a Invictus0000 :Sir Thomas More wrote to a female offspring that he'd been nice to her when she was young and had only ever used a birch made of peacock feathers on her bottom so as not to cut it up! I guess he meant he used the long tail feathers and pulled the vanes off leaving the shafts.
a Invictus0000 :A proper birching table with holes for the arms. As I say there's a couple of funny video clips of people giving it a go, and a some photos about.