BDSM Knife Play | Testing Your Edges

For kinksters who want to explore BDSM knife play, safety is absolutely crucial - and any exploration needs to be safe, sane and consensual. We asked Cameryn Moore for her recommendations for performing BDSM knife play.

We found the knife at a market stall that specialised in estate-sale silverware. One can’t properly rummage through a basket of steak knives; thankfully, this knife was close to the top. It had a sort of cream handle and a serrated edge that was dull but not rusty.  “What do you think?” I asked, holding the knife out by the blade, offering it to him handle first. Our eyes locked as he took it by the handle and grabbed my wrist with his other hand, twisted it gently, and dragged the tip of the knife across my open palm. My entire arm jolted away from the cold pointed metal, and my fingers twitched. 

Still looking at me, he smiled. “That will do nicely,” he said and turned to pay the vendor, while I drew a deep breath to settle my pounding heart - and cunt.

What is BDSM knife play? 

It’s whatever you can do to your lover with a knife or other sharp blade, without actually piercing the skin. (Once you go there, it’s blood play, which is outside my scope of interest and experience, sorry!)

BDSM knife play offers a keen metal edge for dragging, pricking, or scraping along skin; extra points for sensation play if you heat or chill the blade before use. Knives can also be perfect instruments for removing items from the body, such as hardened wax after wax play or even cutting away clothing for that “I will ravish you” feel.

Beyond the physical sensations, BDSM knife play elevates adrenaline like nothing else. If the fantasy of force or ravishment is something that revs your engine, the look and feel of a sharp edge is a quick way to transport you and your lover there. Also, if there is an element of the spiritual in your connection, knives are potent symbols of trust. My partner and I have our special blade now - for only £5 at the town market, and it means more to me than any sex toy I’ve ever had.

My BDSM knife play recommendations:

Start with a butter knife. I know, that could be the weirdest thing you’ve ever read in a kink article, but that’s the best rule I can offer for knife play. Butter knife, metal spatula, dough cutter, letter opener… something that has an edge, but isn’t designed to cut into flesh. This way you can experiment with some of the more important traits of knife play - the feeling of metal bits against soft fleshy bits, the temperature sensitivity of the metal, the implacable rigidity of the implement - and get to know those things before any actual sharp edges come into play.

Keep the dirty talk flowing during your BDSM knife play session. Image: via Shutterstock.com

Do the ol’ Bait and Switch 

If your knife fetish or kidnap scene involves a dagger in the cunt or pressed against someone’s throat, or anything risky like that, the person holding that blade needs to get good at a bit of sleight of hand. Threaten the person with the sharp blade, and then either blindfold the submissive or tell them to close their eyes and switch in the butter knife at the last moment, when penetration or hard pressure is about to occur. Keep the dirty talk flowing to get your knife sub into the right headspace and keep them there while you make the switch.
 

Keeping it Safe, Sane and Consensual

Of course, as with any activity that involves a risk of bodily injury, you want to make sure that you are safe, sane, and consensual (SSC), and BDSM knife play demands more attention to safety than most kinks. 

• Know your partner - People gonna play how they want, but I don’t think that BDSM knife play is a match for casual encounters AT ALL. I don’t need to go into the reasons why. I have never had knife play before now, and I can’t imagine anyone else with whom I would do this. Know your partner, and trust them.
• The person holding the blade must be sober  - I recommend that the person getting the blade be sober too, or strapped in tight. A dulled knife is great; dulled awareness can be dangerous.
• Keep your blades clean and rust-free -  This is just good sense, especially if you ever use a knife for actual kitchen purposes. I recommend keeping play blades separate from kitchen utensils - that’s what our knife purchase was about - but if you can’t, for whatever reason, wash everything thoroughly.

Cameryn Moore is an award-winning playwright/performer, sex activist and educator, sidewalk pornographer, and a long-time (former) phone sex operator.

What's your opinion on BDSM knife play? Have you tried it or is it on your list of kinky fantasies? Share all in the Fetish.com forum. 

Cover image: Richard van Hemmen via Flickr.com CC BY 2.0 license