Club Obi Wan

I recently bought a 10ft Indy Style whip from WSP. I forgot to ask for a Joe Strain when i ordered, and instead, got a Russell Schultz 10 footer. Can anyone tell me the differences between the two, and perhaps a little about the quality of a Russell Schultz whip?

Thanks
BryanLange

Hi Bryan, Welcome to Club Obi-Wan. Russell Schultz is very highly respected whip maker and one of the best plaiters around today, he makes a very high quality whip.

All of the WSP Indy bullwhips are made with in certain specifications, so they are all fairly close to the same overall design, although Russell’s version tends to have a bit more of Australian flavor to it. The most noticeable differences between the two as far as I can tell is that Russell typically splits his hide much thinner and finishes his version of the bullwhip with very fine 8 plait point rather the a 6 plait point like Joe uses (and what David Morgan uses with the original bullwhips). Unfortunately the only downfall to this is that the thinner narrower strands are a bit more prone to damage from impacts and from just normal wear and tear from use over time, were as using the thicker wide strands helps to improve durability especially under rougher conditions.

Russell’s whips are plaited very smoothly, tight and have great balance. They typically roll out effortlessly and crack beautifully right out of the box. They are very nice whips for show or sport cracking and will last a lifetime if properly looked after. Joe is known for plaiting his whips extremely tightly and as such they are usually pretty stiff right out of the box. They take a bit more time to really break in but once they do they crack beautifully. He purposely makes his whips a bit tougher compared to Russell’s, sacrificing a little of that fineness for durability as they are meant for both work or for sport cracking. They are both great whips though and you wouldn’t have gone wrong with either one.

There was a very good thread a while back with some comparison photos of some of the different Indy bullwhips including one of Russell’s at www.indygear.com/cow/viewtopic.php?t=15280 you might like to take a look at that.

If you get a chance, feel free to post some pictures of your new bullwhip, i'l like to see it.

Dan

I agree with BWB, while Russell Shultz makes a very fine whip, the narrow strands in the point are highly succeptable to damage/breakage. I had a Shultz whip 4 or 5 years ago & had blown 2 strands in the point. It wasn't from the whip hitting anything, just some fast cracking -- I think I was doing the arrowhead at the time. At the time, this whip was fairly new -- I think only 3-4 weeks old, so it wasn't wear or dry leather, they were just too thin to handle the routine. But it did crack with ease, almost by itself!

~Jace

I've talked with Russell a bit about the Indy bullwhips he's making for Western Stage Props, and he's continued to change his design to make it closer to Morgan's whips. Last time I talked to him I think he switched to using a 6-plait point on his Indy whips, which should help make the point more durable.

Russell also just recently started making 10 ft whips for Western Stage Props, so there's a good chance your whip has a 6-plait point.

-Adam
www.winrichwhips.com

As I said, the Shultz whip I had was about 4-5 years ago, so if he's recently altered his points from 8 down to 6 plait, then they should now be more durable. It was a great whip, just the point was a bit on the fragile side -- but Russell does some really nice plaiting...

~Jace

Thanks Adam. I think the last one that showed up here was Pitfalls several months ago and that was done with the thinner 8-plait point. Unfortunately I haven’t seen one of Russell’s Indy bullwhips up close in about a year. The ones I messed around with where a bit older then that so I am kind of curious to see the changes he’s made now myself too. They where very nice bullwhips though.

Dan