As some of you know, last December I purchased a new Terry Jacka bullwhip from David Morgan. It was Terry's standard 11" handled bull, 8 foot long, in dark brown. I bought this whip to study Terry's work closely to be able to accurately capture its look in my own version of the KOTCS whip.
I was expecting to get one of Terry's chocolate-brown whips, but when the whip arrived, I was glady surprised to see that it was braided in whisky color, the same as the KOTCS whip. Other than the longer handle, the only other difference were the color of the knots, that in my whip came in natural tan. See pics below:
I photographed the whip in both light and dark backgrounds so you can see its color properly.
For a size comparison, in the following pic you can see it next to one of my Morgans:
I originally planned to study the whip and then put in on ebay, but since the color of the whip was the same as in the fim, then it ocurred to me to change the funny looking natural tan knots, to black so that the whip resembled more an Indy 4 whip.
Then someone (I think it was Dan "Thefish") mentioned that a whipmaker could chop off a few inches on the handle of a standard Jacka and get the new shorter handled Indy whip. Well, that's what I did, and the resulting whip is here. I did my best to try and reproduce the look of the new whip based on the limited photos we've seen so far.
I am extremely happy of how the knots turned out, and how the whip feels now. So much, that I'm thinking I'll add it to my collection. The whip felt too nose-heavy for my taste, the thong being even thicker than a Morgan, and the handle being very light.
Now with the shorter handle it feels so much better! It is still nose heavy, but now it balances better. I also increased the amount of lead in the handle (Terry does put some lead there, but very, very, VERY little, almost nothing). This together with the hand being closer to the center of gravity, made the whip feel more confortable.
Not much else to tell, so here are a few pics. In the bottom one I tied a little knot in the wrist loop, trying to simulate the knot that Anthony Delongis seems to favor.
Enjoy!
)Bernardo
