Los Hermanos

[Mark Elliott]

6-foot, 12 plait, kangaroo hide whips. 3 bellies, traditional 8-strand fall hitch, 24-inch falls, 8 inch B55 crackers, 8 part x 5 bight, 3-pass heel knots over a latigo and lead foundation. 5x4, 2-pass, transition knots. The black and natural has a bird's eye pattern over the transition, and the burgundy and natural whip has a gaucho pattern at the transition. Of interesting note is the difference in color placement makes on the gaucho plait. If you use a single color the pattern appears to be arrowheads encircling the whip. If you use two colors with all of one color on one side and the other color on the other side in comes out as rings around the whip. If you alternate the colors down the whip you get lightning bolts running down the whip.

[Ron May]

Great job Mark.

Nice job on the patterns. Especially the single diamond on the handle. Those are sort of picky to get and keep straight.

Brothers from another mother.

Ron

[Mark Elliott]

Thanks, Ron. Yes sir, diamonds are the devil to keep straight.

[Rachel McCollough]

“Queen of diamonds, she’ll beat you if she’s able, you know the queen of hearts is always your best bet...”


Mark, these are just absolutely beautiful.

[Mark Elliott]

Thank you, Rachel.

[Flemming Bo Christiansen]

Mark - for an amateur they look very nice and there is no visible crack. Praise from me is not the same as from Ron and Rachel, but for what it's worth - I think they're great.

[Mark Elliott]

Thanks, Flemming.

[Robert Gage]

Mark, to me, in some indefinable way, these whips shout 'Texas'! Well done, sir!

[Mark Elliott]

Thank you, Robert.

[Ben Varsek]

Outstanding work, Mark, both whips are looking absolutely fantastic and the diamonds on the hadles are as streight as a ruler!

How do the B55 crackers perform compared to other materials (I remeber, that Roy once mentioned, that this is his favorite material for making crackers) ?

Ben

[Mark Elliott]

Thanks Ben,

B55 is a waxed, polyester bowstring material. It seems to hold up very well and the fringe part past the end of the knot doesn't seem to tangle as much as the Dyneema fishing line I was using before. It's also a bit thicker than the dyneema and so I don't have to use as much to make a cracker. I have also used FastFlight bowstring material for crackers and liked it, but the B55 is cheaper and a bit thicker as well.

[Ben Varsek]

Mark, thank you very much, I will certainly try out B55 as soon as I can.

Ben

[Jyri Haveri]

Well done Mark!

[Mark Elliott]

Thank you, Jyri.