How I made a jrzjoe special into a cracker of a cracker!

[Gunslinger Rex]

When I was putting together my Indy gear, and before I knew anything about whips, I purchased a jrzjoe whip from ebay. It looked the part, was real leather, and was pretty cheap. All it was going to do was hang on my belt. How could I go wrong?

Fast forward a few days after I clicked the 'buy it now' button, and my whip arrives. I excitedly take it out of the box and get my first up close look at a 'real' bullwhip. I'm a craftsman myself, although not in leather, so I really appreciate the intricate knot and weave patterns, and imagine the hours that went into cutting and plaiting all those strands of leather. It's much lighter and stiffer than I expect, though.

Inevitably, like the overage boy with a new toy that I am, I watch some instructional youtube videos and start flinging this sucker around in an attempt to get it to crack. It's much harder than they make it look! "It just needs breaking in" I say to myself as I throw and throw until my shoulders ache. I finally manage to get my first feeble cracks while trying underhand throws. Soon after, my timing and feel for the whip starts getting dialed in and I'm getting mild pops with circus cracks and sidearm throws as well. Something is still wrong, though. As broken in as my whip was at this point, it still didn't flow smoothly, or have the apparent mass like the big name leather whips I saw McFly and Daren Wilkerson using on youtube.

My solution? I tried hand lotion. Lots of it. I loaded up the thong and fall, let it soak in for 15 minutes, then wiped off the excess. Immediate improvement. A couple of weeks later, I did it again. So far, I have done it 4 times, and each time the whip improved. It got heavier and rolls out more smoothly. It now cracks with authority, and I don't need to muscle it.

I thought I should offer up my discovery for those guys like me, flailing away with their decent looking, but poor functioning leather whips. Is it good for the long term life of the whip? Doubtful, but I haven't seen any ill effects in a couple of months of steady use. Do I care if it eventually ruins this whip? Not really. I've got a cheap whip that now handles much like a 'real' whip should, and will serve me well while I save up for my (insert famous maker here) bullwhip. If and when it does cause some sort of whip failure, I've still got a great looking, well broken in wall hanger.

[riku1914]

I have a question, have you ever handled a "real" , well made whip? I ask, not to step on your toes or anything, but because you cannot understand the true feel of a whip by watching someone else use one, it's literally impossible. What you did by adding weight to whip, I can understand improving it. Especially if jrzjoe didn't grease it ( or hardly greased it ) in the first place.
However, jrzjoe doesn't make good whips, even his $300 kangaroo whips are, for lack of better words, terrible. I'm glad you understand ( so many don't! ) that his whips are cheap, and that there are much better quality whips made. He makes them as quickly as possible the cheapest way possible to make a profit on people looking for a cheap whip, but talks them up for the few uninformed people who stumble across him actually wanting a nice whip.

Trust me though, once you get your hands on a REAL whip, you'll never look back to the jrzjoe whip. It will not only be nicer looking than the jrzjoe, but will handle infinitely better.


Also, when you do get your hands on a good whip, for one it's good to grease it with a good leather dressing ( pecards leather dressing is a good one that myself and many other whipmakers and crackers use ), and only grease it once every 3-6 months. Repeatedly dressing a whip causes the strands to stretch and loosen up, and will make the whip become what you may call a wet noodle extremely fast. A good whip is plaited ( braided ) very tightly and maintains a lot of this tightness even through the initial breaking in period. This causes the whip to have life in it, as it may be put. That is to say, it will still be springy, to a degree. A wet noodle has a very inefficient transfer of energy, even with a taper. It's definitely NOT a good quality to have in a whip.

[Gunslinger Rex]

Thanks for your input, riku1914. As to your first question my only experience with a real whip was handling a 10' del Carpio for a brief time at a local cowboy festival. It was obviously a far superior whip, but it was in an exhibition building, and there was no place for me to crack it.

I understand jrzjoe whips are garbage, and have pretty much since I decided to learn to crack. I certainly am not advocating purchasing a jrzjoe, just sharing with others that made my mistake what I did to make mine into a usable training tool. When I get my real whip, I will have enough useful practice under my belt to really appreciate its fine qualities.

[Marhala]

I understand what you mean Gunslinger. Over here, in Mexico, they used to sell really stiff rawhide whips. When I was a child, as they were cheap whips with no taper as JrzJoe's whips, what I did was to add a cracker to the leather fall, and soak them in Armor All to make them supple. As rawhide is very light and those whips have a rebar section for the handle foundation, it tired your arm terribly. One of them broke at the foundation (a strip of rawhide twisted around the rebar and extending beyond it, ending in a point). With extended use, those whips break at the foundation, so I think the Armor All didn't really cause that malfunction.

Aldo.

[Charybdis]

I'm probably in for one of those jrzjoe whip's basically because I will never ever spend that kind of money required for a "real" whip...and Gunslinger, you said it, you got that cheap whip to work for you and you are at least happy with it

I just need a cheap whip to hang on my wall and belt when the time comes to dress up...but I understand about the quality and the price, etc. I just don't need that for what I want it for...for me...money is the biggest issue.

[riku1914]

I'd suggest getting a Todd's costumes whip then. Since you don't want to crack, and want a nice costume piece, theirs is exactly what you want, plus their pricing is great for what they give. They definitely look better than jrzjoe whips.

[thefish]

It's the taper that is the problem. No taper, no crack. That's the key part in the physics.

BUT, good advice, Gunslinger! If you do increase the mass somewhat, (by saturating the leather with fats and oils,) it can help SOME. Another thing is that if the whip has a wide, flat fall, you can trim it down a bit, or hitch a different longer, tapering fall to it, (JRZJoe's earlier whips had those wide, flat "Texas" falls on them. Someone clued him in to change that, and he instructed his army sweatshop braiders in the new way he wanted it done.)

In terms of aesthetics, craftsmanship, and functionality, Todd's Costumes whips are FAR superior to the JRZJoe variety, and are usually less expensive, which is why Todd has a hard time keeping them on the shelves. Reports seem to say that they benefit from a good heavy saturation of leather conditioner when they arrive as well, which makes them darker and lets them crack a little bit better.

Satisfied customers hype Todd's stuff.

The only person who seems to rave about Joe's stuff, is Joe himself.

Just sayin'!

Happy crackin!

[Charybdis]

I will take a closer look at Todd's...you're right, Todd knows the Indy business, that's for sure!

[Gunslinger Rex]

As I said, I would certainly not recommend jrzjoe, but I got lucky with mine. It came with a surprisingly well shaped, high quality leather fall, and the thong has a taper of about 4:1. The plaiting is certainly not as tight as a 'real' whip, and who knows what's in the belly, but after adding weight to the thong and replacing the cracker that was made from what looked kind of like black yarn, it certainly cracks.

High energy cracks like the overhead are ear-ringers, of course, but some of the more finesse cracks can be pretty feeble if your form isn't quite right. I'm sure that's due to dead spots in the poorly crafted thong bleeding off energy. When I finally do get a proper whip, I'm sure it will crack so easily it will feel like cheating. I'll have to pay close attention to make sure my form doesn't get sloppy!