When I first discovered chastity, I read and read. I must have read a thousand posts over on r/chastitytraining and something that perplexed me were all of these threads with angst around downsizing – when should I downsize? How long to get to a nub? I don’t really remember seeing much about flat at the time. I know it was out there but it didn’t yet have the popularity it does today.
This concept of downsizing actually scared me. When I buy my first cage, will I need to downsize? I don’t want my penis to shrink1. It wasn’t until later that I understood that this was just a popular kink among the chastity community. And I quickly decided it wasn’t my kink.
As an anecdote, I was DMing with someone whom I was making a custom cage for and he understood that I was a “advanced” user – I guess in that I am in “lifestyle” chastity with numerous custom cages, I use more niche security mechanisms like security screws and tetherspouts, and I design cages. And he asked me why I haven’t yet downsized. Surely a user with as much experience as newbie-sub would have long made the progression to flat? And when I explained to him that downsizing just wasn’t my kink, something about how he replied made it sound like he had never even considered that you could be in chastity and not want to downsize.
Today it’s all about flat. It seems like half the posts in r/chastitytraining are about flat cages. And I still frequently see those same questions.
From not four hours ago:
I plan on buying around 4-5 cages with my ultimate goal to have a flat/negative cage eventually. Would anyone know how long on average it would take to go from one size to another? Also any help for shrinking faster would help a lot.
Wow. He’s going to buy four or five cages? A lot to unpack here, huh?
My advice is always the same:
Take your glans and push them into your shaft so your skin flows around them. Can you comfortably push it so it is flat against your body? Congrats, go get a flat cage. Downsizing complete.
It’s odd. I had a penis for 50 years before I discovered I could do that. I was lying on my back wearing my Jail Bird and just messing with it. Basically idly fidgeting. And I noticed I could do that – and consequently that I could trivially pop out the back of my cage (and pop right back in). It was depressing how easy it was.
I’ve been giving that advice for a while but not having any interest in flat at all, I never actually tried it. I have had some small cages. One of my first Cherry Keepers was a Short Wide and it was completely comfortable. And I would switch between it and the slightly too long CKC-DN2U0H-19. It really was an interesting feeling though, being that compressed compared to a full length 100 mm cage – meaning short enough that I could bend over and my glans still be in place. But after understanding some of the potential risks from having “erections” in compression cages2, I haven’t had any interest in them.
But, what about my advice? I can comfortably wear a very short cage indefinitely. But does this apply to flat? Sure, I can compress my penis down to flat but is that really the same thing as wearing one?
It’s time to put my money where my mouth is.
It’s hard for me to find an off-the-shelf cage that fits. At 38 mm, I’m already pretty girthy and that combined with my 19 mm ball gap requirements pretty much relegates me to custom. Oh, woe is me.
But that does make performing this experiment difficult. And I was thinking about this and then I suddenly remembered that hey, I know how to design cages and I also happen have a 3D printer3. Designing a flat cage shouldn’t be too hard, should it?
Nope. Had the first iteration off on the printer in an hour. Tried it on and made some adjustments for V2 and voilà, a perfectly wearable flat cage sized just for me.
This is definitely one of a few flat cages that uses a security screw – just easier to model. And as I still have my strap from my old Cherry Keepers (turns out when you’re wearing a 64x58 mm ring, you kind of need a strap), I added handles. Note to self: you really need to start throwing some of this old crap away – or open the world’s first second hand sex shop.
And this will be by far shortest cage I have ever tried to wear. The distance between the back of the ring and the front of the cage is a quite snug 28.5 mm – just over a quarter of the length I’m used to. Why not shorter? I need that generous 19 mm ball gap. And I was too lazy to make a curved ring. Takes a lot of post processing I didn’t want to mess with. You want me to keep this blog free, right?
So, what do you guys think? Not a bad looking cage for an hour or so of design time.
And the finished product.
If you’re wondering why it doesn’t look nearly as good as my other cages, well, it’s printed in PLA which means I can’t vapor smooth it without giving myself cancer. I don’t plan on wearing this thing again – it will go right into the landfill when I’m done with it.
So, I am going to wear this thing for some amount of time. How long depends on if I feel safe with a tetherspout while wearing it – I’m guessing that won’t be doable as the spout will be as long as my entire compressed shaft – or what urinating is like. But I’m going to start with an empty bladder and I’ll at least wear it until I need to take it off for the bathroom so some number of hours but likely not a full day.
And we’ll see. Can someone who has been in pretty much exclusively ~ 100 mm cages for well over a year just jump right down to flat? Or will I need to put back on that old Cherry Keeper for a while to get used to a more compressed feeling? Or will I need to wear it for weeks or months to “downsize”?
When Jenn wakes up, I am going to ask her to let me wear my Little Red Wagon. Tomorrow I will post part 2 and describe what it was like to go from 100 mm down to flat and skipping all of the steps along the way.
For a really good discussion on shrinkage, see r/chastitytraining’s wiki article. TL;DR: you don’t.
There may be a risk of stretching the suspensory ligament. I don’t really know this man’s credentials but I’m not taking any risks here: https://thehealthybear.com/a-doctors-guide-to-chastity-devices/
It may or may not be true that the printer was purchased specifically for cages. Ok, it’s true.
“I don’t plan to wear this again - it’s going straight into the landfill after”.
I know your stance on flat cages, but… famous last words. 😁