New member, new whips

tomek9210 · Post by **tomek9210** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 3:04 am

Hello, I'm another whipcracker/whipmaker(beginner) from Poland

My whips:
1) 8ft 12 plt indy style paracord

2) 9ft 12 plt black bullwhip

I've got two stockwhips from polish members of this forum - Kiscien and Kooniu, I'll post the photos soon. But what do you think about my whips?

Strider · Post by **Strider** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 3:27 am

Welcome to COW! Sweet whips.

Canuck Digger · Post by **Canuck Digger** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 9:45 am

Hi
nice whips. I don't have any experience working with nylon, so take this with a grain of salt but, my only comments would be to watch where you drop strands... Otherwise great job!

tomek9210 · Post by **tomek9210** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:24 am

Thank you, I know I must practise with dropping strands but I do it a lot better than in my first whip

Canuck Digger · Post by **Canuck Digger** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:55 am

It's not easy to get a seamless drop I know, I still struggle with it sometimes. But I have found that what helps is to not drop too early. By plaiting until the pattern gets a bit cramped, you are forcing too much leather around too small a core which is why it gets ramped, so by dropping here, the strands now have the right space to continue the plating and the drop is not so brutal. Another thing, which I don't know if you have tried, is to only drop one strand at a time instead of two. You drop let's say from 12 down to 11, plait with that for a few inches, then drop down to 10 strands. What this does is it allows the pattern to adjust slowly and more smoothly. The other thing I have found to be helpfull, but this is with leather so I'm not sure how you would translate this to paracord, is to have the dropped strands coincide with a decrease in the core size. I know it sounds obvious, but it's not done by chance, you have to plan this sort of thing. Anyways, just my thoughts, hopefully something in there will be useful. Keep on plaiting!

IndyWhips · Post by **IndyWhips** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 11:42 am

Hi Tom,

good to see you here and to see you posting, the improvement from your first to your second whip is clearly visable, well done

Dropping strings with nylon is totally different from leather, continue to drop them 2 at a time and burn them off after feeding them through the belly plait, neatness will come with experience....

All in all a good job...welcome aboard Tom

Best Wishes

Tony

tomek9210 · Post by **tomek9210** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 2:59 pm

I always drop one strand, next I drop an inch later. I know that the drop point is visible in first photo and I promise to try do it better

I've got one more question - how much weight your whips? The first one of mine weights circa 380-400 grams and the second one circa 500 g

TurnerME · Post by **TurnerME** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 9:21 pm

Welcome to COW. Your whips are very good looking, keep up the good work.