Club Obi Wan

Ok, I'm gonna pick up a book on it tomorrow, but for now, I need help. I keep losing crackers!!! I got my 8 footer, played around with it until I could crack pretty much on demand, and now I lose crackers like crazy. I thought maybe I'm putting them on wrong, but I'm following all the directions I can find. Also, the really weird thing is that I took out my old crappy 10 footer, and started cracking it the way I've been cracking the 8 footer, and I lost the cracker on that too!! this cracker was actually braided into the fall, and I've never lost it in the two years I've had that whip. could I be cracking it a certain way to be losing this many crackers? I'm not muscling it.. at least I don't think so. I'm able to whip and get very very soft cracks when I want it, and have been practicing the loop. however, when I look at the cracking instructions found here.. http://bullwhip-info.com/bullwhip_crack ... crack.html
I can't crack that way to save my life. I don't know if there's just something wrong with my form or what.. but I'm worried that I'm hurting my good whip.

Is the cracker sliding off the fall? Is the fall breaking?

-Adam

I've had both happen, and generally, unless you are muscling the whip harder than it needs to be thrown, the fall won't break. If the fall IS breaking, that's a good indication that you need to ease off the force you're throwing into the whip. If it's just sliding off, I tend to tie them down a little farther than just the tip of the fall, to give it some room, and then solidify the knot with several forward cracks.

The fall is showing signs of wear, but I wouldn't say it's breaking..



that's the 8 footer that refuses to keep a cracker on. I put the crackers right where the wear is showing.. about 3/4 of an inch into it.

this is a picture of the end of the braided fall on my other whip. what makes me think something weird is going on is that I've muscled this whip for two years and that cracker never came off.. then after 10 minutes today I broke it. I think somehow maybe my technique is just off.. I'm not necessarily muscling it, but I'm also not really forming a loop of any kind. yet it seems to crack nicely.

So are the just sliding off, or breaking the tip of the fall with it when they go?

Depending on the type of knot you are using to tie the poppers on, One possible problem is that the fall may be too thick towards the tip. The whip looks like it has a very thick fall with out much taper, compared to most well made whips. Several of the standard knots used to attach poppers won't seat up tight and snug if the leather is too thick, so they will come off pretty easly while cracking. You can try thinning the tip of the fall a bit, wetting it a little, then re tie the popper on as tight as you can and crack it a few times to seat it up. Let me know if that helps or not.

Dan

In that video you posted it looks like he's cracking into the ground. Try cracking into the air.

...and I think BullWhipBorton is right about the fall being too thick at the end.

Also you might want to try to tie on the crackers like how David Morgan show's on his site http://www.davidmorgan.com/cracker.html?keywords=whip& the key to tying the cracker on that way is actually use a hook and pliers to pull the cracker on tight.

xoxo

Louie

I managed to get the cracker to stay on for an impressive session.. I bought an entire spool of mason's twine, and just used a constrictor knot on it. however, I have two new questions. the first one is; the whip has a natural curve from the handle through the thong, and I know that if you muscle it too much, this will start to crimp and loose its curvature, and then the whip is broke. but is it normal to see SOME amount of crimping? or is the whip supposed to keep its original curve all along?

second, my handle has darkened to an ugly dark gray.. I guess from my oily hands?? it's obviously from my hands, but it never occurred to me to wash my hands before whip sessions. how do I clean this off? I have a tub of pecards in the mail, so hopefully that will keep it from happening again/further.

ztmario,

Looking at your pictures, it's evident that you also need some leather dressing on your falls. When you see fuzzy hairs like you've got in your photos, the fall is too dry. This lends itself to breaking much easier.

Regards,

Paul Stenhouse

thanks for all the help.. I'm gonna use some hand lotion on it until my tub of pecards gets here.