Club Obi Wan

Hi all

Seems that there is no wealth of plaiting tutorials on line.
most tutorials are number and strand count based so I
decided to have a go on making one my self...

This is by no means the only way to do it just the way I get least confused by myself.

During the tutorial the strands keep their number and don't change depending on the position.

12 plait checkers:

When I beggin a new layer I allways start with a flat braid so it's easy to follow where each strand is.
I spread the strand so i have 6 strands to the left and 6 strands to the right.
The strand are marked with white and green pins. Uneven numbers with green and even numbers with white.
When all strands marked with the same colour are bunced on each side it is time to put the plait on the whip and beggin to plait around the whip.

Step 1

Take strand number 6 over strand number 7.

Step 2

Take strand number 4 over strand number 5, under strand number 7.

Step 3

Take strand number 9 under strand number 8, over strand number 6 and under strand number 4.

Step 4

Take strand number 2 over number 3, under number 5, over number 7 and under number 9. Almost there...

Step 5

Time for the last green pin marked strand.
Take trand number 11 under strand number 10, over number 8, under number 6, over number 4 and finaly under strand number 2.
All green marked strands are to the left and all white marked strands are to the right.
Now is time to put the plait on top of your whip and start to plait round it.

Step 6

Make sure that all green strands are on the left side of your whip and all your white strands are to your right.
You should have a "V" shaped checkers pattern now on your whip.
Look at the strands that cross each other at the tip at the bottom of the V (marked with a red circle.)
If the strand coming from the left (number 2)is on top of the strand coming from the right (number 11,) You take the leftmost strand (number 1) round back of your whip and start plaiting under the first strand (number 12) over the next (number 10), Under the next (number 8 ), over the next (number 6), Under the next (number 4), and finaly over the last strand next to the lower tip of the V shaped plait pattern.

You repeat with rightmost strand (number 12). Allways beggining under one strand, over one strand and so on.
When You have once with each strand tie them to your whip and tighten the plait.

Edit: number 8 and ) dont mix well

Thanks...a picture is worrth 1000 words.
Ron

That looks very much like how I do it. Ironically enough, I was writing a how-to about this exact thing this week, but I hadn't any pics to illustrate it like you did. Good job!

It's the only way I've found to even out the little bumps created as each strand crosses over its neighbour at the start of the plait. This way you still get a bump, but it's small and there's one at every two strand all the way around the core, it also doubles the thickness of the leather equally everywhere, so there's no area with only a single layer of leather; it's doubled everywhere. This means you don't have to work very hard at compensating for variations in layers of leather to keep a round cross-section at the butt end. I just find it's a neat way to start a plait.

I've read of starting by crossing all the strands starting at the ones on the edges of the set, but this creates a triangular-shaped area in the back that does not have the same amount of leather at the start of the diamod plait, until the pattern is established and plaiting really starts... I don,t know how to explain it better, but anyone who's done this will understand what I mean. And since the diamond plait starts with a keeper tied over the butt foundation, this means that the base of the pommel, where the handle comes out of the ball, will be thicker on one side than the other. I like keeping a round cross-section, and unless I'm missing something here, if extra leather isn't added at this point, it WILL cause a change in the shape (not for the better in my opinion).

Anyway, thanks for posting this. I'm sure it will helps alot of people.

Franco

I took the text and pictures and turned them into a PDF document. munakuppi, do you mind if I host it somewhere and provide a link? This is a great resource.

Thanks all for the nice comments.

Stealthboy:
No problems. If you want i can give you the fullscale pictures to the pdf so it will be zoomable without any problems...

Edit: I forgot... Its only OK as long its free for all to access...

Franco:

Yes, I agree. All other ways has allways presented additional problems later. Some of the other ways are easier to learn but burn more leather and give more things to correct later on.

I think I've seen the the method you mentioned but never tried it. Roo hide is too expensive when i must order it from the other side of the world to burn it just for the fun of it... And living in Sweden with our taxes I realy dont like to waste more hide then nessesary...

Hey I'm in Canada, which is about as far from Australia as you can get, so roo's not cheap to get either, so I understand your concern with efficient use of the hide. But to me it's also about developping the best whipmaking technique I can, and if sitting down to figure out where the laces will end up once they have their place in the pattern, well that's better than having to go back later and fix problems by patching bits and pieces. I've never been next to a full-time whipmaker to see how others make their whips, so all my understanding comes from trial and error, books and a lot fo questions asked to a lot of people (I try to not hassle one single person too much so I spread it around a bit, hehehe). But I think given enough time, most people come to very similar answers to the same problems.

Yup I think you're right...

I have the same missfortune that there is no living whipmaker within reasonable reach... There is one whipmaker here in sweden but i think he is doing only custom horsegear... Not a big chance he makes indyesque bullwhips. He doesen't even have a working homepage. Sells only from his shop or at bigg horse events.

When I started making my first whips (age 11), the only person I knew who had one was an uncle of mine who'd made his about 25 years earlier to keep the big bull he kept in check. It looked a lot like the Loudon wagon whip pictured in David Morgan's book about whips in the old west... Basically a bunch of laces cut to different length to produce a taper covered with a sewn leather cover with a big nial hammered into the end to make a rigid handle. There was no attempt at making a transition zone nor was there any plaited involved, only a single tapered fall attached to the end of the whip. The whole thing was about 6 feet long and was more of a slaping whip rather than a cracking whip. There was little incentive to produce a more sophisticated whip as this was a working whip only rarely used. This was my basis and from there things slowly evolved into the whips I make today. But if he were still alive today, I'm sure he'd love to see what his humble little slaper evolved into.