Club Obi Wan

Anyone ever consider making a whip with cable in it to swing from?and would it work?
just wondering.

I don't think anyone has done it yet. The questions are, could you crack it and how would it hold to a tree limb?

Thats what Morgan did for the Raiders Temple and the LC Castle swing. However, they were just used for swinging, nothing else.

It has been reported that cabled whips are all that remain in the Lucas Film prop room from the first 3 movies. All the real whips are gone. Tells you somthing, doesn't it?

Thanks
Bill Walton

Hello all,

I remember several years ago, David Morgan use to sell a bullwhip with a steel cable in it, I believe 6 or 8 foot, in his catologe.

I can remember looking at it on his old online website,

But since then,
he discontinued it, and doen't sell it anymore, (of at least I don't think he does).

Perhaps some of you long time Indy fans ( like me) might remember it,
I'm going to say it was around 5 or 6 years ago,
but thats just a guess.



Cheers

Jim J.

I have been thinking about trying to make one sometime down the road, ,dont know if i would ever actually do it but just pondering you know?

Right on! Indiana Blizzard,

nothing wrong with that, I know of another whipmaker or two who use steel cable in there whips, (or use to) spyder from the Ren fair for one, I think he uses air craft cable and another fellow (who's name eludes me right now) I'm sure it'll come to me when I'm not thinking about it.


All the best.

Jim J.

Drew Schrag of Drewswhips.com makes pretty much all of his bullwhips with a steel cable core coming right out of the handle. It seems to cut down on the noodling of the handle/thong junction over time. I still wouldn't swing on it though, as it would ruin the area of the overlay that was wrapped around the tree branch or post, and probably still stretch the whip out of shape a bit. Whips just aren't made for that.

Jim

WOOPS,
I didn't read your whole post towards the end Indiana Blizzard,
sorry, (no more speed reading for me) .

I thought you just wanted a whip that has a cable core, or was made with a steel cable incorporated inside the whip.

In all actually, I agree with Jim M, I don't recommend swinging on a whip,
the philosophy that someone else mentioned on this forum, was very appropriate, by saying
''ropes are for swinging on, whips are for cracking''.

I've learned my lesson,
have a good one and be careful.


Jim J.

A nylon whip with a really tough leather fall and
reinforced handle foundation could be used to
swing on. I plan to try it.
Mola

Okay, the swinging thing sounds fun, and would probably impress a number of people watching. They would really be impressed about the time something broke loose and a good butt busting occired. Reminds one of the old joke - What are a Redneck's last words? "Hey, y'all watch this!"

Several problems with the whip swinging theory as I see it.

1. How to secure the whip around the point to swing from. If you throw the whip will it wrap enough to hold securely? Will you be able to move the whip enough so that the fall will cross over itself and lock the whip to the swing point?

2. Where is the weak point of the whip in a situation like this? I would have to say it would be at the fall hitch. You have split the leather to make the fall thereby reducing the tensile strength by better than half and probably by three-quarters. Plus the fall itself may give out anywhere along the length. So now you are going to have to wrap part of the thong around the swing point.

3. How secure is the handle to thong point? Is it secure enough that it won't give under a load it was not designed for? And another thing to consider is that even though you may only weigh 150 lbs and the whip would hold you perfectly at a dead hang, when you get moving and throw your feet up in the air, transferring the weight to the whip, the load actually increases maybe as much as two or three times. To give an example: A 15# bowling ball on the end of a rope can be lifted with one hand easily. Now if that same bowling ball were dropped from say shoulder height against a straight arm and allowed to reach the end of the line, what do you think the result would be? Possibly a dislocated shoulder, a hyper-extended elbow, a cracked wrist, or perhaps all three. But it's the same 15# ball. The difference is the effect of gravity and energy.

Through the magic of motion picture editing and such, they can show a whip being thrown around a branch, stop the action and securely fasten a strength tested cabled whip, do the swing, stop the action, remove the stunt whip and replace it with the original whip so that it can be flipped off the branch and recoiled for future use.

And one last point for potential swingers to consider. How strong and secure is that branch, or whatever you are going to swing from? Same information applies concerning the static load vs. dynamic load.

All I can see coming out of this is someone getting their butt busted for being stupid, and then as our society is wont to do, sueing the whipmaker because he didn't tell them that swinging on a whip could be dangerous.

