My attempts at a tapered cracker.

[riku1914]

First of all I want to make notice that for many whips, the cracker is the only thing that is not tapered. The thong and fall are, but

the cracker is the missing link. So I set out to make a tapered cracker, and here's what I came up with:



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I made the first section a little longer than the others since I knew it would be tied onto the fall in some way or another.

Here's what I noticed about the popper being tapered.

First of all the obvious, I had to make it longer than a normal popper in order to cut off the strands.

Now about the performance.

To my shocking surprise, it made the whip noticeably easier to crack, and it now cracks much more noticeably louder. The crack

is a little higher pitched, I suppose since the popper fuzz is smaller than it would be with a non-tapered cracker, but it doesn't

matter, LOUDER IS BETTER


Here's how I made it, first I used the paracord inner strands for my cracker, now what I did, I wrapped a little on a pencil

like I normally would, next I wrapped the strand around my hook twice, making a total of 4 strands together ( two going each

way ) I twisted it like I normally would.

Next I got a string and put it in the middle of the twisted strand, again like you normally would, and let it twist on itself some,

then pulled it so that it's tight.

Now, I did a knot around the end of the twisted part, then cut off two strands, then I hand twisted everything a couple inches

did a knot around it, cut off two strands, then did this again, and cut off the fuzz area.

I know this probably doesn't make sense ( it hardly made sense writing it ) but if you use what you see in the pic it might make

a little more sense (tor if you have done it yourself )

Try it, it really is great!

edit: I just noticed it looks really short in the picture, it actually is about 10 inches long.

[tomek9210]

Terry Jacka tapers his crackers, see an example here: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=35547&hilit=jacka+cracker" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I have to check it out myself. Maybe you're right

[riku1914]

LOL. I saw that thread and that's where I got the idea from

[Marhala]

I've made tapered crackers too, and I'm not really comfortable with the way I've made them.

The advantages I see for a tapering cracker are:

- It continues the taper of the whip

- It makes it easier to crack.

- The better the taper of the whip, the longer its parts last (specially the fall and cracker)

Here are the disadvantages:

- A bit more work for something that will wear out pretty fast.

- It needs to be a bit longer than a regular cracker and may tangle more easily.

The only time I've thought it was worth it to make a tapering cracker was when I designed a traditional Mexican whip. The way I made it, it ended (or started, as they are usually made from the point to the butt) with a very thick point. I used the tapering cracker to continue the taper to a smaller diameter. A tapering cracker appears also in the post about the "Experimental rope thong" in my blog.

ATB,

Aldo.

[riku1914]

I have actually not had a single tangle with my nylon crackers since I made them tapered. I thought it would tangle more also...

weird. I made the starting thickness the same, but tapered it down a lot more.

[Marhala]

Maybe then, we should study this further. Perhaps the interruption of the tapering of the whip is the responsible for tangling. And as you point out, tapering the cracker would be a solution.

For a quick fix, what I do is I make the cracker some 6" long with a 2 1/4" tassle. This type of cracker is very difficult to get tangled. I do believe every whip has a particular cracker length, and in theory, if you nail it, it won't tangle regardless of length, and whether it tapers or not.

Thanks for sharing,

Aldo.