Natural Tan OR 'Pre Aged'

Raider Of The Lost Ark · Mon Dec 15, 2008 7:16 am

Hi, Ive ordered a whip and now have to make a decision or two. The first is on the length but the second is the colour. The preaged is, as I understand it, how a natural tan whip will look after many years / months / days use.

What do people think, better to go 'natural' and let it do its own thing or go 'pre aged' and be done with it? Would the pre aged be less SA as it was never natural tan? Please let me know. Thanks!

Raider

rjallen70 · Post by **rjallen70** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 8:46 am

natural.

conceited_ape · Post by **conceited_ape** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 8:54 am

Natural. No question.
Do you have any idea how quickly you can distress a whip with simple use?

rjallen70 · Post by **rjallen70** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 10:00 am

It is a suble as hair growth.
They darken quicker than you think, but by seeing it every day, you don't even really notice.
A difference with photographic evidence would be discernable after a couple of months, with exposure to sun through use, but your eye probably wouldn't notice.
It would be a neat experiment for someone to do with a relatively new whip. Monthly updates with pics taken under the same circumstances would be very cool.
Ron

ksteryous · Post by **ksteryous** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 12:14 pm

rjallen70 wrote: It would be a neat experiment for someone to do with a relatively new whip. Monthly updates with pics taken under the same circumstances would be very cool.
Ron

Mine is only a couple weeks old, and below are a few pics...it's a 10ft in Natural from Pagey.

If I can remember, I'll take some more pics in a month or so to get a frame of reference as to how fast it darkens.

Nebraska Brad · Post by **Nebraska Brad** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 12:34 pm

If you are in the position that you can use it quite a bit and have some patience it will darken fairly rapidly. My delCarpio has really aged well in the months I have had it. I also sometimes leave it out in the sun while I do yard work (that way it is close by if I need a whip break).

-Nebraska

Wade Egan · Post by **Wade Egan** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 5:45 pm

I just bought an 8' Joe Strain and am doing a photo journey with the whip for the break in period. It'll show how a whip darkens naturally with everyday use, sun exposure, and light dressing.

The new retail site will feature a forum/blog section with customer photos, gear discussions, and how to videos showing everything from making a strap to whip techniques. Should be lots of fun.

Here's the J Strain after two and three days out of the box:

Day 2

Day 3

I'll post pics every week in a designated thread once I've got some of the photos processed and it stops raining!

W.E.
adventureleather@mac.com

Indiana G · Post by **Indiana G** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 7:05 pm

if i want the raiders look.....natural is the way to go. i like darker whips for the rest of the movies though. the LC whip looked almost black on his hip.....and it looked like spaghetti too so....

they'll crack the same despite what colour it is. it all depends on what you want your whip to look like.

i'd go as far as using a natural david morgan for all 3 movie looks......but you definitely need a dark whip for a CS look.

go natural........it's more gritty and 'ruff n tumble' looking......probably cuz raiders was like that..... ;-)

louiefoxx · Post by **louiefoxx** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 11:21 pm

Whenever I read "pre aged" I think of a fresh natural tan hide that hasn't seen much sunlight. Instead of pre aged, it should just be called aged natural tan.

That's just my opinion.

xoxo

Louie
http://bullwhips.org

LemonLauren · Post by **LemonLauren** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 12:24 am

Personally, I'm a fan of the natural tan too... If you get natural tan, you get to watch your whip gradually turn from the color it you see in the scene in Raiders where Indy says "Stop! Stay out of the light!," to the dark dark brown "brandy"-ish color in LC. If you want to jump ahead though, and really don't want to bother with it going through the stages, a "pre-aged" like Tony's (Indywhips) will come really close to a LC aged look (plus that color is really is a beautiful color on its own anyways), but it's true also that to me one of the darker hide color whips (saddle tan, brandy, whiskey) do look a little bit different than an old, used, & loved natural tan whip. Either way you go though, I'm sure you're going to get a great whip that you'll love, no doubt!

Also, I'm working on a new website for MidWestWhips, where Paul and I are hoping to publicly offer something we just created (and sold) the prototype of a few months ago. This might be a kind of "inbetween" option. We decided to call it "mature natural" (sound good, Louie? lol), it is actually a real natural tan hide, matured BEFORE it's braided, so it's still a brand new whip - the regular natural tan color just has a little head start toward a darker brown.

Anyways, here's a photo that will certainly describe it better than I'm typing. The mature natural whip is pictured between a regular natural whip and a saddle tan whip (and then of course, the "pre-aged" from Indywhips is still another shade darker). We're not making the mature whips quite yet, but we have a wait list anyways and plan to start offering them soon if anybody's interested.

