Club Obi Wan

Hey all,

Just received my 9-foot "Borton" Raiders from Bernardo. WOW. Talk about excitement right out of the box. Simply beautiful work - The Cairo street fight jumping right off the screen and onto my front door!

Just check out these pictures where I compare it with my 2001 10-foot David Morgan. Look at that attention to detail in the handle and braiding! I'll post more tomorrow when I take it for a spin!

What a lovely piece of work from Bernardo.
You will be thrilled by its action and lively response.

Wonderful work as usual from Bernardo! His whips are flawless.
Personally I'm no longer such a fan of the Raiders whip, I find I lean more towards The LC whip. The Raiders whips are just a tad thin for my liking. The Morgans of the late 80s / early 90s are my personal ideal.

But I digress - Happy cracking!! And lets have those other pics soon

Congratulations French. Very impressive, I really like that thin style of the older Indy bullwhips so I think yours turned out extremely well! I am glad to hear you like it too.

I said it before and I’ll say it again. Bernardo does amazing work. The attention to detail he puts into each piece and the technical aspects of his workmanship are flawless. You would be hard pressed to find a better Indiana Jones bullwhip whip made by anyone. Just wait to you get out and start using it, I think you will find that it roll out effortlessly and crack on cue and no he isnt paying me to say that!

Dan

What a great way to start the day!

I always check what's new on Cow every morning, and just reading the title made my day for sure! Thank you all for the kind comments. They are much appreciated.

Indy French, I'm really happy you are satisfied with your whip. I put everything I've got into each and every whip I make, and it is extremely rewarding to hearing comments like these. It really motivates me.

Looking forward to seeing more pics!

Regards,

Bernardo

I can't thank you enough Bernardo! I remember only a year after buying my David Morgan, all of the research came to light about the Raiders handle and slim profile - I was stunned and rather frustrated. Seemed like I was around during all of the upheaval. We all had gear, and all of it (from the Raiders perspective) turned out to need serious revision and reverse engineering. I found out very quickly that the hat, jacket and whip were all "wrong" in large ways. And so began the quest to revise...

The whip was the last stop in my little journey to retrace my footsteps. Thankfully, in the years that I waited, Bernardo has made it a life's pursuit to resurrect David Morgan's Indy-era whips with perfect detail. I'm so glad I waited the last seven years as all of the Raiders gear pieces were either revised or resurrected by people like Bernardo, Steve and Marc, Magnoli - Man it's been a long road. And I'd happily relive it all over again!

Beautiful whip IndyFrench.

Wow. Very nice work indeed, Bernardo!

I'm trying to decide whether to go with one of Bernardos or just take the plunge and get a Morgan. You've got both, French. Nice work.

Fantastic whip French. Congratulations!

Weston

Thanks everyone - but the credit all goes to Bernardo.

Took the whip for a spin on Sunday and MAN! This is the finest whip I have ever handled! I've NEVER had the experience of a whip that does everything well! The Morgan is great for overheads and sides, the Kelley is great for fast forward-reverse throw combos...But this "DelCarpio" does it ALL with style and every throw comes off with an equally loud bang, something I've never seen/heard before. Either this whip makes it easy, or my 14 years of whipcracking really gave me some skills that my other whips were hiding from me! For the first time I felt like I might be on par with Indiana Jones!

It is a beauty IF and I love to hear that it cracks as well is it looks. IMO the first two criteria are how it cracks, how long it lasts and how it looks.

You have two out of the three and it looks like she is built to last too.

Great whip!
Bill

Thanks for the review and comparision between the Del Carpio and Morgan IF.

I am curious as to how close your Del Carpio is to the measurements from this thread:

viewtopic.php?t=1796

Thanks to George W. I now have a choice: a Raiders from Del Carpio, a TOD/LC from Nolan or a CS from Strain.

Thanks for making the decision even tougher!

Beautiful... just beautiful...

What craftsmanship!

I just wanted to pop over here and gloat at Bullwhip Borton a little bit.

