Club Obi Wan

Today when I was pecarding my 8foot DM I noticed that the end of the whip was much darker than the rest of it. The end was darkest and got lighter and lighter up to the handle. I was wondering what caused this. I heard somewhere that it was stress, and that the end was darker because there was more stress there, cause the whip travels the fastest at the end. Am I right? Yeah, thats about it. Any ideas?
-Scott

It's getting dirtier and wet. You're cracking outdoors right?



-Rabittooth

yeah, I'm cracking outside, but how is the dirt making it darker? I try to keeo the whip as clean as possible
-Scott

Well, this occurs when a darker colored dirt comes into contact with a lighter colored substance. Let me try to give you the simplest example that you may be able to follow.
If you start with a pair of white socks fresh out of the package, then wear them around outside in the dirt for a couple of hours, then wash them, you will not be able to get the dirt stain completely out of them. So, the operative word for today is stain. You have stained your whip with dirt, and regardless of how clean you try to keep it, it will darken at the end.

It happens, get over it.

Best Regards,

Paul Stenhouse

But Paul, can't I use cholorox to bleach it out? That's how I keep my white socks from "staining". ) They are perfectly white, my boy.

-S
p.s. I actually got this question.

It happens, get over it

I don't like your attitude
-scott

How new is your whip?

My 12 year old DM 10' has turned, I noticed recently when compared to shots of new ones, a nice shade of brown. It's even through the whole whip. Granted, I've only casually used it through the years. (I hope to start using it more... hopefully some MD area gearheads would want to start some cracking gatherings - hint, hint)

Anyway, it's a dark shade all the way through. The fall is even getting darker now, but I do believe that that is caused by dirt and "stains", since that was always a natural hide color. And no, I don't plan on bleaching it back any time soon!

Mike

My whip is about 3 months old. Why does the leather turn darker on the 1st inch or two of the under side of the thong (I hope you know what i'm talking about) Is that cause of stress That can't be dirt/staining cause that never touches the ground. I always wondered what caused that.
-Scott

It's dirt / damp Scott. The whip's gotta touch the ground for your set ups.
Don't sweat it...it's dirt / damp.

-Rabittooth

No!!!! Not the end of the whip The underside of the 1st inch of the thong, right after the handle. That never touches the ground. I'm not worried about it I was just curious what causes it. No one else has noticed this?
-Scott

Scott,
Am I to understand that your whip is darkening in two places?
If so, it just might be stress. I haven't ever heard of this. Is the darkening near the handle a result of something rubbing it, like a whip holder?

Best Regards,
Paul Stenhouse

PS. I have an excellent attitude :!:

I have an excellent attitude!

LOL :lol:

I'm positive it's not from a whip holder cause I never carry that whip around. This has happened to all my whips. I know that it's not a bad thing because I have and old kangaroo whip (my first one) that this happened to, and it still works fine and has a good handle thong junction. As soon as the whip darkened up I didn't notice it anymore. why does this happen.....the world may never know :wink: :roll:
-Scott

More than likely it's because of the leather dressing. Some heavy flexing takes place at the junction causing the leather to be worked much more than, say, near the center of the thong length. The more the leather is worked the more supple it becomes because the fibres that make up the leather loosen considerably. The more loose the fibres become the easier it is for the leather dressing to soak in between them. This will probably cause the extra darkening. Also consider that the protective coat of shellack flakes off faster in these areas of heavy flexing allowing another opportunity for the dressing to soak in better.

If you apply Pecard to that area and continue it along the thong, I'd be willing to bet that the dressing will soak in much faster at the junction. That's my theory. Try a light coat and see what happens.

-Kyle