64 plait bull whip

[bernie47]

Haven't done one of these in awhile and then all of a sudden I had orders for two. Photos are of the first one finished.






I think I exceeded the photo size on some of these photos so moderators please adjust accordingly if you must. All the photos and a few more of past collectors whips can be found here.
http://www.em-brand-whips.com/collectorswhips.htm

[riku1914]

SO cool!!!

edit: you should take some video of you plaiting one of these, even just 5 minutes would be really cool to see.

Do you use 4 plaited bellies with these also?

and another edit :

do you plait these from the point down like on your signal whips? I ask because it looks like the end of it is set up like the end of

your signal whips. Then again I can't zoom in too far without it getting too blurry.

[PyramidBlaster]

Good Lord, Bernie...That's...Just....Insane...But I love it! Amazing work....

Any finer, and you're gonna have to get out the microscope!!!!

[AZ Pete]

Truly spectacular!! I get lost just looking at it let alone plait it. Great work!

[giovanniceleste]

Oh My God Bernie, this beuty is really spectacular, i have no words!!! Great Work my friend

[tomek9210]

You are the master of whipmaking, really! 64 plt need a lot of patience and great eye. I admire you a lot, because I get frustrated everytime I make some fancy plaiting with 16 strands
To be honest, I don't know if I could use it, it looks too awesome to crack it, just hang it on the wall and look at it. Won't the strands break during the cracking? They're so narrow.
By the way, how many strands are used when the fancy plaiting changes into herringbone pattern?

[twilekjedi]

Whoa!

[bernie47]

SO cool!!!

edit: you should take some video of you plaiting one of these, even just 5 minutes would be really cool to see.

Do you use 4 plaited bellies with these also?

and another edit :

do you plait these from the point down like on your signal whips? I ask because it looks like the end of it is set up like the end of

your signal whips. Then again I can't zoom in too far without it getting too blurry.

I plait this from the butt end first but use the spiral method until I finish all the patterns and it has 4 plaited bellies the 4th belly being 24 plait so I can get a nice smooth surface to plait the overlay on.. The number of strands when I hit the herringbone was 32 and the strands are 1.2mm wide.All in all it took about 80 hours to make. At $3600.00 this is not the sort of whip you would take out and round up the cows with but it cracks really well. I made this for a well known antique dealer who wants to keep it as an heirloom so I doubt it will see much work. Most probably be mounted on a wall as an example of plaiting.
Instead of using the conventional leather fall I plaited a rawhide fall on the end. Years ago here in Tasmania when they still used bullocks for hauling wagons and pulling logs from the forest ending a bullock whip with plaited rawhide kangaroo hide was the norm.

[riku1914]

As if this one isn't enough, I can't wait to see the second one you're working on

[Cracker]

You know what I think of it

Jim

[tomek9210]

What do you think, how many strands are 'useable' yet in cracking so not to be worried about breaking them? I mean strands on the thong, because I've seen Chris Barr stockwhip's handle which was 72 plait
20? 24?

[riku1914]

What do you think, how many strands are 'useable' yet in cracking so not to be worried about breaking them? I mean strands on the thong, because I've seen Chris Barr stockwhip's handle which was 72 plait
20? 24?

I would say 24, because you need to do an 8 plait point ( with the strands not tapering at all ), so the strands are 4 mm wide, which is pretty standard. Go much lower

than 4 mm wide and I would get worried. The strands on my first kangaroo whip I made were 4.5mm wide at the point, and they

were about .8mm thick, and they haven't had any problem.

I think the lowest I'd go would be 3mm for a regular use whip. So probably my absolute max would be 32. But again I would prefer
24.

[parttime]

Absolutely Beautiful

-Dusty

[bernie47]

What do you think, how many strands are 'useable' yet in cracking so not to be worried about breaking them? I mean strands on the thong, because I've seen Chris Barr stockwhip's handle which was 72 plait
20? 24?

For regular everyday cracking you could go to 32 plait without any problems which would give you 3mm strands and I would end it with either 10 or 12 strands at the fall.Having said that it would still be a whip that you would not want to take out to bring in the cows.

[IndyTaz]

Wow!!! That is AMAZING my friend. Makes me proud to be a Tasmanian:) I hail in Burnie. We should catch up for a beer sometime

Best
Taz

[Chewbacca Jones]

I think... I'm going.... to faint. Incredible, beautiful, bravo!

[DarenHenryW]

Woah! Bernie, that's incredible! Nicely done! Seriously, wow . . .

DHW

[Holmes]

That's incredible! That really looks fantastic!

[Marhala]

Oh G-d! I've been uneasy about cutting 2mm wide strands for a 16 strand riding crop!!! And here comes Bernie with 64 1.2mm wide strands!!!

No doubt experience takes a big roll at it. Bernie, congratulations on such a beautiful whip!

I found very interesting the concept of making the fall of the whip in plaited kangaroo rawhide. If I may ask... are there any pointers you could give us in case we want to give it a try sometime? I see the rawhide strands are spliced and may be very thin too, but don't know how many.

All the best,

Aldo.

[bernie47]

Oh G-d! I've been uneasy about cutting 2mm wide strands for a 16 strand riding crop!!! And here comes Bernie with 64 1.2mm wide strands!!!

No doubt experience takes a big roll at it. Bernie, congratulations on such a beautiful whip!

I found very interesting the concept of making the fall of the whip in plaited kangaroo rawhide. If I may ask... are there any pointers you could give us in case we want to give it a try sometime? I see the rawhide strands are spliced and may be very thin too, but don't know how many.

All the best,

Aldo.

From memory I started when I was at 24 strands and then it was just a matter of dropping leather and replacing it with 16 raw hide strands at 1.2mm wide.. The remaining leather strands were then dropped in until there were just the raw hide strands left and then dropping those until I ended with 12 strands at the end. This is an interesting little article on bullock drivers and bullocks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullocky and here is a photo of a typical bullock driver with whip. http://museumvictoria.com.au/collection ... circa-1875