Which of Our Pieces Are Dual-Density, and Why the Rest Are Not

For a while our site said every piece we make is dual-density. That was wrong, and this article is partly a correction. Dual-density means a firm core inside a softer outer layer, and it is one construction among several we use, chosen per shape. Below: what it is, how it is poured, which of our pieces have it, and why most of the range is better without it.

What dual-density is

A single-density toy is one silicone throughout. Squeeze it anywhere and it gives the same way. A dual-density toy has two silicones: a firmer one forming a core that runs down the shaft, and a softer one forming the outer layer, the surface you feel. Squeeze it and the outside gives first, then you hit the core.

The point is to separate two jobs that one material struggles to do at once. The core gives the piece stiffness, so it can be aimed, so a head or a knot holds its shape under pressure, so it stands up when you ride it. The outer layer gives it the yielding surface that reads as flesh and takes the edge off a wide head at the muscle. In a realistic shape that combination is very close to how the real thing behaves, which is why the construction came out of the realistic end of the market first.

How it is poured

Two moulds, two pours, and a lot of waiting. The core is cast first in its own mould, from the firmer silicone, and cured. It is then placed into the full mould of the finished shape, held in position at the base, and the softer silicone is poured around it. The second pour bonds to the first chemically as it cures, because both are platinum-cured silicone and the reaction crosses the boundary; there is no glue and no seam that can separate.

The hard parts are positioning and timing. If the core sits off-centre, the outer layer is thin on one side and the piece feels lopsided. If the second pour goes in too long after the first has cured, the surface of the core has to be prepared or the bond is weak. Every dual-density piece is therefore a hand job in two stages with a rejection rate that a single pour does not have, and that is the honest reason it costs more, along with the second mould.

This is also where the "hand-poured" phrase on toy sites comes from. All platinum silicone toys are poured by hand into moulds at some point; the material does not lend itself to injection moulding at these sizes. Hand-poured is the process, not a mark of quality. What separates a good pour from a bad one is the vacuum step that pulls air out of the liquid before it goes into the mould (bubbles are weak spots and, at the surface, holes that trap grime), and the patience to let it cure fully before demoulding. You can see the result: a good pour has no pits on the surface and no soft spots along the shaft.

Which of our pieces have it

Strong Bow, in every size. It is a horse shape with a wide flat head and the head has to hold its edge to give the step people buy it for; the core does that, and the soft outer layer keeps that same edge from being a wall.

Hot Surge, in M and L only. It is our most human shape, and in the two larger sizes it is long enough that a single soft pour would droop. The XS and S are single-density, because at 11 and 16 cm (4.4 and 6.4 in) usable there is nothing to droop.

Milking Fruit II, by a different route. It is two separate parts, a soft outer sleeve and a firm core you slide inside it, rather than two pours bonded together. Same principle, taken apart for washing. Whether that counts as dual-density is a definitions argument; it behaves like one.

Two pieces used to be listed as dual-density and are not: Vargrahl and Mirror. They are poured from two silicones, but the split runs along the length, not from the inside out: the upper half is soft and the lower half is firm. On Vargrahl that puts the soft silicone in the tip and shaft that go in first and the firm silicone under the knot and in the base. On Mirror the soft half is the top of the egg and the firm half is the wide lower part and the neck that the muscle closes on. Squeeze one and you feel two firmnesses in two places, not a skin over a core. We had written it up as dual-density in our own records for long enough that it reached the materials page; that has been corrected.

Why the rest are single-density

Because the shapes do not want a core. A dual-density piece is a shaft with a yielding skin, and most of our range is not a shaft.

The beaded and stepped pieces, like Stardust Shuttle and Winding, are made for depth, and depth wants flex: a shaft that follows the bend at the top of the rectum rather than fighting it. A core would make them straighter and worse.

The knotted pieces, like Firewolf and Vargrahl, want the knot to pop and then hold. That is a firmness question, but it is a single-material firmness question; a soft skin over the knot would make the pop mushy, which is the opposite of the point.

The plugs stay in for a long time and are shaped so the neck sits inside the muscle. They want to be one consistent softness so they move with the body; a core in a plug is a rod you sit on.

The sleeves are hollow. There is no shaft to put a core into.

So the rule we ended up with: a core goes into a piece when the piece needs to hold a shape under load and have a soft surface at the same time. That describes a realistic shaft, a horse head, and not much else.

How to tell if a toy is dual-density

Squeeze the shaft between finger and thumb. A single-density piece compresses evenly until you stop. A dual-density piece compresses a few millimetres and then stops abruptly, and if you press harder the whole shaft moves rather than dents. Hold it up to a bright light: a translucent or lightly pigmented dual-density piece shows the core as a darker column. Opaque colours hide it, which is why some shops photograph a cut section.

A tangent. We do not publish hardness numbers for either layer, and older pages of ours did, in figures that turned out to have been read off a table rather than measured. The reasoning is in the firmness article. A dual-density piece is described on its page by the feel of the outer layer and the fact of the core, and that is what you can check with your hand.

Questions we get

Is dual-density better?

For a realistic shaft you want to aim and ride, yes. For depth, knots, plugs, and sleeves, no. It is a construction for a job, not a grade of quality.

Can the layers separate?

Not in a two-pour piece; the silicones bond as they cure. The two-part Milking Fruit II separates on purpose.

Does the core make it heavier?

Slightly; the firmer silicone is a little denser. The weight on the product page is the whole piece as shipped.

Why did you say all your toys were dual-density before?

Because a page was written from a template rather than from the workshop's records, and nobody checked it against the actual pieces for too long. It has been corrected here and on the product pages, and the list above is the one we can stand behind.