Whip Basics. The Forum

Hey Guys,
Here are some photos of my latest whip. It is a six footer with a twelve-inch handle and a fancy plaited handle. The 3/8" sinker cord turned out to be too big for the BBs. So I loaded a piece of paracord and put it inside of the sinker cord, pulling it out just before the handle and lashing it down. I did a ten plait belly over that. Then a fourteen plait overlay with a under four, over four gaucho pattern on the handle. This time I got more of the transition I was looking for.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/FxIBjSrIQyyOcFPY2

Ethan, this whip is REALLY NICE!!!! You ought to be proud of that!

Nice job Ethan.
You're improving a lot.

Ron

Very nice Ethan. That's a BIG heel knot though. Something you prefer?

Excellent work, Ethan.

Thanks guys!
Roger, It is rather big. I just wanted to see what a bigger knot would feel like. I am planning to undo it and the knot underneath so I can downsize it a bit(I have two ungutted five part four bight knots underneath, the first one being glued in place).

That's a crazy long handle. Your knots are fantastic and your braiding is very clean. I love it.

Ethan, I've never had much luck with sinker cord, either. I can't keep the BBs lined up, so after a couple of tries I gave it up. The last whip I used a TT core and added about 3 strands of leaded line to each of the cords. Worked out really well, I thought. It sure was a lot easier than stuffing BBs in paracord.

Thanks.
Craig, Its just twelve inches long. I want to try eight inch handles next.
Mark, I want to try a fiberglass rod for the handle materiel sometime, along with a TT core. Something like Rachel's steerwhips.

The plaiting on the handle is not that great, its rather 'gappy'. Though you can't quite see that in the pictures. I think sixteen plait would have done a better job on the handle, but as I did not grind the rod down to a taper at all this time, the thong was too small for that.

Ethan, I know this is very subjective, but I generally find the best handle length for a 6-foot whip to be 8 or 9 inches. Even 10 seems a bit too long. (I also prefer 6.5 feet as an overall length: 6-foot seems just that bit too short for me. You might try that some time....)

I realy like the overall design of this whip, fantastic work Ethan!

All the best
Ben

Thanks Ben!

As most of my whips have had longer handles or no handles at all (snakewhips) I haven't had much experience with shorter handles. So far I like longer handles because it gives me more leverage and just because I don't have to worry about shortening the rods. :p Especially because the blade on my dad's hacksaw is very dull, I need to buy an new blade sometime...

Beautifully done. I like the subtle color detail. And the whip looks nice and clean.

Thanks Sven! I like whips with a main color and a bold accent color to set it off.

Nice work Ethan! Very sleek and your knots are amazing~ What did you use as your foundation to get such a huge knot?