>>213659618The cat-o-nine-tails is the most interesting to me. Historically, it's a torture implement, so it's pretty much designed to be ineffective as a weapon. How do you beat a sailor so that it really hurts, but doesn't kill him even after tens of blows? With this thing, apparently.
With a modern BDSM whip, you generally wouldn't even want it to break the skin. If you needed to use one of those as a weapon, you'd probably be better off hitting people with the handle.
Also,
>For summary punishment of Royal Navy boys, a lighter model was made, known as boy's cat or boy's pussy, that had only five tails of smooth whip cord.