Club Obi Wan

Again, I spent last weekend at Wasteland Weekend, blah blah blah... Late Saturday afternoon I was in "on duty" in my Elite Guard gear, and another guard and I stood outside the Wasteland gates and cracked our whips. The Captain of the Guard liked our impromptu display and we decided that next year we'd like to add some more theatricality (beyond just standing there looking tough).



I would like to have a matched pair of whips to learn and perform two-handed routines with. I'm not looking to do anything really spectacular, but I have a year to prepare, so we'll see how it goes. I'll be performing in the desert on dirt. I'm thinking five or six feet long, in black. I'm not averse to nylon as long as it responds well. As I have only limited experience with 8- and 10-foot Indy style bullwhips, I'm looking for input on what to look for, what to buy, who to buy from, etc.


Overheads might be tricky with the mohawk!

This is directed more toward T.Rex and Daren (only because I know they work two-handed), but I'd appreciate hearing from anyone who'd like to weigh in. Thanks!

Since you're so used to long whips, I say go with a 6 footer because the difference between a 5 and 6 footers response time can be very surprising! That's not the say you won't be able to get used to it, but going from a 10 footer to a 5 footer would be really weird for a while. Get a 10-12 inch handle, and a bit of weight in the handle area whether that's done with a heavy spike being used for the handle foundation or a bit of lead in the heel. With such a short whip, either will work but both together MAY make it too handle heavy, depending on the thickness of the whip and how much of each is used. A good whip maker will be able to find a good balance. I personally use a 6.5mm spring steel rod for a lot of shorter and thinner whips because using a steel spike has the potential to make it too heavy ( you really only would have to worry about that with whips shorter than 6 ft. with a handle longer than 8" ), especially if it's a thin whip I'm making.

Since you're working the dirt, I wouldn't go with a 16 plait leather whip, but an 8 plait ending in 6 strands or a 12 plait ending in 6 would be fine. Nylon would also work and you wouldn't have to worry too much about cleaning it off afterward ( but as I mentioned in another thread, I use my roo whips in the dirt all the time and they look and crack fine. In fact when they are cleaned off you can never tell they were in the dirt in the first place ).

Thanks for the response. I have a 5-footer (shown in this thread viewtopic.php?f=3&t=55034" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) that I like; I think I'd want something similar as long as it lends itself to what I'm trying to do. My concern (possibly unfounded, because I don't know enough to know what I don't know, if that makes sense) would be getting something too radically different from what I'm already using.

Right now I have a few matched pairs. Bernardo Del Carpio made me a beautifully matched pair of 7' Raiders whip. I have a matched pair of 4' Stockwhips from Joe Strain that are awesome. He also recently finished a matched pair of 7' Aussie Target whips that are superb. Additionally, I recently bought a pair of PH hybrid whips made by Lauren Wickline at Midwest whips, which I highly recommend as a solid pair of whips for performance, as well as overall training for two-handed whip study. Lauren's PH whips may be the option for what you are preparing for. They are great quality, affordable, and there's lots of room to customize the look.

Good luck!

Daren

Thank you, sir!

On top of that, with PH whips, you can get black PVC grips, and then paint them silver, (and distress them, attach stuff bits, etc.) to give them a really nasty "Post Apocalypse" feel, or replace the handles with lathe-turned aluminium for the same effect, (though the weight of the aluminum might be a bit much.)

Just a thought.

-D

That is a heck of an idea. Thanks for that. I thought plain black might be a little too plain, and silver isn't an option, but a little Rub-n-Buff would do wonders. Cheers!