From falls & poppers to plaiting & cracking technique, this section is dedicated in memory of Sergei, IndyGear Staff Member and Whip Guru. Always remember to keep "Celebratin' Life!"
The material here was much worse for the final product. Kind of a mess:
However, the taper is improved. Overall, it's a better made whip than the first one (with worse material). I tried cutting the strands quite a bit larger this time to see the difference and try to figure out what works well and what I like.
One small observation: the fall on your whip seems thicker than the point of the braiding. I would think that makes the whip harder to crack. Remember that faux-leather is synthetic and is lighter than leather. You may even feel a "jerk" at the end of the crack.
Try to match the base of the fall to the same diameter (or slightly smaller) than the point, and keep tapering it. Then, try to match the base of the cracker to the point of the fall.
Other than that, the whip has a nice shape. And yes, try using leather as soon as possible! You'll notice the difference, but be prepared with very sharp blades and braiding soap.
You did good for your second whip ( especially with the material used ).
One thing I noticed with the cracking, try not to overtorque the whip. By this I mean you're putting a lot of muscle into the crack, and this is bad for your whip and your form. Try to put less power into it, and follow through more. You'll get equally loud cracks with less effort, and you won't damage the whip.
Marhala wrote:One small observation: the fall on your whip seems thicker than the point of the braiding. I would think that makes the whip harder to crack. Remember that faux-leather is synthetic and is lighter than leather. You may even feel a "jerk" at the end of the crack.
Try to match the base of the fall to the same diameter (or slightly smaller) than the point, and keep tapering it. Then, try to match the base of the cracker to the point of the fall.
Other than that, the whip has a nice shape. And yes, try using leather as soon as possible! You'll notice the difference, but be prepared with very sharp blades and braiding soap.
Just a thought.
Aldo.
That's part of what I meant by the "piece of junk" comment in the video. I did not have what I needed to cut the fall correctly and the width, shape, and look of it were all pretty bad.
riku1914 wrote:You did good for your second whip ( especially with the material used ).
One thing I noticed with the cracking, try not to overtorque the whip. By this I mean you're putting a lot of muscle into the crack, and this is bad for your whip and your form. Try to put less power into it, and follow through more. You'll get equally loud cracks with less effort, and you won't damage the whip.
I have difficulty (speaks to my personality) not over-muscling the throws. I just enjoy throwing it hard. But I know you're right. I'll keep working on it. Pretty new to cracking (like a month at most - about as new as I am to whip making).
I'm totally jealous of folkprophet's whip making exploits. We played for a few hours after I got my cheap TC whip a couple months ago. We knew nothing of cracking or whip making, and he's been going crazy with it ever since, learning a ton. He's even been commissioned to make two whips already, for cost of materials only, but that will give him great practice at making leather whips!
darksideman13 wrote:What did you use to weight the whip? Or what did you use for the core?
It's all vinyl. The handle is a metal spike. The vinyl can get pretty heavy, depending on the type. The thicker stuff I used for the bellies was heavy. The overlay is super light stuff.
