Whip Basics. The Forum

I noticed that with the stock whip I just made Tyler, even with a tight keeper it feels like the thong is heavy when changing directions. Even though the whip feels weightless when motionless.

Thanks, Tyler. I suspected the centre of the weight was some way down the thong. I can't really imagine what this feels like to use. You say it's 'strange but good': that's very tantalising!

And Derek, I think I can imagine what you mean by saying 'it feels like the thong is heavy when changing directions'. Is your thong weighted, too?

Not really my cup of tea, but I like the handle shape and knots. Makes for a nice and clean looking design.

Tyler Blake wrote:I didn't weight it any more than I would a bullwhip, and stockwhips always feel thong heavy to me because of the different action of the keeper.

I've never even held a stockwhip, but I thought they should be much lighter than bullwhips. At least the idea of having a bullwhip thong attached to a long handle sounds a bit uncomfortable.


- Pokkis

Very cool Stockwhip Tyler,
I know this combination of color. It looks like the Exowhip I saw for the first time

Ralph

Derek, I know...it's like it seems like it should be clumsy but it changes directions like nobody's business.

You're welcome Robert!

Thanks Pokkis! Let me clarify a little- I use the same core I would for a bullwhip, but it does have one less belly so it is a little lighter. You have to bear in mind too that dacron is a lighter material, so the whips tend to be lightweight unless you go out of your way to add weight.

Thanks Ralph! You're right, she had just watched Robby's first review and wanted the same color scheme

Robert,
Yes I added 2' of BB's to my 6' ones, I will probably go with no weight next time.

Tyler,
I am sure your whip handles much different then mine (probably a lot better lol) it's a whole new experience going from a bullwhip to a stockwhip. It's good once you close your eyes and just feel the action. I hope I get the chance to order from you someday soon. I really like your Bela and Lokai whips

Thanks, Derek. The only stock whip I've handled seemed to have an un-weighted thong; frankly, I wished it had been weighted! Perhaps it all depends on how weight is distributed within the thong, as well as the weight-relationship between thong and handle.

Derek Pulsifer wrote:Robert,
Yes I added 2' of BB's to my 6' ones, I will probably go with no weight next time.

You really shouldn't give extra weight to a stock whip thong, Derek. When you just hold it in your hand, you're hardly feel any weight at all. But when you move the whip, the momentum becomes a biiiig problem. The momentum pulls the whip into the given direction and the same moment, you want to change that direction, you have to deal with the weight of the whip and the actual momentum. And that feels like having a thong of lead on the handle

Robby

I agree Robby, they are still good whips and I am having fun with them but I will not weight any future stock whips. Thankfully all my bullwhips I have made so far feel balanced, it's just one of those thing's you can't know till you try,

Here is one I made for a fellow who wanted a quasi replica of his Peter Jack whip for foul weather. I always like using red and black together, and I was happy with the way the collar looked. Sometimes I'll advise people to skip the collars depending on the colors but red's pretty safe.

A fine whip, Tyler. Is that a 7-footer? (I ask because I've got a Peter Jack target whip with dimensions which look very like these.) I agree that red and black always look fine, though I'm not sure I'd want a collar if I were using this whip in lots of wet weather. Do these collars ever start to show signs of corrosion around the edges after lots of exposure to the wet?

Let me jump in here, Robert. These chrome collars will never show any sign of corrosion, as long they are not scratched. A scratch into the chrome, well. On my whip, I have from Tyler, the "Shadow" I have two collars. One brass, one copper. And I love to see them age. It's like a living thing.

Robby

Thanks, Robby! I don't mind things looking aged - in fact, I think it often improves the look. (I never feel comfortable in a house where everything looks brand new.) I just wondered if these collars corroded around the edges - but you've answered that! Thanks!

I've not had it happen so far- I do have a chemical product that I can use to force it to age, but I haven't got to try it yet (these silver ones are actually nickel silver, not chrome) Eventually I want to try a chemical mask like on Keanu's swap whip collar with the nickel collar and ager. When I try it out, I'll out some pics up.

Aren't they more stabile at the surface and scratch resistant than chromed metal?

Robby

Nice work Tyler.

The Nickel Silver is an alloy of Copper, Zinc, and Nickel, that is considered a brass, and often called White Brass. It was used to imitate silver in the past.
I found the stuff doesn't really tarnish all that bad compared to yellow brass or real silver, so I'd be interested to see what you can do with the aging agent Tyler. I have some knives will Nickel Silver bolsters and at worst they get a translucent yellow-tint over them after enough exposure to a moist and warm environment in the summer. Unlike real Silver, which tarnishes to near black if left alone.
Nickel Silver should hold up better as well since it has better corrosion resistance and is harder than brass.

Robby, chromed metal would be more stable until scratched, where Nickel Silver is more resistant to scratching.

Great fine whip Tyler!!!!! As always.
I think that the braided english loop at the end of the thong it will come your signature!!!

I love this one. Its a good looking whip!

Robby, Devin beat me to it Thanks Devin! I'll be posting some pics when I get around to trying it out.

Thanks Bobbi and Gio!

And here, is my matched turk's head nightmare- My customer wanted dacron turk's heads, which I'd never done before, but I said "Sure, no problem", thinking I might just do an extra pass, but he also wanted smaller knots than what I usually do, so I thought it might be a wash. Turns out, dacron is a total nightmare to tie turk'sheads with. It doesn't have the same "body" as nylon, and when you try to tighten the knot, it starts to slip and constrict out of form. It was like a sentient Chinese Finger Trap that hates people. So, I realized the answer was going to be a more complex knot. I pretty much always use a 7 part 6 bight, so I started using my TH book by Tom Hall, and there's this thing called "enlargement process 1 & 2" I never understood that before, hadn't paid much attention to it. This al came up as I was taking a week off of my regular job, and I thought I was going to get ahead of schedule- I spent the whole damn week working on these knots. I have NEVER been more glad to get something shipped off. Anyways, I ended up with this- 15 part, 14 bight single pass knots:



I will try and get a post up in the tutorials section on enlarging knots, if there's enough interest in it.

Nice work Tyler, but I certainly don't envy the Turkshead trouble, Dacron just doesn't have the friction for tying a multipass knot, excellent job of it though.