As near as I can tell, if you've got a good kangaroo whip, it can stand years and years of being stored coiled up in a cool dry place, about the only casualty might be the white hide fall. They seem prone to dry rot (which might vary depending on how it was tanned).
Examples:
Last year I was at the Cowboy Christmas in Vegas, which has all sorts of western vendors and one of them had some kangaroo cow whips from David Morgan, as well as a couple stock whips from David. Everything was bought in the 80s and then stored coiled up in a collection. Even though the cow whips were coiled up that long, they still rolled out and cracked fine. The only problem in the group was the one stock whip with a white hide fall. The vendor had tried to clean the whip and the fall snapped off right at the fall hitch.
For the second example, I was at Western Stage Props in May and Mark had gotten in two 12 ft Morgan whips from the 90s which looked as if they had also been left coiled up in a collection. The same thing happened to one of them as happened to the stock whip: the fall broke off as soon as they tried cleaning it. I bought the one 12 footer that still had it's original white hide fall, but before Mark sent it to me he replaced the fall
He included the original fall and I could see by where he cut it that it might not have been as strong as it once was.
Now, to avoid this problem, I know one guy who puts the fall of each whip in it's own sandwich bag with plenty grease. That's probably just for long-term storage.
-Adam
