Club Obi Wan

So winter is approaching soon which means in most parts of the world practicing on a wet surface. Ok, here in socal, it's just the occasional field of wet grass. I am interested in purchasing a nylon Indy style bullwhip to use for such wet situations. After much website searching, there seems to be a variety of things offered in a nylon whip. Can anyone make some recommendations? What construction methods make them different? Pro's? Cons?

Indiana Jake

Nylon whips can be done with one or two bellies (for kotcs I use 3) and with bb shot core or cable core. Those options are the most popular. For Indy style I recommend bulwhip with 2 bellies and bb core. Such whip well counterpart leather one in dimensions and weight. I use such whip, so I can recommend it from my own experience
Hope that helps!
Tomek

Good question Indiana Jake, in my opinion there are several thing that make up a good nylon whip with the core being a good place to start. There are several core materials used in nylon whips from lamp cord to bb’s. Lamp cord takes longer to break in before the whip will perform its best, BB’s or ball chain cores provide good weight and require no break in time. The next thing would be how many plated bellies should a good nylon whip have, at least one. I believe that for long term heavy use two belly construction whips will retain their action better but some may not want the added diameter to the thong or the slight weight increase it is largely a matter of personal preference. How tightly the whip is plaited is also very important there is a balance that must be achieved between plait compression and thong flexibility plait the whip to tight and it will lose a lot of action, plait it too lose and the whip tends to become lifeless and to spring back at you when thrown. Another important point is interstitial support in the transition zone of the handle to thong region particularly in bullwhips. If this area is not properly reinforced the whip will tend to wet noodle very quickly. The goal is to reduce the wet noodle effect for as long as possible. All bullwhips if used long enough will have varied degrees of breakdown in this region but the goal is to put it off as long as possible. Also good even plaiting makes the whip look so much better, I hope this helps.

floridacrackerbullwhips.com

Hi Jake. I use nylon whips most of the time as being in the U.K it is wet most of the time. I can not add much to the thread as I am by no means a whip expert but I can say that I much prefer the bb loaded core. It seems to roll out real nice and feels more like a hide whip. But like I say, I'm no expert. Just my opinion.

Jake, I'm no expert either, but have been using one of these for about a year now.

http://www.stockwhips.co.nz/

I tried out Liontamer's at the Summit last year.
I got it for the same reasons you are considering. Wet and/or poor conditions. It works well for me. I will say that the synthetic whip feels WAY different from a leather one. It takes a little different technique to do the cracks. You'll adapt to the "action".
I found it highly valuable for practicing more and protects your $$ leather whip from dirt/ moisture. I used it all the time in the snow, and even on beach sand. It's still like new!
Just my 2 cents.

~raider 57

So the BB core - how is out installed to keep it in place? Loose, wrapped? I assume the weight of the whip is comparable when this is done to match a kip or roo whip? I see some whips are called hybrid is that a combination of nylon and leather, or some other method?

Jake

My goal with the nylon whips I make is to come as close as I can to the handling characteristics of my latigo bullwhips. Although nylon and latigo are very different materials a carefully balanced and constructed nylon whip will be very similar in action and weight distribution to their leather counterparts. A hybrid whip is just a whip that has two different elements incorporated together to produce something different than either element.

floridacrackerbullwhips.com

That is very true. I myself would be suspicious of a whip that did not handle 'right' mo matter what it's made of.

I've made ten or so whips, from a five foot pocket snake to a ten foot Indy style bull whip. I think a bb loaded core is the only way to go. I've considered other methods that could decrease the amount of time spent in construction, but in the long run, nothing handles better (my opinion).

The last whip I made had somewhere around 250-300 bbs (around 50 of which were in the big turk's head knot) in it and around 450-500 feet of cord. It had two plaited bellies and a sixteen strand overlay. I put about 25-30 pounds of pull on each strand (my hands made me pay for a week or more after). It was one tightly plaited whip, and it handled beautifully. It had a smooth taper down to the end. The action was just about the same as my ten foot cowhide Indy from Adam. When it was done I kind of hated to part with it. It was beautiful.



The upside to this tale is I can always make another!

Indiana Jake wrote:So the BB core - how is out installed to keep it in place? Loose, wrapped? I assume the weight of the whip is comparable when this is done to match a kip or roo whip?

Jake

It's hollow piece of paracord filled with bbs and tightly binded to spike or rod.
Yes, the weight is comparable. My nylon two belly 8ft with bb core weighs about 650g.