Club Obi Wan

10'-16 plait Indy for my brother..he said he doesn't want it waxed so here it is finished.

Nice! How long is that handle? it seems a bit long for an Indy whip.

Your right, I took some liberties making this..it's actually closer to 8 inches in between knots. And I went with the brown fall instead of white.
It's a 5 strand flat braid instead of 6. It's 16 plait instead of 12. It ends in a 6 strand fall hitch. And it's not leather lol,


These were all changes I made because I preferred them, it will never be an indy whip because it is nylon so I figured it should function over form.
The longer handle really helps when cracking a big whip. 5 strand wrist loop just looks better IMO as well as a brown fall. 12 Plait nylons are way to skinny. And 6 strand diamond plait into the fall is very secure.

I knew it wasn't Kangeroo hide, I just saw you said it was an Indy style whip, so I looked and noticed the handle. Nice whip though!

It is very nice whip. I recently decide to make one whip using paracord. So i have question, how many plaited layers, and amount of paracord for whole whip (in meters). Thanks a lot

Misa wrote:It is very nice whip. I recently decide to make one whip using paracord. So i have question, how many plaited layers, and amount of paracord for whole whip (in meters). Thanks a lot

Well here are some thing's I remember about this wips construction..(TAKE NOTES WHILE YOU WORK!! lol...)
The handle is 3/16" stainless steel with a rebate ground on for attaching the core.
It is 10 foot long, has a 5' BB loaded core, an 8 plait belly out to the end of the core, a 12 plait belly out to 7-1/2 feet and an overlay of 16 plait in chocolate brown. The fall is 36" and it ends in a 6 strand diamond plait before the fall.

The knots are 5x4 turks head with 3 passes on the heel and 2 passes on the transition. All binding is done with waxed lace and the knot foundations are leather.
When I figure out my strand lengths on a whip length I haven't made yet I take the longest strand and make all of them that length and record how long the extras are I snip off after a drop for next time.
So for example the overlay goes out to 10 feet so I take 10x2 for the longest strand 20' plus 1 foot for something to hang on to. Generally I have a lot left over but better safe then sorry. I always end up using the extras for knots or off color handles.
If I had to guess I would say I used about 600 feet or 182 meters. I suggest just buying a 1,000 foot spool it is cheapest that way anyway.
If you take notes on how much you have left from each strand after a drop you could cut that number way down.

Here is the cheapest place I have ever seen to get good paracord.
http://sgtknots.com/paracord550cord.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



Here is a stockwhip I just made that will be part of a matching set, whips #6 & #7 for me. And a Snakewhip.

Those are really awesome whips.
How are they different to leather ones in terms of handling?

I haven't ever used a leather whip so I couldn't say. Someday I will get the chance.

Thanks you Belial124 for details. if i understand core is made with 2 plaited belies ? 8 and 12 ??? it is good idea, to take some note, and i do it very often, but sometimes i was overwhelmed by fact that i start to make new whip, so i forgot to do it... maybe it sounds familiar to you

That's a beautiful whip. Did you use the method of wrapping the plaited cores in electrical tape?

MattS wrote:That's a beautiful whip. Did you use the method of wrapping the plaited cores in electrical tape?

No and I do not recommend anyone use tape in their whip.

For binding I used this http://www.amazon.com/Waxed-Lacing-Tape ... lon+thread" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
It will never degrade and by varying the tension as you wind on the lace you can finely control the action of the whip, from stiff at the transition tapering off the tension the further out the thong you go.

Awesome, thanks for the tip. I wasn't liking the idea of electrical tape. I've worked with the stuff enough to know it couldn't be good for this purpose. Do you have a particular set of instructions you use? I'm really wanting to make a few whips of varying length.

MattS wrote:Awesome, thanks for the tip. I wasn't liking the idea of electrical tape. I've worked with the stuff enough to know it couldn't be good for this purpose. Do you have a particular set of instructions you use? I'm really wanting to make a few whips of varying length.

I did about 3 months worth of research before I even began, so pointing you in one direction would be difficult.
Bernie on youtube makes immaculate kangaroo whips, I take his videos on construction and put it to nylon..a lot of things can be done the same, use common sense/judgement.
http://www.youtube.com/user/bernie46" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you are serious about whipmaking then you will have to put in a lot of time.
Here are some links to good information.

http://www.campingsurvival.com/us-made- ... acord.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Where I get my 1,000' spools of cord
http://www.amazon.com/ParacordPlanet-Co ... s=paracord" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Where I get harder to find colors, more expensive.

Turks head videos, tying the heel knots is the bane of most people existence when they make whips..but it's easy once you find good tutorials.
http://www.youtube.com/user/LEMC2son/videos" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
And here is a PDF I made that simplifies it even more once you understand the basic concept.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/to6r1de13dkzd ... e.pdf?dl=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It would take me hours to walk you through an entire whips construction..there are tutorials around, but use your own judgement to the quality of the info. Rhett Kelly has a good DVD on his site cowwhips.com but it is for making a cow whip. A lot of the same principles can be used for a bullwhip though.

I also recommend you join a group on facebook called "The Whipmakers Hook" you can ask questions there and usually get some help.

Thank you for the resources! I have a 10' leather bullwhip of unknown vintage that I had to do some repairs on. It turned out great and I really enjoy cracking it. Now I've got the bug to build a couple. My 7 year old daughter wants one for her birthday in August, so I think I should be able to get this figured out by then, with some help of course!

Belial124 wrote:

MattS wrote:Awesome, thanks for the tip. I wasn't liking the idea of electrical tape. I've worked with the stuff enough to know it couldn't be good for this purpose. Do you have a particular set of instructions you use? I'm really wanting to make a few whips of varying length.

I did about 3 months worth of research before I even began, so pointing you in one direction would be difficult.
Bernie on youtube makes immaculate kangaroo whips, I take his videos on construction and put it to nylon..a lot of things can be done the same, use common sense/judgement.
http://www.youtube.com/user/bernie46" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you are serious about whipmaking then you will have to put in a lot of time.
Here are some links to good information.

http://www.campingsurvival.com/us-made- ... acord.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Where I get my 1,000' spools of cord
http://www.amazon.com/ParacordPlanet-Co ... s=paracord" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Where I get harder to find colors, more expensive.

Turks head videos, tying the heel knots is the bane of most people existence when they make whips..but it's easy once you find good tutorials.
http://www.youtube.com/user/LEMC2son/videos" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
And here is a PDF I made that simplifies it even more once you understand the basic concept.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/to6r1de13dkzd ... e.pdf?dl=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It would take me hours to walk you through an entire whips construction..there are tutorials around, but use your own judgement to the quality of the info. Rhett Kelly has a good DVD on his site cowwhips.com but it is for making a cow whip. A lot of the same principles can be used for a bullwhip though.

I also recommend you join a group on facebook called "The Whipmakers Hook" you can ask questions there and usually get some help.

I used Bernie's videos to make a paracord whip as well. Yours turned out much better than mine I must say. Very nicely done.

I'm not sure how it turned out for you, but I have a pretty cool scar on my right arm from the very first attempt at cracking it when it was complete. Of course I didn't do near the same amount of research on how to crack the whip as I did on how to make it, so I had to go back and remedy that. Since then I've made another paracord whip and bought a few real ones.

Thanks for sharing!

Kevin Z.