The new RotLA whip that Bernardo's making for you? Well, I got to give it a couple cracks before you did!

NYAH NYAH!

That's as far as my gloating can go, because after all, it is going to ship out to YOU and not ME.

Beautiful flow, feel and appearance! Bernardo did a brilliant job on it!

The Other Dan might have to get one of those for himself.

You'll be VERY pleased with it. But then, could you expect otherwise.

Just wanted to say publicly what I said to Bernardo face-to-face.

GREAT work!

As always, all the best, and happy cracking!

-The Other, (Somewhat Envious,) Dan

That is a beautiful looking whip, and naturally reminds me of my own del Carpio.

A week and a bit ago I was doing field work in the NT in a very remote area. We were camped a couple hundred kilometres NE from the cattle station where I worked for my first job when I left school. Anyway, on the night of the full moon, or maybe the night before, we got back to camp - bedrolls and stretchers under a tarp, with a gas cooker for a kitchen - and the sun had just set (but still a big glow in the sky), and my colleague lit a small bonfire to burn some rubbish.

With the big moon in the sky, and the fire roaring, I got out Bernardo's whip and I cracked it loudly out towards the SW, just south of the glow of the sun, towards my old stamping grounds. Just big booming cattleman's cracks, and I could hear them crackling and rolling through the ancient bush. My work companion, who knows me as a whipcracker for years, was impressed with the sound. Just letting you know Bernardo that your prized whip is getting around. I should also note that the cracker/popper is still one of yours!

Also, on the same trip I am happy to report that I very nearly did attempt to use a whip in a practical, utilitarian manner:

My companion and I came to an uncrossable creek in our 4WD. This was an area with large 'salties' (crocodiles), so we had to be careful. We had to find a suitable crossing, and my friend waded across in his boots at a shallow part between deeper waterholes, getting his boots totally soaked. I baulked at this (I don't like wet boots, especially when I'm working), and noticed that the overhead trees within reach were paperbarks with soft bark. I am not kidding when I say I momentarily perused those trees for a suitable branch to maybe wrap a whip from, but we could see that the other side was totally unsuitable for the vehicle so we gave up before I even bothered to get the whip out from my field bag.

Yeah, but swinging would ruin the whip completely...

I'm going to get a cheaper, rougher whip for such unorthodox purposes, then COW members will not mind the mere mention of such musings ) Or I might just make one.

I was not really going to use Bernardo's whip for such a rough and unforgiving task, I'm only saying that the thought did cross my mind that it would be possible. I'm actually very careful with whips, and enjoy making sure they don't get cut or damaged in any way beyond normal use. When I did the big cattleman cracks I was in a rough, stony area, but I carefully looked at the ground and selected a spot where there was tough, wiry grass all around where the thong touched the ground. So although it sounds rough what I did, there was zero damage to Bernardo's very fine creation.

Part of the joy of owning a fine whip imo is looking after it, and having the skill to know how to crack it without damaging it.

Ah, now I understand the fantasizing and musing, it must be all that wiry "grass."

Yeeeaaahhhhh man!!! Seriously, I'm a very well behaved fellow, and hardly even drink. Believe me, I keep well away from all that damaging (imo) stuff.

I knew you were going to whip me Boggstandard. But no fantasizing on my part, other than looking up into the trees momentarily, and wondering. Besides, aren't Indy fans entitled to a little nerdy introspective dreaming once in a while )

Entitled? Indeed yes.
And, some Indy fans might be envious of the setting and the vistas, which might inspire and prompt such introspection.

Our days were long, the sun was hot, and we often got back to camp later in the dark, totally tired, but that sunset was beautiful. It was very quiet and peaceful...err until I unfurled a certain Peruvian coiled piece of magic. But I think the bush animals out there, the emus and roos and dingos and curlews probably didn't mind. It was over soon enough, and the quiet returned.

Excellent work as always Bernardo. Congratulations on a fine whip French.

-Nebraska