I cannot even express just HOW proud I am, to FINALLY have – what *I* consider to be - the ULTIMATE Raiders bullwhip in my hands.
I hope you don’t mind a few details on how this actually came to be – after all it took us round about one and a half years to come this far. One and a half years of studying screen grabs, pictures of screen used bullwhips, vintage David Morgan whips from the Raiders era, details upon details.
Late 2007 I was contacted by one of the most talented whip makers regarding the AB shirts, and through our conversations came the concept of making an AB bullwhip: Paul Nolan of Midwestwhips. I knew NOTHING about the topic. Well, ok, I guess nothing is relative, but compared to you guys in here, it fits pretty well. What I knew, is basically what you can read on the main pages of Indygear.com and that’s pretty much it. I had bought a few whips myself – 10’ natural tan roo hide whips – and just like a newbie purchasing a pair of officers pinks, I thought that what I had was pretty much “it”. When Paul and I began talking about the idea of an AB bullwhip, I started to really learn. I learned to crack a whip (more or less), I learned what goes into making one (no, I did NOT start plaiting – I’m talking the theory only here) and I started to look at the screen grabs that showed the Raiders bullwhips up close. As I moved on, I started to write down the differences that I could see between the Raiders bullwhips and any other whip I could get into my fingers during this phase. Obviously, Paul shared this obsession, as he did the same in the meanwhile (and had been doing so for many many years, even including having examined a screen used Raiders whip in person!). While I was writing down the optical details, Paul examined a ruined David Morgan from the very early eighties, that is still in his possession, for the technical details. EVERYTHING – no matter how small the detail – was written down and discussed. It all reminded me of the good ol’ days when Steve and I spent an hour on the phone each day to discuss THE block of the Raiders Fedora and just like back then, we (Paul and I) lost sleep over how to incorporate details that – accidentally – where added by David Morgan while he was unknowingly creating the most iconic bullwhip in movie history. I was AMAZED to see all the small details adding together – like a huge puzzle finally starting to show the picture it’s supposed to show. When done, we had no less than four(!) pages of specs. together for this project. Just like the turn on the Raiders Fedora, the bullwhips had a few “optical imperfections” (for the lack of better words), that made it so unique and so different from the visually “modernised” versions I was able to get my hands on in the meanwhile. We wrote them down. ALL of them. And whenever one of us came up with something new, it was double checked by the other.
Just to name a few:
- The thicknesses of the kangaroo leather strands were matched.
- The same species of kangaroo leather that David Morgan uses
- The strands were cut from the same areas of the skin
- The EVER so slight discoloration between each single strand, that you can only see on a brand new David Morgan bullwhip
- The slight change of force that was used during plaiting and of course in which parts of the whip to incorporate it
- The indentation on the handle just above the turks head butt knot
- The WIDE diamond shaped pattern on the handle
- The VERY subtle kinks on the stand drops
- The inner construction, which was done using the EXACT same internal construction measurements as the Morgan whips of the 1980’s. The only addition that Paul incorporated into the insides of this whip was some minimal reinforcement at the transition to increase the longevity and durability of the whip.
- etc. etc. etc. (as I wrote: we had four pages like this)
Round about one month ago, we had the feeling that all of the details had been noted, researched, compared, and accounted for. There just wasn’t a SINGLE detail to discuss any longer and after a few test plaitings – in which Paul incorporated the details we had put together – he started plaiting the very first AB bullwhip for me. I got it on Thursday, exactly one day before I left to the European summit to present this bullwhip to those attending. I only cracked it three times in the office, to make sure I wouldn’t make it dirty.
To say that I was thrilled would be a HUGE understatement. Paul incorporated EVERY little detail we had discussed. ALL of them! In my personal opinion, this is the most accurate Raiders bullwhip EVER made since Raiders. That is absolutely not meant as a pun to any other whipmaker, it’s just the result of over 18 months of hard work from two VERY EXTREME fanatics.
Paul I pull my hat for you. Due to the friendship we’ve developed over the past 1.5 years, you’ll know what that means.
And here she is:
While it usually takes a maximum of 2 roo hides to make a 10’ bullwhip, it took 5(!) to get this one just right, and approx. 50% more in time to plait it!
Due to the extreme list of specs that it takes to not “only” make a bullwhip that is exact down to the VERY last detail, but – thanks to the leather and the parts of the hides chosen – also will change its color over time EXACTLY like the screen used whips did, we have chosen to only offer a limited run of 8’ and 10’ of these. They’ll be available EXCLUSIVELY through AB and include a 3 DVD set of Robert Amper’s most excellent Whip Basics – A Beginners Guide, to guarantee safe and knowledgeable use.
Stay tuned for more details.
Regards,
Marc
You guys have made one heck of a whip.
)
) and I came up with the following idea:
. I’ve spent a lot of time and effort researching these whips not only for the Indy Gear site but also for my own personal interest and I've had the good fortune of examining late 70s and early 80s Morgan bullwhips, including screen used bullwhips (Raiders included) both in person and in photos. Over the years I’ve enjoyed discussing those many nuances in detail with various whip makers, including Paul. One thing I can tell you from my experience is that tying to recreate these bullwhips in exacting detail is no easy task. I know Paul and Lauren though, they are both excellent whip makers and I have no doubt in their ability to supply Marc with high quality, period accurate Raiders style bullwhips based on Marcs specifications, that also perform well. Besides this whip looks pretty similar to my own Raiders whip, so I think Paul did a good job in that regard too.
Go ahead and ask my felter / sweatbandmaker / Alden who's their most insane customer when it comes to specs. Not everyone's cup of tea - by FAR not - but that's just me. 
