The Heavy Codline Cats

Prison Cats, Thieves’ Cats, the Newgate Cat and the Jailer's Cat

    Having done a lot of research into the subject of historical physical punishment, we have created these functionally authentic reproductions of the 19th Century British prison system's now-outlawed instruments of corporal discipline.

   Our versions are more finely made than the original and have been engineered for easier use and longer life -- but are no less savage, for all of that.

   The material we use is “tarred codline.” This is a twisted nylon twine, saturated with something like “road tar” in order to make the fiber denser (it sinks in salt water) and to protect it from abrasion. It is used primarily for commercial fishing nets and lines -- and is perhaps a little less dense and wire-like than the natural-fibre hemp it replaces.

   There are two styles, each available in either 8-tress or 12-tress models: one with knotted tress ends (the Thieves' Cat) using a cord roughly 1/16” in diameter . . . and one roughly 1/8” in diameter with whipped ends (the Prison Cat). Paradoxically, the fewer the tresses, the more damage they are likely to do.

   We also make a simpler version, The Newgate Cat which, although less expensive, is really much closer to the original design.  This is perhaps the most authentic Prison Cat we make. The “business end,” with only eight strands of heavy tarred codline and one knot in each, is extremely authentic. The handle is still a little “grand” compared to the original working punishment tool; the 42” length* is just a bit smaller.

   We recently added the Jailer's Cat. The first was made on request for a good customer who did not have the space nor the hand power to wield one of the larger ones.
It has a shorter and slimmer handle for the smaller hand and six whipped end tresses of a slightly smaller diameter line -- not the eight or 12 of the larger and heavier Prison Cats. It is very fast ... and cutting. Even at 36" overall, it will make stripes and the whipped ends could draw blood.

   In 18th and 19th Century armies and prisons, whip tresses were most often 1/8” diameter woven “whipcord” --  left unknotted and unwhipped. When knotted, to increase severity, only one or two knots in the end of each lash was used. Whipped ends make narrow welts and sometimes make clean cuts which draw blood. Knotted ends tend to crush rather than cut. They make blue bruises and tend to tear, rather than split the skin.

   We put five knots about an inch apart at the end our Thieves’ Cat lashes. This practice is taken from the designs used for “Religious Disciplines,” which seems to reduce the amount of damage just a bit.

  (The original standard appears to have been more than two feet of tresses on a two-foot handle which, in practice, is just a bit too long for modern ceiling heights. Besides, it generates a lot of power for unincarcerated people with whom one might wish to play again.) 

   Now, once again, we have made a version of the Thieves' Cat on special order, and are offering it to our customers. If "bigger is better" then this one is the best of the lot! The proportions are indeed the ones we cited as "original standards."

    The big difference is the style of the handle. A full two feet long, it is partially French-Whipped, with the rest plain wrapped. The other difference is that the gauge of the tarred codline is the heaviest of all our codlines. And, of course, each tress has five knots spaced strategically. Ouch!

   Also see our Penultimate Cat, made with genuine hemp rope.  

(We can also quote on the requirements of  “Reenactors” and others who demand absolute visual,
material and historical accuracy, if necessary.)