Club Obi Wan

Hi all,

I received my Indy style, US pattern whip from Mike Murphy yesterday. As usual, it is a gorgeous piece of work. Mike is bar none one of the top whipmakers in the world today. The strands are cut and plaited with machine-like precision, and it practically cracks itself. I ordered the 8 footer, which cost me $260 + shipping, and the turnaround time was roughly 4 weeks. Now while it is Indy style, it isn't "screen accurate", so if you're after screen accuracy you may want to email Mike with your specs if you want to order one. The turkshead knot on the knob is different, and it doesn't have the weight of a Morgan, but you will not be disappointed with its performance or its aesthetics.

I know Mike is a lurker on this board, so if you see this Mike, thanks, you did a fantastic job!

Regards,
Jim

Sebastian uses Mike Murphy stockwhips during his whipcracking sessions. I got to crack it and they do crack with ease. Definately a good investment.

Pyroxene wrote:Sebastian uses Mike Murphy stockwhips during his whipcracking sessions. I got to crack it and they do crack with ease. Definately a good investment.

Did they look like this?

Yes they are a matched pair. It's interesting that one is braided for the left hand and one for the right hand. And, it had purple leather braided in it. Really, really nice.

Pyroxene wrote:It's interesting that one is braided for the left hand and one for the right hand.

Could you explain what this means?

The_Edge wrote:

Pyroxene wrote:It's interesting that one is braided for the left hand and one for the right hand.

Could you explain what this means?

Here are the whips Sebastian brought out that day.



You whip crack with both hands



I have included some video. You can 'right-click' on them and choose 'Save As'. or click on them and wait for them to download.

Large (5.2 Mb) (.wmv)

Medium (3.1 Mb) (.mpg)

Small / Dial-up (1.7 Mb) (.mpg)

Pyro,
Thanks for posting. Usually a matched set of stock whips you crack with both hands. What Kyle wanted clarification on was that one whip was braided for the left hand and the other braided for the right hand. The wording was just a little misleading, if that was what you meant.

-S

Uh...yeah. Thanks.

I know what a matched pair of whips is and I also know what two handed cracking is. Your sentence above,

It's interesting that one is braided for the left hand and one for the right hand.

made it sound as if the whips were braided differently for each specific hand. I was just wondering if they were ergonomic or had different patterns or something. Apparently you were just saying that each one was a full plait handle.

I do think it is the wording that's confusing, in fact, I'm still a bit puzzled. Are they braided the same, and just used in both hands, or is it like a pistol grip, and one is braided for a left-handed grip?

Mike

I remember him saying and I think you can hear it on the video, "I can never figure out which one is for the left and which one is for the right." I would have to talk to Sebastian what he meant by that but led me to believe they were, perhaps, made slightly different. Just my thoughts.

Sorry for the confusion.

Pyro.

Hey, thanks for sharing that footage. Most enjoyable to watch. Of course it does nothing to quiet the urge to make that whip purchase.

I have found that with my matched pair, even though they were made identically and at the same time, look etc. that each one acts just a little differently. I have found that I one has become my right hand whip and the other my left hane whip. ...sometimes.

All the best.
Canasta

Canasta wrote:I have found that with my matched pair, even though they were made identically and at the same time, look etc. that each one acts just a little differently. I have found that I one has become my right hand whip and the other my left hane whip. ...sometimes.

All the best.
Canasta

I have the same situation with all of my paired whips, stocks and bulls. Each whip seems to get "trained" to follow it's own path over time when thrown a lot, and the left will be the opposite of the right. If I grab them out of the bag and have the left whip in my right hand, and the right whip in my left, I can feel the difference immediately.

Jim

Pyroxene wrote: I remember him saying and I think you can hear it on the video, "I can never figure out which one is for the left and which one is for the right." I would have to talk to Sebastian what he meant by that but led me to believe they were, perhaps, made slightly different. Just my thoughts.

Sorry for the confusion.

Pyro.

Ahh, okay. I get it. I run into the same problem when doing double handed cross-over work with just one whip. When you're cracking a whip you want the loop that you throw to un-coil on the outside of your body. So as you're breaking in a right handed whip the thong will "learn" to angle itself slightly to the right. If you throw that whip with your left hand the thong will automatically try to form the loop off to the right which is now on the inside of your arm and body. Stock whips are a little more forgiving but not much. Also, most people aren't ambidextrous and they use their left and right hands differently when doing similar functions. This also causes differences in how a whip is broke in causing it to become identified with that particualar hand.

Now that makes sense.

Ahhhhhhh! During that session, Sebastian was encouaging two handed whip work. Thanks, guys.