Lauren Wickline
www.midwestwhips.com

louiefoxx · Post by **louiefoxx** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 1:15 am

Lauren,

Mature sounds much better than pre-aged. When I read/hear pre-aged I think before aging, or the color of a new natural tan hide.

I tried to darken a natural tan hide last summer. I put a hide on the back seat of my car while I was performing on the road for 4 or 5 days. At the end of the run the hide got "sun burnt" and turned a nice pinkish color.

xoxo

Louie
http://bullwhips.org

Chewbacca Jones · Post by **Chewbacca Jones** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 1:27 am

I prefer natural. My IAOB darkened rather quickly, but I didn't really notice until I saw a new one again. My jaw dropped!

I also just got a natural Joe Strain, and after only one good cracking session I can see a difference in color.

As for length, I'll tell you what Joe told me, which made a great deal of sense. (in my own words, of course). The "best of both worlds" 9 ' doesn't really do much of anything either way. 10' is useful for doing wraps, but it's heavy, and also not as easy to crack as shorter whips. The best length for cracking, while maintaining a nice look on your belt in gear, is the 8'. Not too heavy, not awkwardly long, and easy to crack with very little practice. So, I have an 8 footer, and I'm very happy.

IndyWhips · Post by **IndyWhips** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 2:33 am

louiefoxx wrote:Whenever I read "pre aged" I think of a fresh natural tan hide that hasn't seen much sunlight. Instead of pre aged, it should just be called aged natural tan.

That's just my opinion.

xoxo

Louie
http://bullwhips.org

Louie & Lauren

WoW and there was me thinking I'd called mine READY AGED....not pre aged

I've been known to do them in Natural Tan, Saddle Tan, Whisky and even on occasion I've been talked into doing them in Drum Stuffed Natural Tan too....Dontchaknow!!!

Tony

On a more serious note for those that don't know, Natural Tan, Saddle Tan, Whisky and Brandy (In both Drum Stuffed and Dry form) are collectivly known as the earth colours and they will ALL change colour with exposure to the sun and use though non as dramatically at Natural Tan....

Wade Egan · Post by **Wade Egan** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 4:34 pm

This whip is extremely easy to use and cracks like a cannon out of the box. It's still a little stiff but feels really smooth in motion.

W.E.

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c151/ ... G_5440.jpg

Wade Egan · Post by **Wade Egan** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 4:34 pm

Here's the J Strain after one week out of the box. Worked it in and cracked it at least twice a day since it came. It's already showing some color.

W.E.

LemonLauren · Post by **LemonLauren** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 6:38 pm

Hahaha, well you seem to be right Tony... Ready Aged it is, lol. It's been a couple weeks since I've been to your site browsing - I was just taking everyone's word for it! Looking forward to seeing some pics of your natural tan Indy whips on there soon as well...

We tend to get mostly orders for natural tan when it comes to Indy whips, but there are always a few people who prefer starting their whip out at a darker color like saddle tan, whiskey, brandy, etc. I never mind - I love all the colors in the brown "earth colors" spectrum, and they all make a beautiful Indy whip IMO. For myself though, my ultimate Indy whip would have to start out natural tan... I love the idea of owning a whip that will grow and mature through so many variations of brown, each one matching a different scene from the movies.

Louie, it took some planning and trials to figure out how best to mature the hide to get it right inbetween natural and saddle, which was the goal... I'd imagine letting one bake in a hot car for a few days would really turn it sunburnt pink! Did you ever make a whip out of that hide? I bet it would be interesting looking, probably even a rather pretty color from what I'm imagining.

Lauren Wickline
www.midwestwhips.com

Weston · Post by **Weston** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 9:13 pm

I recently sent this one in for repair. It had a broken strand and the turks head was loosening. It is natural tan, new in 2004. Check out the contrast between the new and old leather!

It shows you don't need to be in a hurry to darken it, if that's the look you want. It will get there faster than you think!

Weston

IndyWhips · Post by **IndyWhips** » Wed Dec 17, 2008 3:53 am

LemonLauren wrote:Hahaha, well you seem to be right Tony... Ready Aged it is, lol. It's been a couple weeks since I've been to your site browsing - I was just taking everyone's word for it! Looking forward to seeing some pics of your natural tan Indy whips on there soon as well...

Lauren Wickline
www.midwestwhips.com

I'd love to pop a Natural Tan on there Lauren, I don't know about you guys in the States but here in Europe my order book is full of KotCS KotCS KotCS they're obsessed with it I tell you

Tony

Raider Of The Lost Ark · Wed Dec 17, 2008 4:18 am

Now Tony, there is at least one in there for a ROTLA ;-)

Natural Tan OR 'Pre Aged'

Natural Tan OR 'Pre Aged'

Joe Strain Natural 8'

Joe Strain Natural 8'

Joe Strain Natural 8'