Club Obi Wan

Hey all, a lot of screen accurate Raiders style whips have been popping up recently so I figured it was my time to make a demo of one. I started by first looking at countless screen caps from raiders and then going over the drawing that Sergei made of the screen used whip that Mark Allen had had. Since I was just doing a demo/test of the whip I made it out of hand picked cow/kip hide. I wanted this whip to be as accurate as possible but still have that rugged look as we all remember it in the hands of Indy. After this whip was complete I took more measurements of the finished piece and feel that it is about 90% accurate for my first try. (not bad I say for making a kip/cow hide SA demo) Below is picture of the demo whip, it is 10ft 12plait. Let me know what you guys think and what else you might like to see. (I already know I want to do the next one with the darker knots)




Keep Crackin,
James

I like the wide strands... "And I even like the color".


All the best,

Aldo.

Very nice whip. What do you sell them for?

For the kip/cow hide version of my SA style I was thinking 8ft=$320-360 10ft=$400-450, prices are subject to change due to me not releasing them yet, I am going to be doing a few more demos of it to nail down more details that I was not totally happy with. I also plan to release a Kangaroo version but no set price on that version yet.

Keep Crackin,
James

Excuse my stupid questions, but I'm not a whip guy. Are your prices in the range of others? What comes with the whip, or am only getting that alone? Is this something that is ordered, then made and if so what's the turn around from order to it being shipped?

Mike

Not bad, You’ll need to bring one of these by for me to try out.

Dan

My prices are a little cheaper but still in the range of other whipmakers. What I include in the price for my whips is the whip, and 5 extra poppers/crackers. Whips from any whipmaker are usually ordered, the turn around time can depend on how many orders are before. At this current time I am not taking orders for this style of whip, I am just making a few demo whips to perfect the shape and style for when I will be offering them.

That looks really good,and in kip hide to boot which makes it that much more SA. As I understand the Raiders whips were done in kip and not roo due to an existing roo hide embargo.
Thwak!
IndianaBravo

IndianaBravo wrote: As I understand the Raiders whips were done in kip and not roo due to an existing roo hide embargo.

According to David, He was still making whips during the embargo out of the kangaroo hides that he had stockpiled. Only a few of the whips made during the embargo where all kip, though he did commonly use kip for the bolsters & filler back then. Orders for these bullwhips where much smaller though, compared to after the Indiana Jones movies became popular, so they didn’t go though the same volumes of skins that they do today.

Dan

Aha, thanks for clarifying that Dan. I was going by what I have read, including on the IndyGear main page :

"Bullwhips used in Raiders of the Lost Ark came from stunt coordinator Glenn Randall’s inventory prior to 1981 so it is believe that many of these whips may have been made from Kip side. It is nearly impossible to tell the difference in Kangaroo and Kip with out looking at the cross sections of the leather grain under magnification."

Like it says, I guess the only way to really know would be to subject a confirmed screen used whip to a spectrographic analysis to determine the material used. Perhaps there were some whips made of roo and some out of kip that were used in different scenes
We will probably never know for sure. At any rate I think it is great that James will be offering these in kip, thus making them more affordable.
Best Regards
IndianaBravo

...so it could be that the screen used whips in Raiders were actually cow instead of kangaroo hide? At least a 50/50 chance?

That whip looks great as is. Its great to see more whip makers aiming for the SA whip for us gear heads.
All the best, Graeme.

Basically yes, some of those early whips where made from kip but David also told me that he still made them during the embargo from the kangaroo hide he had stockpiled. The only way to know for sure would be to look at each individual whip under magnification. I examined a film used Raiders bullwhip earlier this year though and was pretty confident that the overlay at least was kangaroo.

James recently had a chance to look at an impressive collection of David Morgan, Joe Strain and Bernardo’s Indy bullwhips. I’m definitely seeing that influence in this latest creation and I’m looking forward to what he has in store next.

Awesome! Such a beauty! Great job!

I went frame by frame through the close up shot of the Indy whip in the Cairo market scene in Raiders and to me that particular whip looked like it was made of cowhide. Some of the ends of the strands coming out of the fall knot look like they have ragged, hairy underside of the leather as is sometimes found in cowhide strands.

Also, something about the look of the braiding and color of the leather just seems more like cowhide in the close-ups. I believe some of the screen used Raiders whips were cowhide (though all the bullwhips for the later films were made from roo leather).

Nice looking whip, Classicbullwhips!

I'd buy one if it were in the 10ft - $400 range. Very nice looking

Kyle

Hi again
Quick question: How much do these whips weigh?
Thanx!
IndianaBravo

That is a great looking whip James. Nice job !!!!

Jim

I will check on the weight this next week I will take it to the post office and have it weighed.

Great!
I suppose you could actually customize the weight more or less. If a customer wanted something a little heavier, then I imagine the solution would be to put a bit more lead under the turks head. I've been using my new Del Carpio alot lately and at 900+ grams it really packs a wallop and is impeccably balanced.
Best regards!

Ooo, I love the colour.

Hey guys I have been working on some of the changes/improvements that I wanted to do in the Demo version of my SA cow hide indy whips. The first is the more correct size turks head knot (last one was a little smaller then I liked) this one looks even more SA. The second change is a coat of shellac over the whip (the original version was shellac free, natural hide with no finish) There are also a lot of little changes that I made but those are the two main ones that are the most noticeable. I am labeling this latest version of the cow hide indy style whip version 1.25. I still want to make a few more changes but what do you guys think of this latest version and what other changes do you think I should make on the next version. Pictured below is the latest version 1.25.

Keep Crackin,
James

That looks great It looks much like the whip on the main indygear whip page. Graet work. I can't see anything I would change but I'm sure some people will
Fantastic job
Graeme.

I had a chance to see this bullwhip and test it out last weekend. I put it though a series of throws, checking the weight and balance. I was pleasantly surprised, the sets where cut and tapered very well and the whip plaited tight with a very solid feel. It is a lighter whip then most of the Indy whips I'm used to seeing but it cracked very smoothly and easily for me. In fact the more I tried it out, the more I liked it. I think James might have been getting a little nervous that the whip wasn’t going to be leaving with him. He did a good job on it.

In any case though I like the improvements you made James, the increased knot size looks better in my opinion and the coating of shellac gives it a nice finished look. Keep up the good work.

Dan