Finished bullwhip

[willthebold]

Hi All,
Just wanted to share a bullwhip I finished recently. I made a few whips about 2 or 3 years ago, but hadn't messed with anything in a while. The urge struck me again recently, so I bought some leather and went for it! I had only ever used paracord before, so cutting all the lace and doing bolsters was a pretty big challenge. It turned out pretty well, and satisfied my urge to make a whip. (At least for a while...) It's an 8ft, 12-plait Indy-ish style whip made from kip. You'll notice the long transition knot, which is there to cover up my mistakenly doing the diamond plait for too long; though I kind of like how it turned out. My thanks to the entire forum, and especially to Riku and Franco who were kind enough to answer several of my questions along the way.




Happy cracking!


-Will

[riku1914]

That's your first try at a leather whip?

Looks great!

What did you cut and bevel the lace with? Was it all by hand? If so you did really good.

What did you lubricate the strands with?

[IndianaBravo]

That looks really good, and the transition knot certainly looks interesting !
Cheers
IndianaBravo

[willthebold]

Thanks for the nice comments! This is actually the third one I made after picking the hobby back up. The first one I used leather that was too thick, and the finished product was, well... really chunky and not so good looking. I got some thinner leather (kip) and made this whip:


It turned out too light and thin overall, but it looks okay and still cracks pretty well.

Riku, I used Aussie leather conditioner to grease the strands, and for plaiting soap I just mixed some Dove bar soap shavings and water together. It probably wasn't as good as the plaiting soap with lard in it, but it worked pretty well and I wasn't planning on making more than a couple whips anyway. I hand cut the lace with an Aussie leather strander from Tandy, and didn't bevel the edges at all. The kip was 2-3 oz, which meant it was thin enough for me to do the core, 2 bellies, 2 bolsters and an overlay kind of construction. This was the first time I'd ever tried bolsters, but I think they worked out pretty well thanks to your helpful answers.

-Will

[Canuck Digger]

Good taper. Looks like you got the important bits right! Good job.

Now go make another.