Club Obi Wan

Being the fact that Simon Martin whips don't pop up around here often, I'd throw in a review for the man. Naturally, I understand that he's not the first choice for people around here because this is mainly Indy whips. However, maybe people are skittish because they don't see any reviews. Even if you don't go for his Indy whip, I'd highly suggest his other services such as repair, merchandise and more.

March 3rd. I was looking to step it up from single handed whips. I've been catered to nothing but high quality whips and excellent service. I have a Indy styled Strain and it's like every other Strain in terms of quality. Tough but great looking. I've dealt with Strain a total of 3 times in items and repairs. I've also dealt with EC whips and got a good whip for the price and the service was great and quick. So naturally I wanted somebody who would either meet the standard of Strain or higher. I wasn't looking for a bullwhip though. I felt that after 4 years, I had my 2 bullwhips down very well and that I had not much of anywhere to go except by new different whips. I wanted matched pair, 5 ft. stockwhips, light weight so that I can really go crazy.
Where to go?

I like every aspect of the whip world, such as collecting. So I wanted some different whips from what I already had in terms of the maker. So I went to a well trusted whip friend to ask him who he'd recommend. He told me people from Murphy, Barr, Martin, and some others. I began comparing prices as well as options. I eliminated several makers due to the fact that within a 2 weeks minimum, I never recieved a reply (No, that doesn't mean just Murphy, Barr, and Martin were considered.)
I slowly eliminated many due to prices as well as wait times. So it came down to Simon Martin. He's won many awards, his stuff looked good and his wait time from March extended until June/July.

I recieved nearly instant replies from Simon whenever I sent him an email. Quick to find out, he's a gentleman with quite the personality and an honest salesman. My kind of whipmaker. So I threw an order in for dual paired stocks, 5 ft, competition style, dual tone (natural tan/black)

June/July rolls around and I hear nothing.....so I send a message to him. Turns out that for some reason he never got my order through his website. Then it turns out that I'd have to wait until October but Simon went back into his past emails and he found me talking to him! Martin was ahead of his orders so we he was kind enough to squeeze mine in and for the fact that the order form messed up.

I probably sent him 20 emails at least over the time of me sending my money order to him. You would think that over time the maker would get aggravated but not Simon. I had each email replied to quickly.

Finally my money order arrived and he was all over my whips. He made them accordingly and sent them out. July 2nd they are shipped, July 8 they arrive. They were packed in 2000000 ft. of bubble wrap (Ok, maybe that's too much, but it was a lot!) and not a single scratch or cut on the whips.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/Pr ... G_5412.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/Pr ... G_5413.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/Pr ... G_5416.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/Pr ... 5416-1.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/Pr ... G_5411.jpg

(Didn't want to have to bring the resolution down a bunch to meet board rules so there you go)

Photos can never show the true beauty of these. Simons whips don't look great in photos. I took these outside and they crack wonderful. In fact, they crack like a dream. Now I know what some whipcrackers talks about when they claim that a whip does amazingly well. I was cutting targets with excellent precision but the main reason why I bought them (double handed routines) they work great!

I don't think I honestly could have had a better product or customer service (well......if they were free.... )

I can see myself doing business with Simon again whether it be repairs, whips, or other misc. items.

I had someone from my city contact me last year for a matched pair of bullwhips I could not make for lack of any free time, so I reffered her to a few whipmakers I knew of and let her pick who she wanted. She chose Simon. Though I haven't seen her whips yet, she told me she was very happy with them.

I believe he either was trained by Bernie or follows some of his techniques (as can clearly be seen by how he skives his strands and how he finishes off the tip of his whips), so you know he's gotten some good advice.

I've emailed him a few times and always got a quick and curteous response from the man. Standup guy if you ask me.

Simon does consistently great work.
He is a pleasure to deal with. His stockwhips have good weight and balance, and smooth action. He does a very fine snake whip
I have a number of his whips in my whip bags.
And, I have one of his stickers adorning the back of my Jeep; the only sticker I have ever put on a vehicle.

The nice thing is, is that he put on Kangaroo falls and I've heard from many people that these things out last every other type of fall and are awesome.

I received that same sticker Boggstandard.

I had a rather funny comment today from somebody. This person saw both whips and realized that they were exactly the same and said "Are you sure these aren't machine made?" I looked at them and about laughed. They were almost 100% determined that nobody could ever produce such high quality.

They are beautiful Whipdude !! Very nice indeed.

They look wonderful!! Really well made.

Aussie full plait handle stockwhips with patterns sometimes look almost Ancient Egyptian to me. I could imagine Tutankhamun being pleasantly impressed with such a whip, the whip being seen as a sign of royalty by the Egyptians.

Hey WhipDude, Glad to hear that your matched set arrived! Great review and photos, though I might have to bug you for some higher resolution images.

You really did make a good choice by going with Simon Martin. We don’t see a lot of stock whips around here or many of Simons whips for that matter, so getting to see these is a treat. Simon does fantastic work though and for those here who don't know him, check out his site http://www.whipmaker.com.au as already mentioned he has won some pretty prestigious whip making competitions and with good reason.

This is really nice pair, The color and the pattern work in the handles are beautiful. As the natural tan starts to darken you’re going to get a much more subtle and distinguished contrast that looks great too. I think Simon really outdid himself with those matched handles though. I had a feeling that I was going to want a pair after I seen yours and I was right. Welcome to a whole new world of whip cracking! You’re going to have a lot of fun working on your dual routines with these. I’ll be looking forward to hearing more about how they perform for you.

Dan

Here are some higher resolution photos. I tried to take good photos but I didn't feel like screwing with my camera settings a bunch.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/Pr ... G_5436.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/Pr ... G_5429.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/Pr ... G_5434.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/Pr ... G_5435.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/Pr ... G_5422.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/Pr ... G_5438.jpg

Here's a good photo showing the smoothness of the handle.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/Pr ... G_5439.jpg
When I run my hand over the handle, I don't feel any bumps. It's nice and smooth.

Much better photos considering they were taken against a cream colored carpet and a white cloth to show contrast. Still, as said before, these photos can't show the real beauty.

Oh yes BullwhipBorton, some parts of the handle where my hands go, already show a bit of a different contrast compared to other parts.

Agreed Boggstandard! They are very smooth in action. There's zero jerkiness in the action.

Thanks for posting the additional images, Great detail in those patterns, Very nice work. I bet you’ve been cracking them all day long.

Dan