Club Obi Wan

I just got home from school and found a box from the one and only Paul Stenhouse. I ripped the box open like tissue paper and gazed down on one of the sweetest whips I've ever seen The plaiting is nice and tight, it has a great taper and just feels nice and balanced. This is defenitly a sweet whip. I want to crack it soooo bad but there is a foot of snow on the ground here in CT. and it is snowing right now. (school was closed early) I tried a forward crack in my living room and the whip rolled out nice and smooth despite it's unbroken in state. This is definetly one of my favorites. I don't know how to post pics but of you e-mail or PM me i'll send you some. sjbender010@earthlink.net
Thanks a lot Paul!!!
-Scott

Congratulations!

Now get out there and do some cracking! A little snow won't hurt a brand new whip. The snow muffles the sound and makes for an interesting crack.

-Kyle

Get on out there and get to crackin!

That's why they invented Pecards!!!

Congrats and be safe with it!

Later!
Indydawg

Thanks guys! I'll definetly take your advice! By the way, Sergei is going to post some pics of it in this thread so you don't have to e-mail me for pics. Thanks
-Scott

Posting for Scott. Here are the new Paul Stenhouse whip pictures:









-S

The darker whip in the pics is my 5 month old 8foot DM (which has turned a nice brown color that I'm very pleased with ) I can't wait 'till my PS whip brakes in and turns brown. I reccomend pauls whips to everone. He makes a solid, top quality product And Sergei, thanks for posting the pics
-Scott

Nice job, Paul. Hardly any difference between Paul and David Morgan whips, visibly. Be curious to see what your impression is when you finally get outdoors to crack the new whip. It should be n-i-c-e!

-S
p.s. Have you showed your braiding to David Morgan yet, Paul? I know he is always critical, but I would be curious to see what he says now. When I showed my Joe Strain's, he was curiously silent.

Sergei wrote:p.s. Have you showed your braiding to David Morgan yet, Paul? I know he is always critical, but I would be curious to see what he says now. When I showed my Joe Strain's, he was curiously silent.

Is Morgan's silence a good thing?

Anyway, on topic, I got a chance to handle and crack one of these whips on Saturday. I believe Indydawg mentioned he'd only had it for about 6 weeks but it was loosened up and already darkening. Overall, the whip felt solid, balanced, and the braiding was tight. When I save up some moneys I believe I'm going to have to get me one.

I.J.

Yeah...when a man like David Morgan is "silent" I would think that would be a good thing.

And I thought you would like that PS whip on Saturday. It really HAS broken in very quickly and as you say throws out very nicely and gives a good crack! I can't recommend Paul's work any higher...but then, I haven't seen or handled a DM or Joe Strain whip before either....Paul's work is CERTAINLY amazing, and to my eye is extremely close to David Morgan's work....

Yeah, Paul...you should take David one of your whips to see. I think he'd be very impressed!

There's MY opinion, for what it's worth....
Indydawg

Indiana Joe wrote:
Is Morgan's silence a good thing?

I.J.

You have to understand Morgan. He's always critical to the younger whip makers and is quick to interject comments on taper, how tight the braiding needs to be, the knot work and just overall weighting and balancing.

The context was, I had my big bag of whips ("the wells of souls" bag) and one by one I pulled out whips from other makers. When it came to Joe Strain, there was absolutely no comment. In fact he called for Megan, his apprentice, to come out from the back to take a look. He wouldn't have done that, if it was just an average whip.

-S

A PS whip is definately in my future. Looks great!

Sergei wrote:You have to understand Morgan. He's always critical to the younger whip makers and is quick to interject comments on taper, how tight the braiding needs to be, the knot work and just overall weighting and balancing.
-S

Sergei speaks the truth! Trust me. I'm taking a stock whip I just made over to DM's this afternoon for a critique. I'm starting on my pain meds now.

BTW, Morgan has seen Paul's whips and he thinks very highly of them. The only real problem he has with them is that he thinks Paul makes them too heavy. Nothing wrong with that since every whip maker has their own idea of how a whip should be balanced. This is just personal preference and Paul happens to like his whips to be on the heavy side.

-Kyle

The only real problem he has with them is that he thinks Paul makes them too heavy.

Really? My PS whip is not that heavy. I just checked the weight and my 7foot PS seems the same weight as my 8foot DM and my 8foot JS.
Anyway the wieght seems perfect to me. Does the weight of the whip make a big difference when cracking? I know different types of cracking requires different whip weights (light weight for fast multiple cracking + a heavy whip for target cutting) Can a whip be too heavy or too light?
-Scott

sab04 wrote:

Does the weight of the whip make a big difference when cracking? I know different types of cracking requires different whip weights (light weight for fast multiple cracking + a heavy whip for target cutting) Can a whip be too heavy or too light?
-Scott

Yes, the weight does make a difference. But as long as it is balanced. Some whips are top heavy, or bottom heavy so that is what I mean by balance. Personally, I like them heavy, since it is relatively effortless to make the whip crack. Paul first turned me on to heavy whips. At first I was not a believer, but I really liked heavy whips after awhile. The trick to making the whips heavy is making sure they are balanced, which Paul delivers. The only downside to heavy whips is endurance. You just can't crack heavy whips all day long. Or it's really hard to do multiple, double handed routines for a long time with heavy whips.

As far as light whips, I just don't see any advantages to light whips. They have no body to them and for the most part they feel like ropes if there is not any weight to them. So a perfect whip is not too heavy (endurance) or not too light.

Just my .02....
-Sergei