device archives and tried it out for the hell of it. Even though I had already made some small modifications, I took it back into the workshop and filed, ground, polished, and buffed out any sharp edges or corners that I could find. Then I gave the cage a final buffing (because shiny!) and locked it on.

Like the CB3000, it’s a very comfortable (like a glove) fit. I use a KSD-3G to help hold things in place; remember, the device itself is over 6 oz, and with the cuff ring and lock, it’s over 12 oz. I decided to wear this with no lube, and it did surprisingly well for a few days. I did notice, however, that like the other devices, there was some small amount of skin pinching between the underside of the cage and my testicle skin. Again, I put a small amount of lube just in that one area, and things seemed to feel fine. The ring that I made has some flat surface area, which provides enough friction to keep it from sliding too much, so I try to avoid any lube around that part.

Mrs Edge was gone on a church retreat, so I spent a few days at work, and working in my yard, climbing ladders, crawling under the tractor, and once again, I have to admit how surprised I was that it really was generally comfortable. The biggest difference was sleeping; the CB3000 just goes wherever my tonker points it, but the Fort is heavy enough to succumb to the effects of gravity when I turn on my side. And last night, as I was laying on my back, Mrs Edge threw her leg over mine, and complained that it didn’t just move out of the way for her. Or something like that – she was 3/4 asleep.

So, I’m not sure where I need to go next. All of the devices feel good when I first put them on. The problems come in during the course of the day as my skin stretches and sags. And the cooler weather means that there could be less reason for stretching, but even so, sitting on an office chair all day or getting in and out of a car still sometimes mean that I need to make a quick hitch. The open cage definitely caused the most problems, but will that be solved by a cage with a regular ring instead of a band? I’m no longer sure, but I do have one on its way from China.

In the meantime, I do have to say that there is something inherently erotic about wearing a device that is so massive that the lock is actually the weak point.

Oh yeah, I forgot about those 4am erections in these things…