Construction of collar and shackles Wanda said some people are interested in construction details for a steel collar and manacles that I made to confine her. The collar is made from heavy flat steel strips one inch wide and about 1/8 inch thick. These are available in most hardware stores in lengths of 36 inches. You will also need a small hinge and a hasp and staple for each article; I recommend the thin brass ones which are designed for jewelry boxes and such; they are easy to work with and to bend into the shape of the shackle, yet strong enough to confine most subs securely. Finally, you will need some rivets to fasten the hinge, hasp, and staple to the shackle. I used 3/32-inch "pop" rivets; these can be "set" using only a hammer. While you are at the hardware store, you might want to pick up one or more small padlocks. Quite sturdy and reasonably ornamental laminated locks are available as small as 1/2 inch wide. The tools you will need are a drill with a "high speed" (metal working) bit slightly larger than your rivets, a hack saw, a hammer, and a curved hammering surface, such as an anvil. A vise is also helpful to hold the work for drilling or bending, but is not absolutely necessary. Another optional tool is a heavy-duty soldering iron and some acid-core solder. The collar is easier to make than the shackles because it doesn't require as much precision shaping. Measure around the neck with a tape measure, and add one to three inches to the value you get, depending upon how snug you want the collar to be. Wanda likes a very snug collar, but I have known other women who felt a little panicky if the collar fit too snugly. Adding two inches to the circumference of the neck will give you a fairly loose collar with about a finger's breadth of "play" between the collar and the neck (as recommended by J. Norman). This makes for a comfortable "sleeping collar". Cut a strip of steel to the length you came up with, then cut it in half. Now comes the hard part. You must hammer or otherwise form the two steel strips into approximate semicircles so that they conform to the general shape of the sub's neck and meet each other smoothly at both ends. Necks are not perfectly circular, of course, so if you are making a snug collar you will probably have to spend a good bit of time getting the shape right (on the other hand, this fitting process can be an enjoyable time for both of you). When you have the strips correctly shaped, bend the hinge and hasp to conform to the outside of the collar where the strips join and mark the holes for drilling (I like the hinge in the back and the hasp in the front, but some people prefer the opposite arrangement). Drill the mounting holes in the collar, and mount the hinge, hasp, and staple with rivets, inserting the rivets from the outside and hammering them out on the inside. After securing the rivets, I like to apply a coat of solder over them on the inside of the collar using a heavy-duty soldering iron. This will make the collar more secure as well as smoothing any roughness which might irritate the slave's neck. For additional comfort, glue strips of felt around the inside of the collar. The collar can be simply locked around the sub's neck, the tiny lock dangling prettily at the base of the throat, or a chain can be passed through the lock, confining him/her. Use care when closing the collar on the slave's throat, lest the closing metal pinch. The shackles are made similarly, though the process of fitting the steel strips to the wrists and ankles becomes considerably more difficult, since you MUST have a fairly snug fit. I hope this helps. Please feel free to ask for additional information if needed.