Club Obi Wan

I just started on the 64 plait whip this morning and am plaiting the bellies at the moment. If anyone is interested I will post pics of the progress as I go until the final finished product.

G’Day Bernie,
It’s always so beautiful to see the construction of your whips ;-)
Kind Regards
Giò

Great pics. Even a dummy like me can get the idea. But, I don't think I could ever learn to do that. I get confused just looking at all those strands. I'm just glad that I was able to finally learn to tie my shoes.

All joking aside, it is great for someone like me to see the construction of a whip. Talk of spikes and bolsters and bellies sounds confusing, but it really helps for someone that does not make whips, to actually see what these hidden parts of a whip look like.

Third , fourth and fifth belly have been plaited and now there is only the 64 plait two tone black and natural overlay to do. I normally only have 4 plaited bellies in my whips but the kangaroo I was using for the bellies was a little thinner than normal and to get the diameter of the whip up to where I wanted it ,22mm, I found I had to plait another belly. The overlay will add another 3mm bringing it up to 25mm or 1 inch.

When you cut off the whip where it shows in the photo above, how do you keep it from unraveling?

Buff,

Probably by whipping it with waxed thread or artificial sinew before cutting it off...I think that's the usual practice for keeping plaiting in place...

~Jace

As well as the waxed thread I use 1/2 inch staples to hold everything in place.

And then the turkshead goes over the whipping and the staples, right Bernie?

~Jace

That's right Jace. Once the plaiting is finished it's trimmed off and an engraved domed silver butt cap is fitted over the end. Waxed thread is then whipped on to build up a base for the turks head. I'll show all this when the time comes.