Whip Basics. The Forum

Matt Henderson wrote:It's looking excellent Craig! I hope the transition turns out all right, but if it goes noodle then you might be able to use some of that extra cord to tie a French grapevine over the transition? That's what saved my black 8 footer, and I think it looks pretty neat too.

Maybe. I've done grapevine once before for a walking stick handle.

Your call, mate. It might not completely fit with the aesthetic of the whip, but a bit of extra binding on the outside covered with a grapevine would do wonders for a limp transition.

Matt, do you know about Tyler's Exowhips?

I do, and that's where I got the idea from in the first place :3. I love the look of them, especially the carapace/grapevine section, and so when my 8ft bull tried to noodle I bound the transition and put a grapevine over it, which worked a treat. I think I'll be doing that on all my bulls now, but I'm going to steer clear of the plaited carapace; I'm nowhere near good enough to try and encroach further into the Blake style :P.

Hope it turns out OK Craig. I do love those colours sir. You've really brought them all together well. Fingers crossed tomorrow's testing comes good.

Well, it cracks. I think it will be ok with some proper breaking in.

Great!!!! I do hope so, it sure looks good!

Well, it's done, it cracks, and it's mailing.

Yehaw!!!! That's great! Hurry hurry mailman, then we all get to see

Oh yeah baby! Can't wait.

Didn't manage to get to the post office today Craig but I have dug out some cardboard and packing materials and it WILL be in the post tomorrow!

Roger, yours will be there Tuesday.

The wax definitely modified the colors, giving it a much more rustic tone. You may not be able to tell in the previous pictures, but there were actually two shades of yellow on the thong. After waxing, it's much more obvious. I didn't take any pictures at all of the final product. I'll let Roger do that. I hope it doesn't disappoint you too much.

[quote="Antti "Pokkis" Mäkinen"]The transition is not an easy thing to overdo. Especially as your whips are kinda beefy, as I'm probably not the first one to say :P

Gotta say that I like those colors. The blue-orange contrast is pretty much as intense as it can get without being unpleasant like red-green. And the thong pattern looks really cool, wouldn't have thought so many colors could ever end up with much style to talk about. Nice work!


- Pokkis[/quote]

Speaking of transitions, how's the one I sent you working out?

Thank you Craig. I'm sure it absolutely won't disappoint.

BTW, the final name that I decided on was Senoran Sunset.

Craig Frank wrote:Speaking of transitions, how's the one I sent you working out?

Same question right back at you

Well... Honestly it could be better. It's not "limp noodle", but then again it's not enough for a whip that beefy. My suggestion would be to do the bindings tightly right over the plaited layers instead of having bolstering between the braid and binding. And remember that overdoing the transition is something that basically never actually happens. There is -- as with all things -- a concept known as "too much", but if you do the binding with more tightness and less thickness, it's not an easy thing at all to ruin your whip with too tight transition. Think of it like applying CAT on your buddy who's wearing shrapnel where his leg used to be. Tighter is better, and if you don't hate yourself after binding at all, it's not tight enough.

Oh, and going off topic from the transitions, I replaced the cracker on your whip and it made a world of difference. The original one was very light, soft and not too long, but I replaced it with a tapered artificial sinew cracker more than a foot in lenght. I was actually surprised at how much of a difference it made.


- Pokkis

Well, a large package arrived this afternoon from a certain Mr Frank, an American gentleman of my acquaintance... Contents? One 8'6" Bullwhip, in gorgeous autumn colours:


















It's been raining all day and more forecast for the rest of the week so I don't know when I'll be able to get out and throw it properly but I have managed an underhand flick in my front room and it cracked effortlessly!

Craig,, thank you so much for this. I love the thong colours - you've done a fantastic job of matching them together. My wife saw it when she got back from work and immediately said "Autumn".

Looking forward to getting to grip with it (goddamn weather!)

Those colors are beautiful together!
Really nice job, that's one monster whip!

I totally love the colors on the thong.
Good job on that.
Cant' wait to see, "how it cracks".

Ron

Roger - thank you for the update. You can really see in your pictures how much the waxing "aged" the colors. I decided to let you reveal the final product so now I can let you know that the intent was for the heel knot to represent a full moon.

Yours arrived today, but no one was here to sign for it so my wife has to go get it from the post office tomorrow.

Pokkis - yours is still nice and stiff. I'm ashamed to say that I really haven't used it enough yet. I think it still needs some breaking in as the end of it is still really stiff as well. But it still cracks with no problem. Yeah, I've given up on the paracord guts crackers. I'm now exclusively using Jessie's crackers. They work way better.