Arizona whips

[Craig Frank]

Heel knot foundation drying.

[Ben Varsek]

The (almost) finished whip looks very good Mr. Frank!

How did you build this knot foundation (it looks like self sealing silicone on the picture but I'm not sure if it is)?

All the best
Ben

[Craig Frank]

Ben - hockey tape, leather with nails, more hockey tape and then dipped in plastic dip. You can get it at home depot or Lowe's.

Sorry for the delay. I was sidetracked with work and in-laws visiting. I'm putting this one on hold so I can start working on my raffle whip today.

[Jessie Edwards]

Uff dah, Thats going to be a hevy one. very cool craig!

[Ben Varsek]

Thank you for the information Mr. Frank!

All the best
Ben

[Craig Frank]

Sorry for the lack of updates. Work, running, and scouting has been very hectic. I started working on the second belly of the raffle whip yesterday. I hope to at least get started on the overlay today. Then I'll do the knots and waxing of both whips next weekend.

[Craig Frank]

Just finished the second belly of my German raffle whip. I may have finally used enough sinew. Of course, a lot of my whips look like this until I crack them. I'm still going to do two more layers of hockey tape and two more sinew wraps before the overlay.

[Ron May]

That looks like it is supported and curves just right.
Nice job.

Ron

[Craig Frank]

Thanks, Ron.

I want to point out something about my decision last year to use two colors on the bellies. Not only is it easier on the eyes to see the plaiting on order to close up the gaps and keep everything flat and straight, but as this picture also shows, it's easy to see where strands were dropped in order to keep the taper even. On this belly I tried to drop two strands roughly every foot.

[Sir Roger Tuson]

That's a very nice looking taper Craig. How do you make your cores?

[Rachel McCollough]

Craig, you've really come into your own, this really looks good!!!

[Robert Gage]

Craig, this really does look 'the business'. It's so much better than your earliest whips....

[Sven van Leeuwen]

That's looking great Craig.
My whips also look like that when not yet cracked. And after being cracked they look a lot less rigid. But I think that's whats called 'breaking in' a whip?

As long as you're not throwing a wet noodle .

Sven

[Craig Frank]

Thanks, Robert and Rachel.

Rog - this one is still gutted battle cord with BBs filled to the half way mark and then tape, sinew, sinew, and tape.

Sven - unfortunately, several of my whips went straight from stiff as a board to limp noodle, skipping right over broken in. I think the guts were stretching out under the overlay.

[Jessie Edwards]

Shoooot I have no idea how you get them so stiff! Great picture by the way

[Craig Frank]

This is the pattern I'm going to try for the overlay. I'm hoping to figure out a way to make it look like stripes all the way down.

[Ron May]

Definitely German flag colors.
It'll be interesting to see what you come with.

Ron

[Craig Frank]

Last sinew wraps and starting on the overlay. It may not look it, but this was a very hard pattern to do on the handle. Especially keeping it straight and even. I had to start off with a very bastardized square start.



Not perfect, but most of it should roll out.

[Ron May]

That's a very good looking binding.
It feels to finally get an overlay started don't it?

Ron

[Robert Gage]

Craig, I'd say that experiment with the colours was pretty successful!