Beware, it is UGLY!! But it cracks with ease and sounds like a 22 going off. There are also some pics of my son (I made this whip for him) giving it a crack this morning. The great thing is, it was soaking wet outside from rain, and with a nylon whip, we could crack anyway!!.
Plus the moisture on the cracker gave off a nice puff of "smoke" when cracked. http://www.printroom.com/ViewAlbum.asp? ... _id=154575
I used black nylon parachute cord, an 8" nail spike, a core of 3/8" white nylon rope, a 6-plait belly (on retrospect, I should have use an 8-plait), NO BOLSTER (another mistake), and a 12-plait overlay. I built up the knob with duct tape, but haven't attempted the turkshead knots, yet, on the butt or the handle/thong junction. I made the fall from a single strand of nylon cord. I just doubled over the end to make a loop and tied it down supertight with white (wish I had black) sinew.
I made TONS of mistakes on this whip, but I left them in so I can show everyone what the mistakes will do to the overall quality of your whip.
Here's what I learned. Please learn from my mistakes. That's the whole reason I didn't fix my mistakes as I saw them happen. I wanted a record of them in picture form to help those others of you who want to give this a try.
First off, I wanted to do a diamond weave on the handle, and instead of plaiting loose and pulling tight, I thought I'd be able to plait tight and then not have to tighten. MISTAKE!! You can see how spread out the weave is. It is very hard, however, and not "smooshy" at all. So it will work for now.
Second, I went too far with the diamond patern, well beyond the handle/thong junction. After I put the keeper turkshead there, there will be some diamond patter after it.
Third, I continued WAY down the thong trying to plait tight and not go back and tighten. MISTAKE!! ALthough the plait is nice and hard, they are spread out again. I finally started to plait loose and pull tight (with pliars) about half-way down the whip, and you can REALLY tell a difference. However, it took a lot of trial and error on how far I could plait loose and then tighten without loosing the ability to tighten back very far up the whip (does that make sense?). So there are several spots where I plaited loose for 4 to 5 inches, and then could only tighten back up the whip about 3 inches or so. Toward the end of the whip, I finally figured out the length of loose plaiting before tightening that worked for me. But it took me a whole whip to figure it out.
Fourth, every once and a while, I got confused and wove with the wrong strand. This left an odd strand out of place which really affects the overall appearance. So if you get one out of place, UNDO WHAT YOU HAVE DONE AND FIX IT! It's amazing how one strand out of place in one tiny little spot really meeses up the whole look of the whip.
Fifth, when dropping strands, I did something wrong, but I'm not sure what. Whenever I dropped strands, I got an odd "pucker" in the thong. I need help here, if you can tell what I did wrong. This gold pen is pointing to the spots where I dropped strands into the thong.
Sixth, I WAY underestimated how long I need the strands to be. For leather, I have heard that you want your finished whip to be 2/3's the length of your original strand lengths. So I cut 12' strands wanting an 8' whip. HOWEVER, it appears that when using nylon, you need to have your strand length be TWICE the length you want oyur finished whip to be. I ended up with a 5-1/2' whip from 12' strands. And assuming I could have pulled a lot tighter in places, I might have sqeezed 6' out of it.
Seventh, Since I was planning on an 8' whip, I got to the end of the whip and needed to drop strands fast! So, I had to taper too much too quickly at the end.
Eighth, I only had white sinew to tie with, so it really stands out on the fall hitch area.
There you have it. I learned a LOT and really had fun doing it. I hope to start another one in a week or so.
Thanks to EVERYONE who helped me along the way. I really appreciate it.
Wayne
But still, very good.
