Club Obi Wan

Hi all!

I made this four foot, four plait cowhide whip for my 6 year old. The "knots" are just odds and ends put together and the handle is from a discarded wooden umbrella cane. Totally amateurish, but my boy loves it and it cracks well.



Thwack!
IndianaBravo

It tapers quite well!

How did you attach the thong to the handle? It looks like it could slide off pretty easily.

Bravo, That looks pretty good!

Thanks guys!
Riku, I attached the thong to handle with tiny nails so it is not terribly resistant. Thanks for you taper compliment, just lucky I suppose. The leather straps I used originally came from a Mark VII bag strap project that never came to fruition, the leather was too thin, so I just tapered down the straps and threw this together. I have high end whips from Joe Strain and Bernardo that my son loves to play with, but I did not want him hurting himself or ruining an expensive whip, so I came up with this.
Cheers!
Bravo

Simple but very pretty.
Compliments Indianabravo!

I'd be very happy with that whip too, Bravo!

Congrats.

Aldo.

Thnaks for the compliments guys! Now all I need to do is to finally learn how to make a passable Turks head or monkey fist knots and I'm on my way. I used to be a boy scout, so how hard can it be?
Cheers

Bravo

You'd be surprised...

Turks head knots are always very tough for everybody that first starts tying them, I don't think there's any getting around that.

It is my opinion, that you should learn to tie the knot right onto the whip, not using a template or whatever. A lot of people

make these turks head templates, tie the knot around that, then put the knot onto the whip and tighten it. It's my opinion that it

should be learned right on the whip.

Once you get it though, you get it and you don't have any more problems! It used to take me 5+ times to tie a heel knot, then I

got to where I'd occasionally have to take it off and restart during the first pass, then, on about my 4th whip, I could do it on my

first try.

You can follow Bernie Wojcicki's tutorial on trying the turks head knots, you can find it on youtube, type in turks head knot video,

and watch the ( I think it's ) 3 rd video in this title, because he's tying the transition knot and it's a more simple knot.

Hey riku, I imagine that it does take some time to learn. The "how hard can it be?" quip was also a TOH to TOD (groan)

I am aware of Bernies fantastic videos on youtube and have watched them often. Honestly I have been hemming and hawing for ages, but any day now I´m going to take it up a notch. All I see on these boards is really insprational.

Cheers
Bravo

Just take the plunge! As you know, you can't really learn very much from watching a video, until you just sit down and do it

Cute little whip! I have a short safe practice whip made of a rope with the pieces cut out of it at intervals, which my almost 3 year old son is practicing with every day. I told him if he practices hard I'd make him a bullwhip for his birthday, the end of this month.

I drew up the plans the other night and I'm going to go all out for him with the design and quality. I think an aggressive taper on a really light weight 5.5' Indy style bullwhip, with a light weight point and fall, will give him what he's after. He likes to do wraps on tree trunks and aim for things so I want to give him some length.

We sell these cool little airsoft goggles at the sporting goods store I manage and I purchased a pair for him today to go with the whip, since this will be his first real leather bullwhip. I have other whips I have to make so I will have to work extra to get this done! I'm excited to see how he can handle my design. We've been watching "Jones" almost every day lately. It's great having kids. "Bullwhip" was one of the first words he ever said.

Benjamin Scott

Holey Moley, Benjamin Scott?

I have one of your whips! It is a Last Crusade model I picked up here on the bazaar from Mr. Stefan Hills during the summer. I recieve nothing but compliments on it and it is fantastic whip, that I am proud to own.

Thank you for your comments on my modest effort. The whip design you have in mind for your sons whip really sounds, great, it would be awesome to see pictures of the finished product. Yeah, kids are fun and a handful too. It is great to be able to teach them things. My two little guys are definely have the whip bug.

Cheers!
IndianaBravo
BTW Welcome to the forum!

Bravo,

Glad you like that whip. I remember it was saddle tan. I imagine it's probably started really darkening up by now. I'll remember to post pictures when I get it done. I just need to figure out how to post pictures here without hosting them for a url, if that's possible?

