I see a lot of reviews that keep suggesting The Wartenberg as great for even inexperienced BDSM players -- okay, I'm into far more vanilla BDSM (silk scarves instead of handcuffs) than most players, but I'm fairly experienced in the area (as light as my BDSM play may be) and I accidentally drew blood on my fiance with this little thing. I would say that this is for a moderately experienced player or above, no one else.

The Wartenberg is a well made device that has a considerable weight in your hand -- it isn't heavy, but you can tell it isn't cheap junk from the feel of it. Its handle is textured to give a good grip and it's slightly curved for the user's comfort. It isn't discreet at all -- unless of course you happen to be a doctor, as the Wartenberg Pinwheel started in the medical profession. Even then, I'm guessing leaving it on your end table would at the very least raise a few eyebrows. I think if I left it out, our roommate would probably try to cut a pizza with it.

Even though the handle is textured to provide a good grip, I had some lube on my hands and my hand slipped as I was running the pinwheel over my fiance's stomach while using moderate pressure, and we actually drew blood (the pinwheel left a line of tiny holes when the accidental pressure was applied). Nothing that a good wash/use of Neosporin/Bandaid couldn't patch up, but still. We haven't used the pinwheel since. I know that it's a sharp toy and I knew that when I bought it, however, I expected a better handle design, something that sadly didn't really occur to me until it was too late.

I boiled the pinwheel and put it in a pencil case (yes, really) and in the very back of our toy drawer. I also made sure it was all the way dry before storage because of the potential for rust problems. The pinwheel is far too sharp to be stored in a toy bag. Watch out!

The pinwheel came in a clear fronted bag that made me think of a Ziploc (it's about that thick). Not discreet packaging at all. There were no instructions included.

To be frank, I enjoy light BDSM and so does my fella, but the pinwheel became unintentionally scary when my hand slipped and we drew blood on his stomach. Normally a toy like this would be inside our comfort zone, but I don't know if ours was insanely sharper than the average or something, but it very quickly became too much by sheer, stupid accident (not a good thing when ANY level of BDSM play is involved).