In the none too dim and distant past I worked at John Smiths Industrial Supplies ( now Rothwells). They sold all manner of tubing and piping, flanges, elbows and connectors to your average plumber and industrial boiler maker.

There was something particularly old school about the place and its clientele. In fact it could all get a bit too Fred Dibnah from time to time.

But there was one customer who stood out from all the rest in so much that they were female, owned a company which specialised in bondage gear and used John Smiths to supply them with broom handles and olives for their cat o’ nine tails’.

You can imagine how the talk of flanges, pipe thickness and elephant paste took a slightly different twist after one of her orders had been placed.

Anyway, to provide an extremely tenuous link to the previous spiel and to prove that the world of sheet metal and stainless steel fabrication isn’t quite as prudish as you might’ve thought - check these out:

Maybe I’ve over stepped the mark assuming these are primarily for bondage purposes.

And I wonder if they do my size?

(From[via])