Tex-Mex Budget Whip
- Matt Henderson
- Member
- Posts: 912
- Joined: Sat 7. Jan 2017, 14:23
- Location: Sheffield, UK
Tex-Mex Budget Whip
Being very careful with finances at the moment, due to many trips and holidays being planned with friends, I haven't found the time or money to start Bringing Home The Rain (my 'dream' cow whip). So instead, I paid £5 to make this monstrosity...
Now, it's not pretty. It's not particularly effective. But it's something I don't think I've ever seen on the forum, or anywhere else: a Mexican chicote whip of an 8 strand TT, with a cow whip style handle. I twisted 8 strands into 4 pairs, then the 4 pairs into two quadruplets, then those two TTs together into a super-TT.
This has got to be the most budget whip ever, even more so than Adam Winrigh's 15 Minute Whip. And yes, it cracks
Now, it's not pretty. It's not particularly effective. But it's something I don't think I've ever seen on the forum, or anywhere else: a Mexican chicote whip of an 8 strand TT, with a cow whip style handle. I twisted 8 strands into 4 pairs, then the 4 pairs into two quadruplets, then those two TTs together into a super-TT.
This has got to be the most budget whip ever, even more so than Adam Winrigh's 15 Minute Whip. And yes, it cracks
'Sic Parvis Magna'
- Robert Gage
- C Member
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- Joined: Fri 7. Feb 2014, 15:58
- Location: UK
- Matt Henderson
- Member
- Posts: 912
- Joined: Sat 7. Jan 2017, 14:23
- Location: Sheffield, UK
- Matt Henderson
- Member
- Posts: 912
- Joined: Sat 7. Jan 2017, 14:23
- Location: Sheffield, UK
- Jeff Roseborough
- Member
- Posts: 1661
- Joined: Fri 3. Jul 2009, 09:12
- Location: Reno, NV, USA
Interesting Matt. A few years ago I followed along with a young whipmaker in Mexico making traditional Chirrion whips out of mecate rope. Yes they can be ugly but are very inexpensive and practical. He stopped publishing his blog at the end of 2012, but there are many interesting tidbits to be found.
https://elasticrods.wordpress.com/about/
https://elasticrods.wordpress.com/about/
Here's wishing you find time for the things you want to do, and for the things you need to do.
We see ourselves in our children and hope for a better future.
We see ourselves in our children and hope for a better future.
- Jesse Bessette
- Member
- Posts: 1596
- Joined: Sun 18. Dec 2016, 14:07
- Location: East Windsor, CT
Quick and dirty is not necessarily bad. I understand that the whips carried by olden time vaqueros were more what you got there and less those Indiana Jones pieces of art. And those guys are who more or less created the American cowboy style we all know and love
Does it crack? If yes, it's a whip.
- Pokkis
Does it crack? If yes, it's a whip.
- Pokkis
- Matt Henderson
- Member
- Posts: 912
- Joined: Sat 7. Jan 2017, 14:23
- Location: Sheffield, UK
Thanks Jeff, that bloke was who I got the idea from incidentally .
Cheers Jesse, I don't like how it looks but it might grow on me. I'm not going to knock it though, two solid hours of twisting rope was worth it .
I know exactly what you mean Pokkis, this one was almost a challenge to see how cheaply and quickly I could make a working whip. Not sure many vaqueros had pink ones though :P
Cheers Jesse, I don't like how it looks but it might grow on me. I'm not going to knock it though, two solid hours of twisting rope was worth it .
I know exactly what you mean Pokkis, this one was almost a challenge to see how cheaply and quickly I could make a working whip. Not sure many vaqueros had pink ones though :P
'Sic Parvis Magna'
Matt, I took the "cheap, dirty and fast" approach at whips once too, and it resulted in me semi-accidentally making the first prototype of the Redshift whip. Think of it like a "what if" idea that sort of got out of hand, turned out good, and taught me more about whipmaking than any other singular thing ever could. (No, WB doesn't count as "a singular thing", since it's a community with dozens of people from more countries than I'll most likely ever visit.)
- Pokkis
- Pokkis
- Matt Henderson
- Member
- Posts: 912
- Joined: Sat 7. Jan 2017, 14:23
- Location: Sheffield, UK
In my very humble opinion, the best way to see anything is to generously apply Occam's razor. A very simplified explanation for the concept would be that the simplest of the available functional choices is the best unless specificated otherwise. Case in point in form of a thought experiment that you can scale up into most everything you face daily:
BOB: Does it crack?
BILL: Yes.
BOB: It's a whip. Can it take a beating?
BILL: Yes.
BOB: It's a tool whip.
As simple as that. What we so easily forget after seeing Tyler's Dacron goodies, Gio's awesomely beautiful and sleek roohide pieces of art, videos of Bobbi's Valkyrie in flight and the perceived poetry in motion of, Rachel's handmade handles and perfectionism, everything I didn't just mention and still love (you know who you are), is that all that fancy and/or sciencey stuff is mostly just a cherry on a conceptual cake. If it cracks, it's a whip.
- Pokkis
BOB: Does it crack?
BILL: Yes.
BOB: It's a whip. Can it take a beating?
BILL: Yes.
BOB: It's a tool whip.
As simple as that. What we so easily forget after seeing Tyler's Dacron goodies, Gio's awesomely beautiful and sleek roohide pieces of art, videos of Bobbi's Valkyrie in flight and the perceived poetry in motion of, Rachel's handmade handles and perfectionism, everything I didn't just mention and still love (you know who you are), is that all that fancy and/or sciencey stuff is mostly just a cherry on a conceptual cake. If it cracks, it's a whip.
- Pokkis