A red-brown leather paddle tawse. It is lying on a white faux fur rug that is draped over an armchair

Review: Liebe Seele Wine Red Leather Split Tawse Paddle

Last week, I reviewed the Wild Gent Ball Gag from Liebe Seele. Like I said in that review, Liebe Seele are a Japan based BDSM Gear Manufacturer, mostly focusing on leather bondage gear and impact implements. I’m really excited to be reviewing toys from two of their other collections—Wine Red and White Liebe—in the coming weeks. This week I’m reviewing the Liebe Seele Wine Red Leather Split Tawse Paddle, a 13.6 inch long impact toy made of cow leather available for $29.95.

The Leather & Stitching

The Liebe Seele Wine Red Leather Split Tawse Paddle has absolutely gorgeous leather. The red really is a lovely wine red colour, deep and rich and very soft. It’s described as genuine leather by Liebe Seele which, contrary to popular belief, does not necessarily mean that it’s not full or top grain leather (one day I’ll write a proper post about leatherworking terminology, I swear). While I’m not expert enough to guarantee what type of leather it is, there are some imperfections in the grain that make me think it’s not corrected, and probably most likely top grain leather.

While the Wild Gent Ball Gag I reviewed last week didn’t have much of a leather smell, the Wine Red Leather Split Tawse Paddle does. I know that’s not for everyone, but I adore the smell of leather. Just…yes. It’s not a super strong smell, but it’s distinctive and rich enough to scratch my the smell part of my leather fetish itch.

I complimented the stitching of the Wild Gent Ball Gag in my last review, and the stitching here is just as good, if not better. It’s incredibly neat and I couldn’t spot a single stitch out of place. The hardwear— a gold coloured grommet for the handle loop—is well placed too, with absolutely no scuffing around where it’s been set (which I know is my weakness when I make leather gear).

Tawse vs Paddle

As the name suggests, the Liebe Seele Wine Red Leather Split Tawse Paddle can be used as both a tawse and a paddle. While one of the reasons I asked for the Split Tawse Paddle above other items in the Wine Red collection was realising I no longer owned a simple leather paddle (I do have silicone and wooden paddles, but my leather paddle was taken by an ex after a breakup) and wanting to fill that gap in my collection, I was intrigued by the dual design of the Split Tawse Paddle, as I didn’t own a tawse either (although I have played with them before).

For those less familiar with gear or spanking implements, a tawse (or taws) is a kind of impact toy based on corporal punishment implements used in Scottish schools. One end is a single piece of leather, with the other end cut into multiple tails. The number of tails on a tawse can vary—the Liebe Seele Wine Red Leather Split Tawse Paddle has five tails—but they play a key part in the unique way a tawse works. When a tawse hits the skin, the tails separate and then pinch the skin together. This means they tend to be on the stingier end of the thuddy-stingy spectrum.

As the paddle side of this toy was only half the thickness of the whole toy, it did lack firmness that my more solid silicone or wooden paddles tend to have. It’s more stingy than thuddy, which definitely was still fun to play with in use, but if you’re looking for a more solid thwack, I’d point you to Liebe Seele’s solid paddle above this tawse one, which come with a steel core between the two sides of the paddle. That said, the tawse tails hitting the solid paddle side of this toy when it hits does make a wonderful dramatic sounding noise.

I can sort of tell the difference between the two sides? If I’m paddled while able to see which side is being used, I can tell that the tawse side is more stingy than the paddle end. However, I also did a blind study with my partner, and in that I really struggled to be able to tell the difference. I identified being hit with the paddle side correctly 78% of the time, but could only identify the tawse 36% of the time. And my averages with tawse identification did not get any better over time.

In Play

Because of the lack of core, I do think this paddle lends itself to light play over anything heavy, especially when it comes to thuddy pain. I’m a bit of a wimp when it comes to stingy pain, so my partner was still able to get a reaction out of me, but it’s still not as thuddy as I’d prefer. Additionally, while I’ve described tawses as pinching skin when they hit—and they do in general—I didn’t really feel this at all when using the Wine Red Leather Split Tawse Paddle. In fact, I’m not sure it did this at all.

Overall

I hate to say it, because the Liebe Seele Wine Red Leather Split Tawse Paddle really is beautifully made, but this one is a miss for me. Despite the wonderful crafting, I feel the decision to try and have both a tawse and a paddle in one toy—imo— didn’t really work. The paddle side of this toy being so thin as a result means it didn’t have the thuddy oomf I want from a paddle. While I haven’t actually used one, my instinct is the more solid paddles that Liebe Seele sell would be better at this, given they’re not only double thickness but also reinforced with metal. That said, I will absolutely praise the Wine Red leather in terms of aesthetics— I haven’t tried any other products in the collection, but fellow blogger Joanne’s Reviews has tried and reviewed both the ankle and wrist cuffs and collar and leash set from this collection.


This product was sent to me by Liebe Seele, in return for a fair and impartial review. No affiliate links were used in this post.