Club Obi Wan

Are there any good resources to learn about cutting your own laces from a side of leather? I'm anxious to try this on my next whip, and it'd be really helpful to watch someone else first if I could. I seem to be able to find pretty much every other part of whip-making described, but this subject is always sort of glossed over.

Thanks!
-Will

Are you working on rooskin or cow?

I was kinda scared to death when I first started cutting my own strands on roo since it wasn't going to be the cheapest try and error lesson in the world.
what helped me a lot was making a small braiding project out of the belly part of the skin to get an idea of how the leather stretches and aswell to get away from my fear of doing the cutting wrong. The first whip want come out perfect, but probaly way much better then you would think.

If you're cutting with a strand cutter, bernie did some cutting videos a while ago

I'll be working with cowhide. I didn't see any of Bernie's videos where he used a strander, but that's what I plan on getting.

-Will

Buy his DVD.
Everything is covered.

You can also try:

Braiding Fine Leather by David Morgan
How To Make Whips by Ron Edwards

Both of those books are available from Amazon, or if you want to support whip makers you can get them from Joe Strain (http://www.northernwhipco.com) or from David Morgan (http://www.davidmorgan.com).

One huge tip when cutting your own lace (especially from cowhide) is to keep your blade sharp! I use a box cutter and when cutting out an 8 foot whip from cowhide I go through about 10 - 12 blades.

A sharp blade make cutting around corners much easier, you need a bit less force pulling the knife and you can concentrate on following the curve of the hide.

xoxo

Louie
http://bullwhips.org

I'll second the recommendation on both of those books, but nothing is as good as Bernie's DVD. The techniques translate much better in video. Drop the $100...it'll save you a $1000 in trial and error.

Ron

I already have Ron Edwards' book, and it's been a great help in the few projects I've done so far.

Louie,
Which technique do you use? Thumbnail?

-Will

I cut with my thumb as a guide.

Louie
http://bullwhips.org