Club Obi Wan

Hi all,

A friend of mine sent me a couple of older whips for the grandbabies to play with. I noticed that they are in need of crackers and falls. If I'm using the correct terms?
Where can I purchase these or as far a crackers go, can you make your own? It might be interesting to my eldest grandchild, as a project to do with me.

Thanks,

Prof. Ed

Hi Prof,

Western Stage Props sells them. Here is the link

http://www.westernstageprops.com/miva/m ... y_Code=WCB

Hi G,

Thanks for the link. It looks like these parts are for a swivel handle whip only. Some of these whip experts will probably have a whole bunch of ideas.


Best regards,

Prof.

Western Stage Props sells crackers and falls for Austrailian-style whips as well. Mark prices his falls fairly competitively, though for poppers for "beater whips," I'd pick some up from someone else, because the ones Mark sells are EXPENSIVE.

They're nice poppers don't get me wrong, (those black apholstry thread poppers are AWESOME,) but you're probably better off with baling twine poppers on teaching whips, (but for good crackers for show whips or targeting, Marks can't be beat!)

Lots of people carry 'em. Joe Strain, Gery Deer, Adam Winrich, Mola Ram...or check out Mola Ram's site, (archived back when he was Omar,) detailing just how to make them yourself. It's not difficult, keeps the kids busy, and saves you money...

best of luck!

-Dan

I'll try and find some Decoy Cord and give it a shot.

Thank you,

Prof. Ed

You can make your own Ed. It's easy:
http://www.em-brand-whips.com/makepopper.htm

I make mine using that same tutorial. That's how I learned, I mean. Makes things much easier, and cheaper! Now I just need the supplies to make my own falls when those guys go out!

Trivia: Was Indy's fall red or white?

In Christ,
Shane

IndyMcFly wrote:I make mine using that same tutorial. That's how I learned, I mean. Makes things much easier, and cheaper! Now I just need the supplies to make my own falls when those guys go out!

Trivia: Was Indy's fall red or white?

In Christ,
Shane

In Raiders it was a white hide fall.

Great! Thanks!

In Christ,
Shane

Hi Prof. Ed, Whether you want to use the flat wide American style fall or the rounded narrow Australian fall will depend on what kind of whip you are putting them on. Not every fall will work well with every type of whip. Western stage props is the only place I know off hand that openly sells the American latigo style falls, though I bet any of the whip makers here would be happy to make you some. Most of the whip makers around also sell the replacement Australian style falls in either red hide, white hide or even kangaroo hide (the latter I have yet to try out myself but have heard good things).

Poppers/crackers are also readily available from the same sources. I recommend just making your own, they are pretty easy to make and it really is a skill that no whip cracker should go with out learning. There are different ways to make them, but Bernie’s tutorial video is pretty straightforward. You can make them out of different materials. I normally recommend nylon upholster thread. Its easy to find at most fabric shops for under a few dollars and one small spool should get you about 20 to 25 good poppers.

Btw Shane, I am pretty sure in all the Indy movies the falls where white hide.

Dan

I don't know much about poppers or falls or much about whips, but I think that that part is wearing off on mine and I know that David Morgan sells all kinds of whip-repair stuff.

Anybody that reads this and knows what they are talking about, please let me know if I can use regular thin rope to make a simple popper/cracker.

Yes, you can. It's great to just test out different materials and lengths and thicknesses as you can really tell some difference when cracking the whip with different crackers. Once you learn to make your own, you will not go back.
As for attaching a new fall -a bit harder, but also good fun and useful to learn I think.

Regards,
Swindiana

Hello Kodiak, Yes you can make your poppers out of just about any type of string or rope you have available. You may have to separate the stands if the rope is thick and some material works better then others though, for example cotton cord wears relatively quickly. Some of the common materials folks use to make poppers are, baling twine, decoy cord, the inner strands of parachute cord, nylon mason twine, nylon upholstery thread, horse hair, even dental floss. Play around with what materials you have available to you to see what works best for you and your whip.

Unfortunately the bullwhips sold though By The Sword, do not appear to have a fall. The popper is just tied/attached into the end of the braid. If you wanted could always have a fall put on your whip, it would improve the design and the function of the whip a little.

Dan

The first run of IOAB whips had that configuration of the fall. When replacing it I just learned how to unbraid a bit of the thong and rebraid it back with the fall attached "Indy style" instead, if you will. With that learned I can do it whenever I like no matter what.

Regards,
Swindiana

Would Western Stage Props' crackers go well with an IOAB? I don't mind paying 10 bucks for 5.

Strider wrote:Would Western Stage Props' crackers go well with an IOAB? I don't mind paying 10 bucks for 5.

Strider,
I got mine from David Morgan and they are the same as the one on my Joe Strain Whip from WSP. 5 for $4.00 Less than 1/2 the price and about $1.00 to ship

http://www.davidmorgan.com/advanced_sea ... ips&page=4

Cheers,
John

LONG LIVE GIR

I really don't have a magic number for how often I change poppers on my whips. It depends on the whip, and it depends on the popper.

