Club Obi Wan

hello all, Hope everyone had nice thanx giv. I recived my gio whip the day after thanksgiving, its incredible. I cant belive how fast he was from start to finish, he started nov 1st, it took about 1 week for delivery. I have been trying to practice in between bad weather, I have gotten off a couple of cracks(boy do I have alot to learn) I have to e-mail gio to thank him, but before I do , I just noticed that the large knot on my handle seems a little loose. If u turn it to the left it seems like it will twist right off, if u turn it to the right it stops like it tightened. Is this normal? should I be concerned , it dosent seem like it will fall off, I have no idea how a knot is attached to a handle Should I bring this to gios attention ? I dont want praise his work , and then say buy the way something is wrong. I also dont realy want to send it back to europe, but I suppose if I have to I have to. over all I think its a awesome whip. Almost forget its a raiders 10' 12 plait roo hide. P.S. the icon is doing a better job at cracking a whip than I am.

The knot shouldn't turn. It sounds as if the lead (used in the butt foundation to help balance the weight of the thong) is not well pinned the handle foundation. I would return it.

i'd have to agree. the whole whip should be solid. i'm sure there are vendors on the forum that can help you with this.

i, for one, rest my palm on the knot and use it as an anchor for my hand when i use my whip (i didn't want to say everybody does this....), so i find it quite important that the handle should be very solid. i hope you manage to fix this or perhaps even adjust to it if you like.

be sure to post a thread the first day you wind up for that big crack and you catch the back of your calf with that fall.......fun times

Hi E.M.T, Congratulations on the new whip but unfortunately Moses and Indiana G are right. That knot should not be moving at all. That area needs to be very tight and secure, as the knot should fit comfortably into your palm to form a ball and socket type connection and if loose will most likely get wore if you ignore it. Let Gio know about the problem and either return it to him to fix it or have a more local whip maker In the U.S. repair it for you.

Good luck with the whip cracking, starting off can be a bit daunting but be sure to check through the forum for some tips and video links to help you out. Keep at it, you'll get the hang of it

Dan

I've never seen one of Gio's whips in person, so I'd be willing to tighten up the knob for free for the chance to see the whip.

-Adam

www.winrichwhips.com

Thanks Adam. I very much appreciate the offer, which I might still take you up on, but after receiving the other postings I decided to send an e-mail to Gio, thus I am waiting for his reply.

I was wondering if you could explain how is this knob attached to the whip. I got a reply that said it was pinned. If it is how is it pinned and what is it pinned to? Also, in your opinion is the knob rotating a huge issue or am I making something out of nothing?

Hey E.M.T.

Some whipmakers attach the lead foundation differently. On the whip I got from Paul Stenhouse, he epoxied the lead to the steel spike foundation, so it wasn't going anywhere.

The more common approach on Indy whips is to wrap lead around the spike, hold together with tacks, staples, or string, and then wrap the start of the overlay (called the yoke; where the strands for the overlay are cut, it's the tab of leather left at the start so all the strands are connected) over the lead, around the butt of the spike, and over to the other side. This is followed by more staples and string to make sure things don't move.

If it were pinned, I'd think a metal pin would be driven through the lead, though a small hole in the spike, then through the rest of the lead. If it were pinned like this I don't think the knob would rotate at all.

How worried you should be would depend on how much the knob rotates. While it should be solid, a rotation of 1/8" of the knob isn't the end of the world. 1/4" to 1/2" would be more to worry about. The main thing is that the knob doesn't come off.

-Adam

Hi Adam,

The epoxied lead was an improvement on technique I learned from David. I couldn't ever get the lead tight enough on the handle, and decided to start epoxying them to ensure tightness. I'd also pull the yoke up over the lead, lash it on tightly, and then trim it off.

No matter how tight you get the lead on an unpinned lead coil, you can still get it to rotate (assuming you purposely set out to torque the handle and break it loose). If it's tucked under the head of the nail, it shouldn't come off.

I even experimented with fishing weights, by drilling out the center and forcing the spike through. Let's just say I didn't get it to work. My next thought was to dip the end in molten lead, and build it up like a candle. Never got to that stage as it seemed like too much of a pain in the rear. Besides, lead sheets aren't cheap to begin with.


Paul

Dear Chris,
I'm sorry for the problem with knot, it's the first time that happens, there is no problem, just send it back to me I'll fix it for you. Tell me how much is the shipping, I'll pay for everything.
Best regards,
Giovanni

Thats customer service for ya folks!

That's great.

Thanks guys, I think that the customer satisfaction is my goal!!!
kind Regards
Gio

Yesterday - I got my new LITTLE RAIDERS...

http://www.indy.mamo-net.de/attachments ... ent&id=198

Of course - Gio made a solid job one more time...

I admire gio's handiwork and I needn't praise it to the skies.

Though - I must mention one exellence:
Gio provides a high-class customer service and everything be worth one's salt!

I'am looking forward to engineer further transactions with Gio...

kind regards
FloW