Club Obi Wan

Hi Guys,
here we are!!!
i'm very glad to show you another whip recently finisched.
The First is a 5ft 8plait target whip with gaucho knot on the handle and the cracker directly plaited at the end of the fall.
I hope you like it
All the best
gio

Have you ever tried to plait the cracker as it leaves the fall?

I made a whip with a cracker braided onto the fall for a circus performer once and I think I used eight strands for the cracker and plaited them onto the end of the fall, which naturally had been tapered before hand, so coming off the fall there were eight strands which then dropped to six, and then four at the end of the cracker.

The performer felt he would get better accuracy with such a cracker. I have my own thoughts on that, but that is another discussion.


Franco

I think it's too much work for one thing. Making a tapered cracker is one thing, but plaiting it into the end of it is too much work

for something your'e replacing so often.

Well that was my take on it, but then I wouldn't even bother with binding it around the fall the way you did either... But plaiting it wasn't that long.

Having said that, the performer for whom the whip was made came from a circus and horse background in Europe and it was their tradition to do it this way, so I just obliged him. Also, the cracker was made longer with a few knots in it, so when the fuzz was worn you simply cut it at the base of the knot and you have a brand new length of fuzz!

Canuck Digger wrote:Well that was my take on it, but then I wouldn't even bother with binding it around the fall the way you did either... But plaiting it wasn't that long.

Having said that, the performer for whom the whip was made came from a circus and horse background in Europe and it was their tradition to do it this way, so I just obliged him. Also, the cracker was made longer with a few knots in it, so when the fuzz was worn you simply cut it at the base of the knot and you have a brand new length of fuzz!

Kind of like what you could do with a jacka cracker.

Canuck Digger wrote:I made a whip with a cracker braided onto the fall for a circus performer once and I think I used eight strands for the cracker and plaited them onto the end of the fall, which naturally had been tapered before hand, so coming off the fall there were eight strands which then dropped to six, and then four at the end of the cracker.

I Franco, if i well understood you have plaited the last inches of the fall in 8 plait, than after the end of the fall, you have dropped the plait from 8 to 6 and than you have completed the plait in 4 strands.
If I understand correctly, my second question is:
at the end of the 4 plait you have also twisted the remaining 4 strands like a classic crackers.
Do you have a pics of this whip? I'd be curious to see it.
Thanks a lot
Gio

I don't have pics (computer crashed ...) but I will ask the person I made the whip for if he can take some for me.


Franco

you're very Kind

I just looked at the picture again, what is the point of plaiting a cracker if you're not going to 1 plait it through the flexible part

and 2 taper it that way? It just makes it kind of inconvenient...

Shed some light please?

Some feel it makes a more accurate point. Like I said in my post, this gentleman was from a horse background in Europe and this was their tradition, so who am I to argue? Is there a simpler and faster way to attach a cracker, Of course, but simple and fast isn't what he was looking for.