Club Obi Wan

Hey all, I will soon be buying a Joe Strain 10 footer from the man himself, any recommendations as to care at first, cracking at first. I can expect the whip to be fairly stiff at first I know, just making conversation. I am very used to Mark Allen Swivel 10 footer, so this will be a big change from an American Style bullwhip to an Australian Bullwhip.

Josh, congrats on your new acquisition. You are getting the Joe Strain from Joe himself or Mark Allen? Just curious. It's one great whip, from a superstar in the whip cracking world. A lot of performers use Joe's whips.

As far as care, there have been many, many threads on this recently. But the one I like the most was from this thread:
http://www.indygear.com/community/forum ... ght=#12359

Read, the response from WhipEnth (Sebastion). This is the tutorial on whip care. I like the part about not cracking it too loud. It's bad for the whip and bad for starting to learn to crack. The technique is more important than decibels. Anyway, take a look at that post, print it down and stuff it into you MKVII bag for reference. )

Enjoy and remember 2 things: practice safely and HAVE FUN. It's a great hobby, with great people.

-Sergei

p.s.
Here are couple of other sources on whip care:
- David Morgan http://www.davidmorgan.com/whipcare.htm ... equence=60

- Mark Allen http://www.westernstageprops.com/AboutTheWhip.Asp

Is there a difference if you order a JS from Mark Allen or from Joe himself ? I would like to contact Joe, but he has no e-mail ! and my English is not enought good to call him !
Can he make a whip with the specs i want ?

Thanks

doc riviere wrote:Is there a difference if you order a JS from Mark Allen or from Joe himself ? I would like to contact Joe, but he has no e-mail ! and my English is not enought good to call him !
Can he make a whip with the specs i want ?

Thanks

If you want a fairly close looking Indy style bullwhip, then ordering through Mark Allen is the way to go. Mark always seems to have a healthy inventory of Indystyle bullwhips. So for instant gratification, Mark Allen fullfils that need.

But if you want a customized whip from Joe Strain, then you need to call him. His contact info is at his website:
http://www.northernwhipco.com

But, here is the bad news. Joe just made for me a pair of Lone Star whips a couple of weeks ago. He indicated to me at that time, that these would be the last whips he would make for the next few months. He had some physical issues and he needs to mend. I expressed to him , was it weeks or months. He came back with months. So I would expect he is taking off at least 2 months and will get back into prior to the holiday rush.

So, check with Mark Allen first to see what they have in stock. Or you just have to wait when Joe gets back.

-Sergei

I bought my 8 foot JS whip from Mark Allen, I absolutly love my whip. David Morgan is the maker of the Indy whips, but for the price and quality you can't go wrong with a Joe Strain. I highly recomend them...........IR

Thanks Sergei, for the in infos....!!

Indy Josh
I recently got a JS whip and went from the MA swivel 10 footer. The first thing you will notice is that the JS is alot faster. I have also found that it cracks way eisier then the MA. I got mine from Mark Allen and it is a thing of buety. You will have a great time using it congratulations. As far as anything to do with it when you first get it I found that the leather wasnt dry at all so I went out and played with it for a hour or two and then came in and gave it a good coating of pecards. I ended up wiping most of it off so I knew the leather isnt dry.

Enjoy in good health
Gilly

Yes, I am ordering it from the man himself, Joe, this was a nice recommendation made to me by Indiana Dan, if you want a Raiders whip, you have to go to the man himself!!! I already have both David's and Mark's websites and cataloges, been getting them for years. I really look forward to this, more whip cracking fun lies ahead!

If he's taking a few months off, how are you gonna get a JS whip from the man himself? Or did you place the order a while back. Just curious. By the way, congrats! I'd love to hear the specs: natural hide, darker decorative knot, which scene, etc.

Hey Indy Josh,

Great choice,I currently own a Joe Strain 10ft natural tone and love it,except when I accidently crack it wrong and strike myself .Good luck with your new gear item!.


Best regards,
INDIANA_7

Sergei wrote:Josh, congrats on your new acquisition. You are getting the Joe Strain from Joe himself or Mark Allen? Just curious.

I am wondering what the difference is between the two. What I mean to say is, that if I get a Joe Strain from Mark Allen, then am I getting a Joe Strain at a higher price because of a middle man? Why would I get one from Mark Allen when I can go to Joe on my own?

Please help me understand as I plan to make a purchase in the next couple of months.

Thanks everyone!

Well if you go to either place, Mark or straight to Joe, you will get the same price. The only Joe Strain's you can get from Mark Allen are the Indy style, not bad, right? And the Zorro whips are also made by Joe, sold by Mark. The specs of these whips are given by Mark, and there is no latitude in what you are going to get. The Indy style bullwhip specs by Mark, are slightly different from David Morgan. Mark, does this at complete respect for David Morgan. He doesn't want to compete head-on with David, which is an extremely classy thing to do. The specs are merely cosmetic and do not affect the performance of the whip. The Joe Strain Indy style whip is a work of art and my work horses from my vast collection.

The advantage of ordering through Mark Allen is that he maintains a constant inventory of high quality whips. So if you are into instant gratification, Mark is your man.

