I was under the impression a un-owned boy could wear a collar that was unlocked so that if a Sir approached him and locked the collar then the boy was his property until Sir was finished with him. Is this not accurate?

Brother:

I’ve only heard of this being done with the unlocked collar around the right boot to indicate one’s desire to be collared.  This can be useful both in and outside the leather community, indicating to the initiated what your desires are.  Similarly, I can recall seeing Masters with the unlocked collar around his own left boot, or dangling from his left to indicate that he wanted to collar a boy or slave.  (Around the left boot was particularly effective in semi public places like bars and leather events, since it required the boy, on being accepted, to kneel and remove the collar and, while still on his knees, hand the collar to Sir to lock around the boy’s neck.)

Sometime after being collared for the second time, I noticed un-owned boys wearing collars to signal their status as potential slaves; this only resulted in confusion when Tops, assuming the self-collared boys were already owned, wouldn’t approach them. Now, however, one notices that Sirs will approach one when one is collared, assuming that the rules might be bent or that the boy might be available on loan.

I'm a strong believer in collars and what they represent. I love collaring a boy before playing with him, even while wearing my own collar. I would prefer to be collared 24/7 and sometimes miss the ease with which I wore my collar all of the time when we lived in San Francisco. Those of us wearing collars would nod to each other at the gym in acknowledgement of our shared status, something we all knew the intense value of even if the queer world at large didn't.

This boy does not like attending leather events or parties without a collar because I want my status as an owned boy to be clear to everyone, even if I am free to play with others. Secondly, I feel safer if I'm wearing a collar at leather events: It signals to other attendees that I have a Sir who looks after me and that boundaries should be respected.

The only hard and fast rule is, perhaps, that a collar is not jewelry and should only be worn to remind oneself, and the world, that one is owned and that one owes one's obedience and loyalty to Sir.