Some of my whips

[Ben Varsek]

Here are pictures of the 20 plait bullwhip which I've mentioned in post #34.

The customer wanted to have a 6 foot bullwhip with 3 plaited bellies (8, 12, 16) and a 20 plait overlay. He also wanted no transition knot on this whip, herringbone from heel to tip, a wrist loop and a 6 bight 7 parts TH in two colors as a heel knot. In terms of colors he wanted to have black as the main color with a running v pattern in bright silver with only 1 silver string per side.

I've been using Rachel's stiching tips for making the loaded fall and I'm happy with how it turned out.

I apologize for the bad qualitiy of the pictures !!!











All the best
Ben

[Jesse Bessette]

Ben, this looks awesome. Sometimes, those very simple color elments can really help a design.

[Matt Henderson]

That looks gorgeous Ben, well done indeed

[Rachel McCollough]

Clean and sharp looking as all your work is, Ben! Very nice!

[Robert Gage]

Ben, that's seriously beautiful! Simple designs are usually best - at least, for me! Well done!

[Ron May]

Ben this is beautiful simplicity at it's best.
Very well done.

Ron

[Sven van Leeuwen]

Wow, those whips look good. I love the colors of the green one and the last one.
I saw the picture of the fall hitch from the orange one, it looks very clean and smooth. I wish I could make such fall hitches, got to keep practicing :-)

[Sir Roger Tuson]

That black and silver is very striking. I like the fact that the customer knew exactly what he wanted!

[Ben Varsek]

Thank y'all very much !!!


Credits for the simple design go to the customer who ordered this whip since he's the one who chose all those specifications.


Robert, I also preffer simple designs myself but since I'm selling whips it's not bad for me to know one or the other fancy plait in order to offer my customers a larger selection of options.

Sven, looking at how fast you are improving on your whipmaking it's only a matter of time

Sir Tuson, I also like that fact that the customer knew exactly what he wanted - people like him are a joy to work for !!!


All the best
Ben

[Sebastian Schott]

Great Whips Ben, I think I can Remember some of them from the two Kamft where we met :3 ^^

[Ben Varsek]

Thank you Basti !!!

You're right, I've had the white bullwhip with me on the 2016 KAMFT !!!

All the best
Ben

[Ben Varsek]

Hi everyone!

I'll start out this thread with the very first whip that I've made in February 2014. It's a 12 plait, 6 foot bullwhip which contains lots of eletrical tape on the inside (I didn't know it better at that time).
The performance and the roll out of this whip are terrible, but I've had lots of fun making and cracking it.



Before I started making whips, I've made several other paracord items like key fobs, lanyards, bracelets, monkey fists, bolas and so on.
Since December 2015, monkey fists are forbidden to own (and especialy to make or sell) in Germany and I had to destroy all of the bolas and monkeyfists that I've made.
This picture shows a bola. I've used one single strand and made a monkeyfist on each end. Then I've taken a second strand, made a monkeyfist at one end and conected the other end with a double sheet bend knot to the "double monkeyfist strand". On the inside, I've used steal bearings with a diameter of 1,5 inch - hardened to 64 Rockwell.




Here is a picture of my whipcracking stand at the KAMFT knife fair in may 2014. The idea behind this was to give KAMFT visitors the opportunity to try whipcracking under save conditions (safety zone, safety gear and technical instructions) for free.



On this 2014 knife fair, there had been another whipmaker who told me that electrical tape shouldn't be used in the construction of a whip and I stopped using it ever since.



These pictures shows my whipstand at the KAMFT knife fair in 2015, the very first year that I've got a licence to sell whips.
The two small whips in the middle of the picture have identical specs: 12 plait overlay, one (8 palit) belly and 3 foot of lenght.



The whip in black and yellow is a 4 foot, 16 plait bullwhip with two palited bellies (8 plait and 12 plait) and an 8 inch handle. The thong on the left side of the picture shows a little part of my very first attempt of making an Australian stockwhip.



Soon after the 2015 KAMFT, I've made my first 8 foot 20 plait bullwhip:
Three plaited bellies (8, 12, 16) and 20 plait birdseye pattern on the handle.




All the best
Ben

[Ben Varsek]

I usualy don't make short whips because I am whipcracking beginner but I made this one to show the "KAMFT" visitors how much faster a short whip performs in comparison to a standart 6 foot whip.
The length of this whip is 100 cm (or 3,28 feet) it has a led core, a 8 inch handel, one 12 plait belly and a 16 plait overlay.
For the heel knot I have tried to make the same 7 bight gauch knot that Erik Torpström has used on one of his whips:






Here is a picture showing how the core is constructed - the pictures of the core construction are from "experimental whip #2" but I have used the same method for "experimental whip #1". This picture is also showing the reason why I am calling this whip experimental. I have used spring steel with a small diameter (4mm) as handel. The idea was to achive the same effect as the g10 handles in the "Cirque" whips by Stephane Normand. The concept of making a core like that is a sightly modified version of the method taught in Tony Layzells DVD tutorial (I bought it in 2015).



