Some Random Whips!

[Robert Gage]

That's a very lively combination of colours, Sparky!

[Mark Elliott]

Brandon, I really like that heel knot. Beautiful whip.

[Brandon "Sparky" Lam]

Thank you Ron, Robert and Mark! I really enjoyed learning to do that heel knot, might do more of it in the future~

[Scott A. Cary]

I agree, very nice!

[Ethan Mitchell]

I love the brown 7 footer! The black and green bull is sweet! If I remember right the knot you used for the heel knot is known, at least in the knotting world, as a three pass type one pineapple knot FYI. Nice work!

[Ethan Mitchell]

Brandon,
You might check out the YouTube channel, Paracord Guild if you haven't already (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4rnzG ... DnKi2-V-OQ). He has several videos on pineapple knots, including one where he explains the different types of pineapple knots. Also, if you are interested, I would highly recommend buying Tom Hall's book, Introduction to Turk's Head Knots (http://jigproshop.com/index.php?main_pa ... cts_id=187). Though it might be a bit for shipping.

[Sir Roger Tuson]

Your knots are becoming real things of beauty there Brandon. I am impressed!

[Brandon "Sparky" Lam]

Thanks Scott!

Ethan - thank you for the info! I didn't actually know different types were still considered a pass (I've been calling this stuff like a 1 pass 6x7 with a 1 pass pineapple haha). I've been thinking about getting knotting books too, I just haven't gotten around to doing so yet (Cause I'm too scared to see what the shipping and total price is like sending to Australia)

Roger - thank you! ^_^ Very happy to finally work out a 3 tone heel knot design, maybe I can work out a 4 tone sometime soon~

[Ethan Mitchell]

Brandon,
The cool thing about pineapple knots is once you get the sequence down you can tie nearly any type of pineapple knot without ever looking at the diagram. I am almost to the point where I can tie most pineapple knots just by looking at them. I could probably tie the knot you used on the heal in about twenty minuets, but of course tying the knot is the easy part! The real trick is tightening it down.

[Brandon "Sparky" Lam]

Ethan - Of course! I've gotten quite good at the 4x5, 6x7, 8x9 and 10x11 pineapple knots (Can do them with no charts or anything), I've just never done them with a second pass ^_^ It's definitely the tightening that is annoying haha

[Ethan Mitchell]

Here is a chart explaining some of the different types of bights from a knotting forum I a part of awhile ago:

[Brandon "Sparky" Lam]

So I've been busy trying to make whips and fire props for the fire spinning festival happening next week, so here are a few new whips!




A 4ft 12 plait bullwhip, english eye, interesting 3x2 block pattern on the handle Unfortunately, for some reason, this whip developed a twist after waxing, even though on the hook it was perfectly fine. I'm not sure what happened there, potentially one of the colours constricted more than the other after waxing (as this hasn't happened with other whips really). This'll be good to teach children/smaller people with at the festival~




7ft 16 plait bullwhip, in brown and light green. Came out quite stiff, needed to crack it a little bit before I could even do the basic circus crack easily. Also that heel ending is my logo, I really love my 3D printed stuff :P

Finally, the big one -





The beast! An 8ft bullock whip, with a 5ft handle, 3ft TT fall. English eye, in black, brown and red~
This...is an absolute blast to crack. It's so ridiculously loud that even in my backyard I feel like I might need earplugs. Uses so much strength too, and the handle just looks so cool in motion! I was sweating after like 5 minutes!

Here are two short videos of my first time ever using a bullock whip~

https://youtu.be/KkqGSq_3dxg
https://youtu.be/vq7zhEsLG48


I'm absolutely loving it, and if it weren't for the fact that I have a ridiculous amount of work to do, I'd be playing with it all day!

Anyway, hope everyone enjoyed!

[Sir Roger Tuson]

That's bloody brilliant, Sparky. I caught your grin right at the end of the second video - a grin that said "F... me, that was fun!"

You almost looked like you were doing a stick fighting workout!

[Brandon "Sparky" Lam]

haha thank you very much Sir Roger!
What wasn't filmed was me giggling like a maniac for 5 minutes after cause of the rush of doing something so crazy! :P It was WAY too much fun, can't wait to practice more with it and get really good!

It felt like a stick fight! I wonder if you could choreograph a fight scene with this whip :O

[Robert Gage]

Fantastic, Sparky! That does look like super fun -and it reminds me of the Bavarian Goasl. (I think this photo came from Robby some time ago, but I can't be sure.)

[Brandon "Sparky" Lam]

Robert, that does look quite similar!
And I can attest to the fact that it is ridiculously fun haha

[Mark Elliott]

Excellent work, Brandon. The bullock whip is so cool, I really enjoyed the videos.

[Ben Varsek]

Excellent work, Sparky, thank you for sharing!

It also happened to me once that a whip has developed a twist after the waxing. I'm also assuming that the reason for that had been that the different colors of paracord had a different level of shrinkage.
Ever since, I'm taking small sample pices from every new spool and measure it before and after the waxing in order to avoid this issue.

Cracking the bullock whip looks like lots of fun, thank you for sharing the videos!

All the best
Ben

[Ron May]

Sparky, that does look like a lot of fun.
I also looks like a great way to work out.
Your smiling face says it all.

Ron

[Brandon "Sparky" Lam]

Thank you Mark, Ben and Ron!

Ben - Thanks for the advice, I might refrain from doing a completely split whip ever again (where all strands on each side were 1 colour). This was the first time I did it, and it developed a terrible twist after waxing only! Even after rolling it was completely fine But all my other whips that use a fishbone pattern were completely fine, even the ones with only 1 strand of the opposite colour on each side.

Ron - It definitely is a workout! Here's to hoping I love this so much that I lose much of my weight! :P