Poppers for Sale

Mola Ram · Post by **Mola Ram** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 12:03 pm

See this other post I made
http://www.indygear.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6993
Kindest Regards
Mola

bodhidiver · Post by **bodhidiver** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 3:52 pm

hello,

pardon the newbie nature of this question, but what exactly is the function of a popper. I mean is the popper's only function for show? i.e. facilitating the breaking of the sound barrier and providing a narrow point of impact for target cutting? when the tip of a fall breaks off and one looses a popper, is the overall whip behave differently or is it the same but just a bit harder to produce a crack. Does having a popper reduce the stress to the end of a fall thus extending the life of the fall or does it make no difference to the longevity of the fall?

I imagine that the tip of a whip delivers more force and/or damage with a popper but over a significantly smaller surface area.

i have been cracking an old joe brown 5.5 footer for about 20 years. It has a fall that is about one inch wide and didn't come with a popper. yet i have no problem producing extremely loud cracks. should i add a popper to this or is the idea silly?

lastly, if one had a strain, morgan, ec or rob duke type whip and the popper comes off, can one still crack it or is this just going to destroy the fall?

Mola Ram · Post by **Mola Ram** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 4:55 pm

It is much easier to crack a whip that has a popper. When a popper is attached to the end of a fall it creates a sharper crack and makes it much easier to do target cutting. It also makes for a longer lasting fall.
You can see in this picture where the popper (cracker) is attached.

Eventually your fall will break depending on how much you crack the whip, and if you use whip crackers that will greatly extend the life of your whip. Not to sound too harsh, But what the heck is a old Joe brown 5.5 footer??? And what type of Leather conditioner do you apply to your whip?

lastly, if one had a strain, morgan, ec or rob duke type whip and the popper comes off, can one still crack it or is this just going to destroy the fall?

It does not matter what type of whip you own, you can still crack it but it will destroy the fall.
Yea I almost forgot....welcome to the forum.

Kindest Regards
Mola

bodhidiver · Post by **bodhidiver** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 5:59 pm

Not to sound too harsh, But what the heck is a old Joe brown 5.5 footer???

best i can tell, joe brown was a actor and 'protoge' of lash larue. apparently joe brown starred in a film called 'king of the bullwhip.' i have never seen this film but more information about joe e. brown is on this website
http://webflyproductions.tripod.com/the ... s/id7.html

i found this information on http://www.mattswhippage.com/ where there is a pic of as near as i can tell the same whip (except for length) that i bought in the early eighties.
when i was about 10 years old, i was so excited after seeing raiders of the lost ark, i took a saw and cut off the handle off my mom's broom, drilled a hole down the center of the handle and inserted an eight foot piece of clothesline and tried to crack my 'whip.' Well as you can guess, it was too light. So with masking tape, i attached about 25 cents in nickles and pennies to the end of my 'fall' enabling me to swing the 'whip' overhand. Thinking myself a genius i tried an underhand crack and can distinctly remember hearing the supersonic hum of the change right before they lodged themselves into my forehead.
so after comming out of my coma, i went combing through the yellow pages and calling every western supply store in my hometown. the closest thing i could find was the 'joe brown bullwhip.' so i spent money and purchased the cowhide 6 plait whip and spent the better part of the 6th grade with inch wide welts running diagonally the length of my face.
so fast forward to about a month ago when i suddenly came to the realization that i could probably fulfill a lifelong dream of owning a 12 plat bullwhip by looking on the internet...voila here i am. ( i know the wheels don't turn that fast in my head)
i'd been lurking for a few weeks here educating myself until i finally pulled the trigger on a joe strain from WSP. It should arrive on thursday.
i think of myself as being able to handle a whip although knowing myself and remembering using pliers trying to remove pennies from my skull added to the nasty picture of zohlar(?) with a popper gash on his face, i'm wondering how dangerous are these poppers....

sab04 · Post by **sab04** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 6:46 pm

You have to put poppers on or it will ruin the fall on your joe strain. the pic of zohar with the whip mark on his face was probably made from the fall more than the popper. Poppers are a very important part of the whip!

-scott

Mola Ram · Post by **Mola Ram** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 6:54 pm

uhh....the cut Nathan got is typical with all whips. YOU WILL get hurt it trying to crack your whip. I have cut my arms on many occasions trying to do overhead cracks, and even almost hit my eye. (My goggles were pulled off by the fall) You need to use poppers with whips. Did you use whip conditioner on that old whip of yours? Sounds like you need to do a bit more research about whips. If you are really serious about whip cracking then you will need to buy an instructional video. Having made whips for 2 years (slowly but continuously) I just can’t see using a whip with out a popper. Let me phrase the definition differently.
Popper- A Twisted/waved piece of string (traditionally made from horsehair) attached to the end of the fall of a whip with a small knot. The cracker allows the whip to crack easier and takes the abuse that the fall would be getting when it breaks the speed of sound.
Does that help?
Molorom

Sergei · Post by **Sergei** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 8:03 pm

First of all let's get into the principle of why a whip cracks. A good whip should have a slow taper for the entire length of the whip. The whip cracks due to the physics of the "conservation of energy". So due to the design of a finely tapered whip, a skillfully thrown hairpin curve is transmitted through the whip, and this curve goes faster and faster as the diameter of the whip gets smaller and smaller. A well made whip will accelerate this curve by a factor of 32 from initial throw. By the time the curve reaches the cracker (or popper), it can be traveling over 1400 feet per second. The speed of sound is approximately 1250 feet per second. What happens is then the cracker, due to all the efficiencies of the taper, cause the air molecules to compress and this compression of sound creates a small sonic boom.

Now the cracker is the business end of the sound. It's part of the whole system of the handle, thong, fall and cracker that delivers this efficient bang. If you look at an excellently designed cracker, it too will be tapered. So basically the whip is one big taper machine that accelerates the hairpin curve faster and faster during it's run over smaller diameters of the whip. Since the cracker gets the most abuse and is part of the system of tuning the sound of the crack, it does break the most. If the business end is the fall, then it too needs to be replaced a lot. So the cracker is key in that it's cheap, it needs to be replace often, and it contributes more of the taper.

I know people that spend hundreds of hours tuning their crackers to specific whips. They mess with the length and cracker material to produce that pop. People are simply amazed the first time they hear a well made whip, crack. The are a lot of cheap ones out there that just go whiff, not bang like from a shotgun.

So long answer to a short question. Please use a cheaper material like what is made out of a cracker, rather than replacing a fall or worse - repairing the braided portion of the whip.

-Sergei

Poppers for Sale

Poppers for Sale

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