But I can almost guarantee that someone will have to try it to prove me wrong. And it may work time after time. But I would not recommend swing over anything deeper than a snail trail. Just In Case!

Jerry R (who is editing his whip info sheet to include the verbage that will tell people that a whip is not to be used to swing from.)

ecwhips wrote:Drew Schrag of Drewswhips.com makes pretty much all of his bullwhips with a steel cable core coming right out of the handle.

Drew is cool...he can crack the Barney song with his whip..."I love you, you love me, we're a happy family..."

Disclaimer...I can't stand Barney but Drew is the first person I've seen crack out a tune with a whip.

OK,I get the feeling there are those of you who think this might be a bad idea....hmmmm ok.. it was just a thought you know.but thanks for thr great info.and I promise to always take a rope on my adventures.....

Blizzard, your Indy avatar looks he's been raptured.

How much is it likely to cost to get a steel cable disguised as a whip (ie - get a whip which is basically a steel cable core and a whip braided around it). Obviously this would be something soley for swinging (not even for whipping around a tree branch) on and not for cracking at all. Who would you even approach for something like that (thinking budget too). It doesn't have to look fabulous, just passable as an Indy whip (as oppossed to one of your standard ebay Indy/BSDM offerings).

Ken

Indiana Texas-girl well I think it means the clothes make the man....or the Jones..lol

Indiana Ken wrote:How much is it likely to cost to get a steel cable disguised as a whip (ie - get a whip which is basically a steel cable core and a whip braided around it). Obviously this would be something soley for swinging (not even for whipping around a tree branch) on and not for cracking at all. Who would you even approach for something like that (thinking budget too). It doesn't have to look fabulous, just passable as an Indy whip (as oppossed to one of your standard ebay Indy/BSDM offerings).

Ken

Good question...Sergei? If you're looking for a stunt whip to use just a few times, a brown nylon whip with a cable core might hold up well and would be cheaper.

Thats exactly the kind of thing I was thinking of Holly. Any ideas where to go for such an item?

Ken

Ken, there's a guy in our local Whip Enthusiast group that has started making mighty fine nylons. I'll send you his info in an email so you can ask him any questions you might have.

If someone is wanting a prop whip with a cable in it, then that's no problem for me. But you are really never get much use out of it. That is you are losing your bang for the buck. Unless you were doing something for a live audience, or on film, I wouldn't suggest it. How much of the prop whip do you really see when Indy swings on it? Do you actually see him do the wrap? Of course not. It's implied. Shot 1: Rear back to do a wrap, add sound effect "swoosh". Shot 2: whip wraps (in 8 takes) add sound effect "cccrrrraaack" Shot 3: Indy swings on prop whip whip, but camera not showing whip is probably actually attached to what it's swinging from. No stunt person, property master or director would ever do anything unsafe. Safety is number one. Shot 4 Whip is unwrapped.... probably the normal whip and not the cabled propwhip.

And one more thing about wraps and nylon whips. I say it's virtually impossible to do wraps successfully with a nylon whip. Sure, it will wrap around your target whatever that may be, but nylon doesn't grab and hold onto itself like leather does. Nylon on nylon is pretty slippery. Don't ever try to swing from a nylon whip. It won't hold a grip.

That's my 2 cents.

Robert

Thats exactly what I thought. thanks for the info - btw I sent you a PM!

Ken

I completely agree with Jerry and Robert. A whip is for cracking and not for swinging.

With that said, I have used my roo bullwhip as a climbing aid. I've never put my entire body weight on any whip and swung (swang?) on or climbed up it. But I have used it when climbing up a steep embankment or tree to wrap a limb which gives me something stable to hold onto and not slip. I only do this going up though so that I can reach where my whip is wrapped, remove it and move on. (Keep in mind I'm abusing my own whip and not an expensive one I purchased.)

One other thing, if you are going to carry a bullwhip while hiking or exploring you are not going to want a long whip. I carry a whip as a noise maker, a weapon and for enjoyment (popping off a few and target cutting out in the middle of nowhere is great fun!) but not for swinging. So I want to be able to deploy my whip rapidly and easily. My hiking whip is just over seven feet long or I carry my Pocket Bull which is a four footer. Neither of these whips lend themselves to swinging even if I wanted to. Carrying a ten to twelve foot bullwhip while moving through the woods is pretty useless. To me anyway, but to each his own.