Ben

Whipartist wrote:Bravo,

Glad you like that whip. I remember it was saddle tan. I imagine it's probably started really darkening up by now. I'll remember to post pictures when I get it done. I just need to figure out how to post pictures here without hosting them for a url, if that's possible?

Ben

The easiest way to post pictures is to go to a site like photobucket or imageshack, upload them, then click the forum code, copy,

paste, and the picture is up. I'm not sure there's other ways on this forum to post pictures...

Yep, here goes a pic of my Benjamin Scott whip>



This thread has actually inspired me to go and make a new and improved kid whip. Im out the door right now to my local tannery. I am gonna learn to tie proper knots if it kills me !

Cheers

Bravo

IndianaBravo wrote:Yep, here goes a pic of my Benjamin Scott whip>



This thread has actually inspired me to go and make a new and improved kid whip. Im out the door right now to my local tannery. I am gonna learn to tie proper knots if it kills me !

Cheers

Bravo

Do you mean to tie the knot that attaches the cracker or the fall? If it's the cracker knot, look here :

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=18232

If it's the fall hitch knot, watch this video, it's the exact method I use on all my indy whips, and a very similar method to what

I use on all other whips :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-5OMRuhr1E

If it's something else and I misunderstood, sorry! Tell me what it is and I'll try and find a video or tutorial on it for you

Thanks for the links. I really meant knots in general, but the Turks head is something I have never really attempted. Now to find the time to pursue this endeavor….

Bravo

IndianaBravo wrote:Thanks for the links. I really meant knots in general, but the Turks head is something I have never really attempted. Now to find the time to pursue this endeavor….

Bravo

Oh ok turks heads. Everybody seems different on those. Some make tons of whips and still have problems, and some get it really

really fast. Won't know till you try Let us know how it goes and if any questions arise during the process I'd be more than happy

to try to help

Riku,

Hey thanks for the information on posting pictures. Very helpful. I was wondering how everyone was doing it.

Bravo,

Wow that whip is still a nice medium brown. I can't say much for my screen accuracy but it's a nice looking bullwhip. I'm making a Crusader in 16 plait right now, and have another day's work on it before it's finished.

Turksheads are easy and really interesting once you learn the basic moves to make the skeleton knot. I love the way you can start with a basic knot and then make tracks and enlarge it into something more complex, without having to memorize very much of the knot to do so. Tying the knot isn't the tuff part. The tuff part is just getting the spacing and strand width right to smoothly fit a given size area. I recommend you do something with two or three passes to start. The 4b, 5p is what's used on Indy whips. Tie it up with one pass not too tight, then space the parts out on your work, and tie a second pass. Then go back through the whole thing and re-tighten. It takes longer this way but produces much nicer work.

After seeing my son go at it with the whip tonight, I am rethinking my own kid whip concept. I was going to go with a mini Indy in 12 plait at first, but the rope whip he's using is in a stockwhip configuration and he is getting the action down really well to where he's impressing me. I think he might be better off with a stockwhip or Aussie bullwhip as far as that goes. Also, he's really abusive to it. He was chasing the chickens out of our back yard today and having a blast doing it. That whip struck against every rough object in the yard!

I'm thinking either a 4 plait stockwhip on a nice half plait handle, or maybe a course plait Aussie/Indy hybrid with a light weight foundation that gives him some good wrist action. I don't want to cringe every time he uses it. I'll keep thinking about it.

Ben

Thanks for the the advice Ben. I will do my best to put it to good use. I will focus my attention on making a new kid whip during the Easter holiday, which is when I will have time. Finding a minute with kids in the mix is challenging, as I amn sure you know. That 16 plait Crusader you mention sounds great. I am sure everybody here on COW would love to see your latest creations. I would recommend checking out the pic hosting sites such as photobucket. They are a lot easier to figure out than a Turks head!

Cheers

Bravo

I'd make him a stockwhip. That way you don't have to worry about the transition breaking down either, just the handle keeper

which is an easy fix!

I'm leaning towards the stockwhip idea at the moment just because it will be easier for a whip I can see now that' he'll abuse. But I've always specialized in bullwhips so it would be different than what he's used to. I actually use a spring transition that solves the breakdown problem, but it takes more work to make a bullwhip, especially in that manner.

Ben