If you go straight to Joe, then you can perhaps ask for some customizations. His prices are listed at his website, http://www.northernwhipco.com. They are roughly in par with Mark. But if you customize, the price will vary. In other words, you can say to Joe, can you make my Indy bullwhip closer looking to David Morgan's. The 2 big differences in Joe's whips compared to David's are the lace widths on the overlay and the size of the turks head knot on the heel. Joe's plaiting is also much, much tighter than David's. But Joe has the strength of a young lion, Joe being 26 and David is 70 something.

I hope this helps. Send me an email, PM or whatever if you need anything more cleared up.

-Sergei
p.s. It's official. I talked to Jo yesterday from Mark Allen. Joe Strain is officially taking 2 months off. He has caused some nerve damage to his hand from overuse. So he needs to seriously take the time off, to mend. And then he mentioned to me, that when he does come back, his production output will be considerably lower. ( ( (

It would be cool if we all sent him a get well card, from all the Indy Fans here at the Club, here would get a kick out of it. I know if I were a whip maker I would be board out of my mind if I were not making them.

That's a great idea, Josh! I wonder how we can sign it all. But again, we can send a card and say it's from all of us.

I wouldn't worry about Joe being bored. I know he was leaving on his annual vacation to Glacier National Park. Joe is a fisherman and I believe he hunts. So don't feel so sorry for Joe. I hear that even when he is busy making whips, he makes plenty time for fishing.

-Sergei

I second the idea. I think it's great and I'm wondering about all the creative minds her at COW--is there a way to overcome the logistics of having people sign it?

Anyway, you're right Sergei, it could just be a card from "all of us."

GREAT, heres my plan, we need to collect as many signatures as possible, people can either scan thier actual signatures or use a font; close to thier own hand writing, then send them to me, I can make up a nice custome Indy Gear Card, print it on some nice paper and then send it to Joe, we can make it a sort of get better/ thank you card for providing us with wonderful Indy Whips for great prices and all that good stuff, even when fishing and all that fun, getting a card from all his big fans would nock his socks off! WHO'S IN???

Josh, I'm in, but could you email me your email address so I can send you an attachment in Word and Paint of my font signature. (My scanner isn't speaking to my computer right now-thanks Minnesota for that personification). Thanks for jumping in to help, Josh!
wickie7@earthlink.net

Indiana Josh wrote:GREAT, heres my plan, we need to collect as many signatures as possible, people can either scan thier actual signatures or use a font; close to thier own hand writing, then send them to me, I can make up a nice custome Indy Gear Card, print it on some nice paper and then send it to Joe, we can make it a sort of get better/ thank you card for providing us with wonderful Indy Whips for great prices and all that good stuff, even when fishing and all that fun, getting a card from all his big fans would nock his socks off! WHO'S IN???

I thought of that last night about scanning signatures, but hesitated with people giving their real names with their real signature, due to well, privacy, security issues. If we use our names on COW, well Joe Strain won't recognize those names since we deal with him on a real name basis.

So this is what I propose, people send in whatever signature they desire. If they are concerned about security, then they deal with it appropriately (either by using their COW name, real name or real name with COW name). So let's do this:
- people send their scans of their signature over to Josh by the end of THIS MONTH.
- Josh, you collate and merge all signatures in a jpg, bmp or tiff format
- I would vote for you, JOsh coordinating with Kyle (he's a professional illustrator) on the proper imagery for the card.

Once we get this far, then send a PM to me and Kyle on the logistics, of printing with the card, merged in with all the signatures.

Is this the plan?

What the..?! Looks like Sergei just made me a military "volunteer!" Ah, what the heck, I'm in. I can't promise anything fancy, I've got a lot on my plate at the moment, but I'll help.

-Kyle

Nothing fancy at all Kyle. Less is more. Or reuse whatever you have lying around. Like the print hanging at Morgan's show room. It's the thought that counts. )

-Sergei

Josh and Kyle,

I don't have a scanner or anything fancy so would mind acting in my stead and putting Indiana Joe on the card? Thanks!

Also, maybe this idea could be moved as a separate thread so that others, who may not come into this section very often, would be given the opportunity to contribute. Just a suggestion.....

Here is a very rough design I did several months ago as an idea for a new IndyGear logo. I just came across it again and thought it might work as a card design for Joe. I would definitely tighten it up for the final. What does everyone think?



-Kyle

I like the concept (whip thong forming the fedora brim).

Josh, how are we doing on the names?

-Sergei

DM told me this past weekend that Joe Strain has quit the whip making business. This surprised me! I said that I had heard he was just taking some time off. According to David, Joe has taken a job at a bank because his hands are so badly hurt from so much braiding. He may go back to making whips but this is uncertain. If he does make more whips it will be nowhere near the kind of output he was doing. I believe David got this info from talking to Mark Allen.

-Kyle

Kyle, at this point with that devestating news I'm really wishing it was April Fool's Day.

Indiana Texas-girl wrote:I'm really wishing it was April Fool's Day.

Me too, ITG. And here I am saving up for a Joe Strain.

For his own sake, I hope he gets better but I'm also still bummed about not being able to acquire one in a couple of months.