Tags :: §Shibari safety §Shibari equipment
One of the most vital pieces of equipment for Shibari is a means of quickly releasing the person from the rope in an emergency. For that purpose, most of the community favour paramedic EMT safety shears, which are cheaply available on Amazon. You should not tie without such an implement within quick reach, ideally on your person.
At the risk of stating the obvious - during §suspension, cutting the rope is often not the safest approach.
These shears, if good quality, are often marketed as being able to cut through seatbelts, tough leather, and even a US penny (which is relatively soft as coinage goes).
There is a truism within the community that safety shears are "single-use". I have not found this repeated in any official documentation or manuals for shears, nor have I found anything to contraindicate this advice. I follow the more cautious route and assume that it is true. However, my suspicion is (and I am not advising anyone to change their practice based on this) that there may well be an established practice for paramedics to dispose of shears, as their operating conditions increase likelihood shears will come into contact with bodily fluids, contaminants, or be blunted on hard items of clothing; and that this practice has been adopted in a cargo-cult fashion by the community.
There is also a very reasonable suggestion that safety shears should be tested once before use. The keen reader will realise that both this and the previous paragraph cannot both be true - if they were single-use, then testing them a second time may yield a different result.
Leatherman Raptors, at $80, are a popular choice amongst those with more money than sense. If you can afford to spend that amount of money on something with no functional advantage over the <$5 option, then go right ahead.