Club Obi Wan

I've been crackin' with my IOAB about 6 months. The popper has just about 3/4 inch left beyond the last knot at the end; probably only about half inch shorter than it's original length. Is it time to replace do ya think??? It still seems to work OK. Just wondering...
-raider 57

Truth is, I'd say you're probably fine until you start to notice a change in the performance or sound your whip makes when cracking. Personally, I try to keep my popper fluff between 2-3 inches long (I can hear a little change in sound quality when it gets shorter than that). So long as you DO have a popper though - no matter what length the fluff is - at least you're not fraying your fall unnecessarily. But hey - poppers are are cheap to buy, and even cheaper to make yourself. So if you're not sure what to do, it certainly won't hurt anything to put a new one on, assuming you untie the old one from the fall instead of cutting the old one off along with a piece of the fall.

If you make your own poppers (super easy to do), it might be a fun experiment to make several all with different lengths of fluff, then try them each to see what length you like best.

Lauren Wickline
www.midwestwhips.com

Thanks for the reply Lauren. So cutting off the fall end knot is not such a good idea when attaching a new popper?
I figured that would be easier than trying to undo the knot,but I guess I can try. I've already got some spare poppers here, so I will attempt sometime soon. Thanks for the advice.
-raider 57

Cutting the tip off the fall wont hurt it at first...but in the long after you've cut your fall 10 times....They are easily replaced too though.
Some of 'em have to be cut.
Ron

cut the popper/cracker not the fall if you need to cut anything.

Keep Cracking

James

Yep, sometimes cutting a little tip of fall off along with the worn-out popper might be unavoidable... but if you possibly can, try to just untie it - or use a knife to cut just the popper string part that's wrapped around the fall. A fid (or something like it) is a very useful tool for this or for untying other annoying knots that happen accidentally in your fall or popper while cracking.

The idea is to keep your fall from getting too short, and cutting a piece of it off every time you replace the popper isn't the greatest way to do that. But rjallen70 is right - falls are pretty cheap, and you can thread a new one onto your whip pretty easily yourself, so don't stress too much if you loose length on your fall.

Lauren Wickline
www.midwestwhips.com

Really? So you can simply snip the loop part of the fall and just pull it out?
If so, COOL!
I was watching youtube videos by Bernie W, and they make a point that you actually HAVE to unravel the end of the braid itself before removing the fall and then CUT those unravelled strands OFF and redo that whole knot, thus shortening your whip by at least four inches!!!
I thought, f### that!
:evil:


...or is he right?

I think that in David Morgan's Whips and Whipmaking he has detailed instructions on changing a fall without unbraiding and rebraiding the bullwhip.

The section on repair and maintenance of bullwhips should be required reading for anyone with a bullwhip. It answers a lot of questions and shows you how to do a lot of things.

xoxo

Louie
http://www.bullwhips.org

I've got a quick minute here, so I figured I'd post this link from Morgan's website about changing a fall:

http://www.davidmorgan.com/fallreplacem ... =7_187_192&

Very simple, and it explains both ways. The important thing to remember is to thread the new fall over the old one and onto the thong BEFORE you pull out the old one. Otherwise the space in the fall hitches can get smashed, and make it harder to slide the tip of the new one through.

You shouldn't have to redo the hitches for at least a handful of fall changes, unless you have a loose point that needs tightening. While I haven't seen the video, I'm not sure why Bernie's video says that you have to redo the hitches. The fall hitches were created in that way just for the specific purpose of being able to easily change the part of the whip that takes the most abuse.

Regards,

Paul Nolan
www.midwestwhips.com

To changge w/o unbraiding...
Cut the eye of the old fall, and pull it out.
Use a fid, screwdriver, icepick, knitting needle whateveryagot to loosen the half hitches. Stick the eye of the new fall over the tip of the whip, and thread the end through the channel you just made. Return the last hitch's "tail" up through the eye
Securely tighten the half hitches and pull everything securely.
Dats it.
ROn

conceited_ape wrote:Really? So you can simply snip the loop part of the fall and just pull it out?
If so, COOL!
I was watching youtube videos by Bernie W, and they make a point that you actually HAVE to unravel the end of the braid itself before removing the fall and then CUT those unravelled strands OFF and redo that whole knot, thus shortening your whip by at least four inches!!!
I thought, f### that!
:evil:


...or is he right?

If you look at some of the other videos you will see that I also show you how to change the fall without undoing the knot, I think there are four videos in all about falls and crackers. This is the video you want.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1xY7v4r97M

Ah, thank God!
That's always how I thought it was done. Then I started seeing and hearing things about cutting and rebraiding and freaked because A) I didn't feature having a shorter whip (I'm snobby that way ) and B) I seriously cannot plait to save myself!

No sweat,Got the popper on.....Not tough at all!! Just used a sharp scribing tool to work the knot loose gradually. I gave the fall tip under the old knot a good coat of Pecard's before I tied on the new popper. :idea: Thanks to everyone for the advice!!

------Improved the ease of cracking too,much better sound.