Some Examples of What I've Made

[Jesse Bessette]

Hey everybody,
I just got approved today, but can't wait to hear what you guys have to say about my work. Please let me know what you think. The final picture of this group is a collection of all the whips I have built that either live with my family, or that I have yet to ship out, mainly because with Christmas coming up I do not want them to get lost in the mail. Before anybody freaks out on me for that statement, none of them were ordered as Christmas gifts, I made sure they were okay with that. I had several packages that were coming to me get lost in them mail, and I didn't want to risk it.

[Roy Partin]

Thank you for sharing your collection Jesse. I really like that first pair of bulls. It's cool that you hitched leather falls on nylon whips. I've been contemplating that idea for a while

[Ron May]

You've got a good collection there.
I can see that there's some twisting in a couple of them and I don't know the chronology but over all they look good.

I like the "Christmas" tree in the last one. At least that's what I see.

Ron

[Craig Frank]

I like the matched/mirror pair. That's really cool, especially with the two colored knots.

[Charlie Carpenter]

Nice whips, I like the pattern and colours on that hybred whip

[Robert Gage]

Jesse, thanks so much for sharing these photos. Not bad at all....

Ron mentions the twisting, but I wonder about your transitions. To my eye, they look a bit limp. How far do you bind your cores - and how do you bind them? For me, too limp a transition will greatly inhibit the responsiveness of any whip, however well made it is otherwise....

[Brandon "Sparky" Lam]

I really like some of the designs on these whips, especially the first ones!

[Robby Amper]

Too late to the party. Again... I second what Ron and Robert said. In the handle there is a huge twist. I hope that you are not going to sell this. And the transition look very weak to me, too. It's very hard to judge those things from a picture - perhaps you can explain your methods?

Thanks and - take care,
Robby

[Rachel McCollough]

Hi Jesse, I think you've got some cool and unique ideas. Your knots are looking nice! How do you feel they move?

I would say most important would definitely be binding the transition... For it to be firmer a few inches past the handle then gradually letting off firmness to allow for a good loop to form...
You've got some nice skills, just add a few more ingredients and tweak the spices for a good quality recipe.
No matter how skilled a whipmaker, we can always get better. There's so many really neat things to learn.

I struggle with knots, myself.

[Sir Roger Tuson]

Nice collection. Very beefy beginnings to the thongs. Is that a personal preference of yours? I too must echo the transition comments. Looks like you're tailing off the stiffness a little early. Oh, and I made a Bull with exactly the same colour coordination as the blue and silver one, just a different pattern!

[Jesse Bessette]

Hey guys,
Thanks very much for all the comments. The red and black mirrored set have shorter transitions on purpose (they are 4 ft whips on 12" handles) so I had to balance out flexibility to weight, and what I ended up with there was a very usable and responsive whip. The twist you guys are talking about is the one in the red, white and blue whip, I assume? I did that on request. That whole whip was built as an homage to the American flag, and with the thong being the stripes and having it's obvious ability to move, I was asked how I could get some "motion" into the handle. Not sure if I accomplished that. I've done more work that is straight using the diamond plait, but I just love the colors of that particular whip. All of my test cracks on them have worked very well with a good flow, but any advice is much appreciated and gives me something to work on in the future. Thanks for the pointers, guys.

[Jesse Bessette]

And to address the issue of selling that whip, Mr. Amper, I did not sell it. I made it as a gift to my younger brother according to exactly what he requested. He wanted a twist to the handle so i put one in it. I do not sell whips with the positing being skewed like that; I feel it to be unprofessional.

[Jesse Bessette]

And to address the issue of selling that whip, Mr. Amper, I did not sell it. I made it as a gift to my younger brother according to exactly what he requested. He wanted a twist to the handle so i put one in it. I do not sell whips with the positing being skewed like that; I feel it to be unprofessional.

That should say plaiting, not positing.

[Tyler Blake]

Hi Jesse, I agree about the transitions, but I understand what you mean on the 4 foot set. The one that I was thinking of is the one with the purple and silver with purple camo accent. On that first pair, I really like what you did with the knots- It reminds me of The White Stripes

[Jesse Bessette]

Hi Jesse, I agree about the transitions, but I understand what you mean on the 4 foot set. The one that I was thinking of is the one with the purple and silver with purple camo accent. On that first pair, I really like what you did with the knots- It reminds me of The White Stripes

So first off, the whip you just mentioned was plaited as I would on a real whip and it does function, but it was done with electrical tape (a big no-no, I know) but it was done that way because it is a costume piece primarily with very little if any cracking being done with it. My mother wanted a whip as part of her costume for renaissance faires, and we discussed it and decided on that. I was mainly looking to see what you guys thought of the positing with that.

Normally, I use sinew to bind the bellies, with some mesh carpet tape (can't remember the name of it, but I've seen it in some pictures on here) at the transition.

[Robby Amper]

Please call me Robby

Robby

[Jesse Bessette]

Understood. I normally use formal terms unless told to do so.