I'd like to expand on this a little...thefish wrote: With nylon, you can skip all that fiddly "Cutting/Beveling" business, but you've STILL got to weight it properly, and as I've pointed out with the several dozen paragraphs above, with nylon, that's more an intuitive "felt" skill than an exact science. Nylon inherently doesn't have those properties that leather does to create a "Live Weight" whip. That whole process has to be manufactured by the maker.
*snip*
What the above is meant to say is that yes, it takes less training, talent skill and experience to make a nylon whip than it does to make a leather one. BUT it takes JUST AS MUCH training, talent, skill, and experience to make a GOOD nylon whip.
Nylon also forces you to learn skills a little differently - with leather you could potentially learn to cut and skive your strands, then use a 4 strand braid to make a perfectly serviceable whip.
Not having the option to taper strands means you have to learn to braid with higher numbers of strands pretty quick if you're using nylon, as well as how to drop them neatly without a noticable step in the whip diameter.
Ideally, the result'll be the same regardless of if you're using leather or nylon, but I think the challenges that crop up are a bit different for each material - I've spoken to a fair few people who don't appreciate that there's also a lot of skill that goes into a good nylon whip because they assume the processes involved are exactly the same as making one from leather.
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. But really, it's in with the note cards. I spoke with Chris Camp earlier today on the phone...thanks again Chris for the kind words also...on his way to a gig somewhere in Kansas I think. He said you guys had a lot of fun out at Annie Oakley, and by the pics & video clip that Paul took, I'm sure it was a good time. I hope to one day get out there, too. 