I've gone through two or three poppers in an afternoon before, either because of them knotting up so bad that they didn't so much make cracks as go >PIFF< or they just fly off, especially when I'm practicing targeting. Sometimes you get the thing on, and you set it and think it's tight, and then it's off into the grass somewhere at near mach 1.

I've had poppers last for weeks under heavy use, until finally the fluffy bit at the end gets so worn down that they're ineffective.

The poppers on my 8 foot whip don't last as long as on my 6 footers. This has to do with how much my 8 drags the ground and such. The fall of my Jacka whip barely touches the ground. It cracks a lot faster, and I work on targeting and routines with it anymore, so it's actually cracking A LOT more often than my 8 foot Strain. These days, I use the 8 foot Strain, mostly for wrapping, and slow, fancy stuff, or when I'm teaching, as the longer whips are slower, and easier to follow and explain the mechanics of each crack. But that wrapping and dragging chews up poppers a little faster than fast/multiple cracking does.

I'd say my average lifespan for a popper, barring accidents or just loss, is about 2 weeks of moderate to heavy use.

Lately, that's been a lot longer, as I haven't been out cracking too often because of a combination of bad health and bad weather, but it looks like both of those are clearing up, (supposed to get into the low 70's this weekend.)

More on popper materials and what to buy/pay for:

The poppers that WSP sells are VERY nice. Made out of black upholstery thread. Long lasting. Very flexible and very loud. They would go BEAUTIFULLY on an IOAB whip.

BUT that price is INSANE! Yeah, they take a little longer to make than the poppers most folks make, but JEEZ! At those prices, it wouldn't be long before the price you paid for the poppers would have bought you another whip!

In their defence, I've actually found those WSP to be long-lasting, very loud, and very quick to pop, (small flicks that would produce a small pop from the other poppers I tend to use will get considerable cracks from the WSP poppers.) I admit it, I REALLY like them. But I don't know that I'd be willing to spend that much on that little of a difference.

I know a couple folks who EXCLUSIVELY use WSP poppers, and I know a couple folks who ONLY put them on their whips when they have a show to do, (and make their own the rest of the time.)

Actually, paying for poppers IMO is expensive no matter what, ($0.50 for a tiny bit of wound up string,) and you're much better off to make them yourself.

The ones Joe Strain and David Morgan sell are fine and dandy. They're made of the baling twine that the OTHER Dan, (B. Borton,) mentioned, and, (according to Joe Strain,) the material doesn't bite into your fall or scuff up your whip if it hits the thong like other popper materials can, (I asked his advice on what to use when I got my first really nice whip from him, and that's what he told me. But where I end up usually cracking my whips, the material of the popper is the LAST of it' worries!)

As I've said in other posts in other threads, I use poppers made of artificial sinew and kevlar thread, (the kind they make bow strings out of.) They last forever, make bright, crisp cracks, and as you can see on Chris "Canasta" Camp's web site, will cut through cucumbers, zuchini, carrots, etc. like a hot knife through butter!

(It slices, dices, chops! It even Juliannes. Look at those mounds of mouth-watering french fries! So order now and whip YOUR meals into shape with the Morgan-Matic food processor! No batteries required, all organic material construction. Sorry, not dishwasher safe. Offer expires soon! Act now!)

-Dan ;-)

No reason the WSP poppers wouldn’t work just fine on an IOAB bullwhip. $10.00 for 5 poppers is a steep price though. Joe Strain sells the exact same nylon poppers 5 for $4.00. He also sells poly-pro poppers which work nice too, shipping/handling is a bit less as well. As mentioned David Morgan sells them 5 for $4.00 but he uses a slightly heavier nylon thread for his poppers. See viewtopic.php?t=16001 for a photo comparison. They both work about the same though and are really nice poppers which fray nicely, hold up well and produce a nice sharp crack. The nylon ones I make are a hybrid between the two. While I prefer using nylon poppers, bailing twine is also often used. It is a very inexpensive polypropylene plastic twine and poppers made from it produce a nice crisp crack, but wear out faster. The Australians often use them on their whips, I find it works better on stockwhips and lighter bullwhips then on the heavier bullwhips. If you going to do a lot of cracking, I’d recommend just learning to make your poppers, it’s cheep and easy.

Mileage varies with use and the material the popper is made from. It takes time and practice to develop the techniques and control needed to get the sharpest cracks with the littlest effort. If your just learning and you don’t have someone that can teach you, you are more likely to go though poppers faster then you will later on. I typically change them out when the fluff gets worn down to about an inch or less. At that point you can also undo the knot in the cracker and tie a new knot about an inch and a half lower, that will extend the mileage a bit. After that, if the frayed end gets worn down to the point that is not making that crisp sounding crack, but rather more of dull thud its time to put a new popper on. Hope that helps.

Dan B

If I might suggest, Giovanni can make them for you for a very good price, just drop him a message [/url]

http://giowhips.myray.org/

If you need poppers, just drop me a line, and i can give you a pack of 30
for 6$. Special limited time cow offer. First 3 to ask only.
US members only.
Adam