Spooky wrote:Man, I'd love to see a bullwhip artist in action!
Hey Fish - do you have any pics of your whips?
How does your cowhide Indy perform compared to your other whip/s?
The only pics I currently have are of my Strain 8-footer. I haven't taken ANYTHING with the camera since then. Something I need to correct.
But the Strain is in one of the pictures of my $20 target stand by my buddy Bryian over in the "Bullwhips vs. Neighborhood" thread.
A couple others I have right now:
This is the one that Joe sent me when he completed the whip back in December, 04.
(Incidentally, if you've been to Strain's site, - northernwhipco.com - lately, this pic may look familiar, it's because my whip is the new posterboy for the Lonestar model.)
This is also the same model of bullwhip that you saw Chris "Canasta" Camp cutting the flower with on the "Tonight Show." His was just shorter, and black where mine is brandy colored, (and it handles BEAUTIFULLY. I got to play with it while I wasn't shooting video at Annie Oakley!)
This is a pic of my Strain next to an older model of Jim "RacerX" Jarrell's "Ugly Duckling" 8-plait whips. I don't that that whip anymore. I passed it on to a guy who was just learning.
Another of the Strain in hand:
The knot when I first got it:
The pattern in there looks like a star when viewed from straight on. The knot looks like this now.
Note how the color of the brandy has bled over into the red. It still looks nice, and it sure handles better than it did when that first picture was taken, but I don't think I'm going to be getting another two-tone whip because of this.
Adam W. and Paul N: Any way of preventing this? I used Fiebings glycerin saddle soap on the knots to clean off the grime and sweat from my hands.
This whip is my baby, and I could take up SCADS more bandwidth with pictures of it I have laying around the harddrive and web directories, but I'll stop now. I have no action shots, as my digital camera is SLOW, and Heather, (my wife,) has a hard time getting good action pics with it. I'll probably pull out my video camera and shoot some stuff at a high shutter speed and post some still images from that.
I also promised Adam for a review of that 8' cowhide Indy when I bought it from him back in late July. Here it is. I PROMISE I'll get pics of it up soon!
It handles very nicely. It's very accurate for targeting, and cracks louder than anything else in my bag. I wish I had some pics handy to show just how much it looks like the "Raiders" whip. Extra big knot, longer handle section before the transition knot, darker leather for the transition, (like Pagey did to his previous Morgan.) Dark brown that's developed a beautiful deep russet patina.
Adam told me that he had been doing two 4-plait bellies with two bolsters, (all out of cowhide,) to keep them the same construction as the Morgan's from the period, but they were too fat and heavy in his opinion, so he started leaving out the bolsters.
I must say, that it really makes a BIG difference. There is only a little difference in the weight of my kangaroo Strain and my cowhide Winrich. The Winrich is a little heavier, and the action on it is a lot slower, but I bought this whip for Indygear purposes, and a slower whip is a "Showier" whip. It's not completely broken in yet, but it still handles like a dream.
The 12-plait overlay drops six strands at the point, but I am hard pressed to find where in the thong he drops those strands. This impressed the heck out of me as I can find almost every place on my Strain where he dropped a strand.
The one thing I would change, (and I will,) is I feel the fall is a little too heavy for this whip. Its a deep brown leather, (think it's brown latigo,) that takes a beating, but I think maybe a lighter, more flexible whitehide would do the trick there. Bear in mind though. It's still accurate as #### and cracks like a 12 gauge! The fall behavior is a "personal preference" thing that doesn't effect the performance of the whip at all. When I wear out this fall, I'll probably replace it with whitehide, (which will take a LOOOOOOONNNNNG time, as it's some tough-as-nails leather. If I were a younger, and dumber man, I'd trust it to hold my weight and try swinging on it. But while I may be dumb sometimes, I'm not as young as I used to be.)
My final thoughts: If you're interested in getting a screen accurate Morgan, forget it. David doesn't do them like that anymore. Save yourself some money and aggravation and get one from Adam. Adam himself is an Engineer, (so is Morgan,) which shows in the design and detail of his work. He is also one heck of a whip performer, (and now a Guiness World Record Holder! Congrats Adam!) so he knows how to make them so they'll dance! I picked up this whip on a lark because I really liked the look of it, and thought it cracked nicely. The more I work with it, the more I'm convinced that when I decide to get a kangaroo Indy-style, I know I'm calling Adam!
Thanks for reading, and thanks to Adam for the sweet whip!
Oh, and as for seeing a whip artist in action:
A sceen capture from Canasta's Saturday evening "Firewhip" demonstration at Annie Oakley. That fireball just flew off the end of that long lightsaber-looking thing after it snaked out and cracked at the crowd. Canasta should be putting up some of the footage I sent him when he updates his website: thewhipguy.com
THIS will most likely make the cover of the WWAC Ohio 2005 Convention 2-disk DVD set, (soon available for under $25 from gldenterprises.net! In time for Chrismas! Order Now! Offer expires while you wait! As seen on TV...Well...mine anyway...OK....Shameless self-promotion done. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.)
) to get down ...
: Side crack once nailed me above my right eyebrow :evil: 
.
/b] Hmm...the one that spun my hat off my head like a frisbee at the QM last year... 
/ I'm totally looking forward to getting and seeing this DVD. Thanks for posting that "preview" up here.
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