As you can see I've ground down a part of the spring steel in order to bind it with artificial sinew after putting the entire handel into the paracord core. I then use a needle to connect the burned end of the led string with the paracord sheath and tie a contrictor knot to secure it.








I have used the "flip and shake method" for stringdrops on this whip which turned out okay for most parts (I was having trouble with this method before) but there is one gap in the overlay.



The initial heel kont of this whip had been white but it got an ugly yellow "stain" after waxing and I therefore decided to remove it.



All the best
Ben

[Ron May]

Ben, thanks for showing us your journey into whip making.
You have come a very long way and progressed nicely.
Very good job.

Ron

[Ben Varsek]

Hi again !

I have noticed that I made a mistake on one of my comments in this thread:
I have written that I copied the idea for the white and green whip from Rhett Kelley but I have noticed that Mr. Kellys bullwhip is done in white and purple.
I had written down in my "want to do list" that white and a contrasting color looks great and that it was Rhett Kelleys idea.
The notes had been written down by me more than a year ago and I mistakenly thought Mr. Kelleys whip had been white and green.
I apologize for making that mistake but I am sure to say that I wouldn't have thought of that combination myself if I hadn't seen Rhett Kelleys white and purple bulwhip before !!!

Here are some pictures of a 5 foot target bullwhip and this time I'm 100 % sure that the combination of solid band / stairstep and checkerbord is a Rhett Kelley invention:





As you can see the solid band next to the heel knot is more exposed than the solid band next to the transition knot (notes have been taken and I will do a better job on my next whip).

All the best
Ben

[Ben Varsek]

@ Robert Gage:
@ Rachel McCollough:
@ Ron May:

Thank you very much for you compliments !!!

Here are some pictures of a current whip order. I have posted these pictures in the "roll call" before. The pictures show the whips before waxing (I will also post pictures of the waxed whips soon).

The coyote brown / OD green Bullwhip is a 5 footer with 2 plaited bellies and a 16 plait overlay.
The black / charcoal grey is a 8 footer with the same specs.
The combination of colors as well as the overall design has been selected by the customer (I really like it).





All the best
Ben

[Robert Gage]

Thanks very much for all this, Ben! It's extremely interesting to see your progress....

[Ben Varsek]

Thank all of you very much for your compliments !!!

Here are some pictures of the whips after waxing (again - I apologize: I'm a not much of a photographer):







All the best
Ben

[Ben Varsek]

Here are some pictures of a whip which I made for myself. It's a shoot loaded 6,5 footer with two plaited bellies (8 and 12) and a 16 plait overlay. Since I'm participating on the 10/10 challenge, I thought it was a good idea to have a whip which will show up well on camera and therfore made the entire whip (except for the knots) in neon orange.

Both bellies of this whip are made with a TT at the end. Insted of staring the TT where the core strand ends I've dropped a string from the 4 plait and used the core strand together with the 3 remaining strands of the 4 plait to make the TT.

I've also changed my "binding" formula for this whip in order to achive a more fluid and resposive whip with a quick forming loop (I'm quiet happy with the result ).

I transitioned from square start to double herringbone faster than its usualy done since I didn't want the U1O1 sequence to be seen on the handle (on a normal square start the heel knot wouldn't have covered the entire U1O1 sequence).





Here is a close up of the fall hitch. I've used Tyler's method of making a loaded fall with the only difference that the stiched portin of the fall is covered by the fall hitch and I also did some slitbariding at the stiched portion. The main reason for this is that my stiching looks terrible but Rachel has given me some very useful tipps on that (thank you Rachel !!!) and I will use her tipps for making the falls on my next whips.



I'm currently working on a custom order (6 foot 20 plait bullwhip) and I'll post pictures here as soon as I've completed it.

All the best
Ben

[Ben Varsek]

Thank you very much Ron !!!

I've also made myself a 5 foot snakewhip since I wanted to have a "every day carry" whip.
I liked Erik's idea of making a whip in "friendly colors" that would rather trigger interest than scare people.
Since I prefer to have a heavy core on whips that are shorter than 6 foot (especialy on snakewhips) I've made this whip with a led core. The led core has the same measurements (diameter and lenght) as a 8 plait belly including the shoot loaded core. In other words: this whip has only one plaited belly (12 palit) and a 16 palit overlay.
I used the coral snake color setup for this whip with differnt colors than the normal coral snake pattern.





All the best
Ben