Here's my latest, a 6' Bullwhip in Black and Green. 10.5" 8mm steel handle, two bellies (4 and 8 plait) with a 12 plait overlay. 4mm BB core from handle to 2'6" with un-cored 550 all the way to the fall. It has a triple stranded 5x7 TH on the heel and a double stranded 11x6 TH variant (thanks to Turk's Head Cookbook!) on the transition.
<whispers>I did use electrical tape for the transition binding on all layers but the rest is unbound</whispers>. I'm going to try binding with the core strands on my next one. Don't have any artificial sinew.
Anyhooooo, apart from thinking that the THs are far and away the best I've ever done (tightening the 11x6 was a nightmare!) and the fall knot looks great, I also think this may be the best whip I have made to date. It cracked straight out of the box, went into slow figures 8s with ease (the only whip in my 'collection' that does that), sideways, overhead, they all just work!
Rather chuffed tbh. Some pics...
Not so happy about the handle plaiting - bit wonky
This I do like!
Couple of things I learned from this build:
Don't try and use BBs that have been sitting for a while in an unsealed container as the slight patina of rust (these are cheap non stainless) makes it all but impossible to slide them down the cord.
Don't try and be clever when tying heel knots. The triple strand 5x7 was the third attempt to cover the handle properly. I'd tried a doubled 5x9 and then a doubled 5x11 to fill the gaps before realising that a straightforward 5x7 but tripled(!) was what I needed. D'oh!
