My first really, really bad whip - story and pictures

[Flemming Bo Christiansen]

Hello everybody

I am writing this post only to show you how I nearly got tied of whip-cracking before I started – just because I believed in a nice homepage and some “expert” explanations about length, size of heel knot and so on.

This post is meant to be a warning to everyone who is going to by his or hers first whip without any knowledge and absolutely not to take any whipmaker into the pillory (even though I sometimes wanted that).

When I was searching around on many, many homepages I was only looking for a whip made out of roo hide and made by a man (!!!!! I know better now) - for a reasonable price. I knew that eBay was NOT the place to buy a whip, but I found a place with video reviews, family history, distinction from the local community, so I found that this guy had to be an honest expert with a high degree of integrity.

I ordered a 6 ft, 12 plait as my first whip. This whip cost me nearly 400 EUR ~ 470 USD and it showed up to be a piece of sh.. . The whip had absolutely no transition and could not roll out at all. When it arrived it was folded with three rubber bands to hold it together in a flat round parcel. I did not manage to make two cracks in a “row” because the whip was “dead” .

Do I need to say, that the whipmaker never responded, when I contacted him!

Finally, I gave up and ordered a very, very fine new 6 ft. Roo from a whipmaker (I have met him in real life), which I now consider as a very good friend. Now everything I tried to do just happens and within few days I could start learning again.
In the autum, I bought a very special nylon whip from a female whipmaker, and with that beautiful whip, everything succeeds.

So my lesson was: male or female – buy your whips from whipmakers with integrity and whipmakers who are proud of their work.


Here it comes: data and photos of my first bad whip:


INTERNAL CONSTRUCTION
HANDLE: Flexible Teflon bar 30cm long
CORE: At the point of the handle starts a first real core:
A yellow plastic tube full of wire30 cm long.
At the end of the yellow core starts a tapered red hide filler 48 cm long.
Two strands of thick (2 mm) tapered leather long 108 cm and 98 cm, binded togheter to 58cm from the butt, are wrapped over the handle (starting from the butt) and these two thick strands wraps the handle and the plastic core.

OVERLAY
OVERLAY LENGTH: cm 170
PLAIT: 12 plt in herringbone pattern
KNOTS: Spanish ring style one over the butt and two knots over the handle at 15 and 22cm
The first 107 cm of the overlay are plaited in 8 plt and the last 63 cm of the overlay are plaited in 6 plt.
HANDLE: Flexible Teflon cm 30 long
WIDE FALL: cm 62 ( from 12mm to 3 mm)
SYNTHETIC CRACKER: cm 37
TOTAL LENGTH (from the butt to the end of the cracker): CM 273

DROPPING
FIRST DROPPING: from 12 to 10 plait at 40 cm from the butt and from the point of the stands are dropped the the two strands goes down into the core for 73 and 30 cm.

SECOND DROPPING: from 10 to 8 plait at 84 cm and from the point of the stands are dropped the the two strands goes down into the core for 40 and 16 cm.

THIRD DROPPING: from 8 to 6 plait at 108 cm from and from the point of the stands are dropped the two strands goes down into the core for 63 cm.

You can see the pic's here:

https://imgur.com/a/X0eBO

[Jyri Haveri]

Flemming, that looks like a piece of.. I feel sorry for your money :/
Why on earth would you do core like that?! Core like that need too much work and result is something smelly?

[Mark Elliott]

Oh my, Flemming, I'm sorry you had to go through that.

[Rachel McCollough]

Oh, Flemming. That is awful. Thank you for showing us, and the good news is you now have some excellent whips

[Russell Jones]

I'm sorry you had that experience Flemming. Thanks very much for posting about it though. There's much to learn from it.
There sure are some turkeys out there, but like Rachel pointed out, i'm happy for you too that you have some great whips now.

[Guest]

Oh man, that's a true bummer. Being folded down with rubber bands sounds truly terrible - only speaks of the fact the maker knows nothing or doesn't care.

No bevel on the leather whatsoever... Also the narrow Spanish ring knot -heel is a real black flag for me - makes it look so cheap.

Horrible. I'm so sorry you had to pay a price like that for obvious piracy. I don't think the seller even made the whip. Looks like one of those cheap ones you get from Mexico for ten bucks.

[Jessie Edwards]

Aww. Sadness. I hope you are much happier now. I'm wondering what the hell extension cord was chopped up to make that core...

[Flemming Bo Christiansen]

Thank you, everyone, and don't feel sorry.

I have the fines collection of whips now and I enjoy them all. This is for showing you whats inside a whip which is sold as a first-class whip on the internet.

Erik - the maker have a prof. homepage, where he shows pictures from his workshop and so.

I just hope that this will convince people, who are going to buy their first whip, to buy from decent whipmakers even though the price is just a little higher. A beautiful nylon whip - have I learned - would have been a much better beginning (as Robby says in a video)

[Scott A. Cary]

Sadly, there are many so-called "professional" whipmakers out there who unscrupulously prey on those who are poorly informed. Having been burned myself, my future whips will only come from members of this group. There's no substitute for quality and integrity.

[Matt Henderson]

That's painful to look at. I'm really sorry you got scammed there Flemming, because that's what selling that whip for that price is!

[Sven van Leeuwen]

That bad Flemming. It makes me sad so see there are people around going to lengths to steal your money.

I mean, he made a whole website with reviews and stuff, just to sell people crappy whips and steal their money.

That whip should be a partycostume prop, not a 400 euro whip.

Thank God you didn't give up after such a bad experience.

Sven

[Flemming Bo Christiansen]

Sven - I did not see it as a bad experience, but more as a lack of skills from my side. I could even not make the basic cracks from "Beginners guide no. 1" with that whip. First when I meet Morten and saw that whips could be something else I was clear that something had to be done. My Raiders 2.0 from Giovanni Celeste opened my eyes so at new years evening I will be the proud owner of a lot of very fine whips - all made by people from the WB forum.

[Sven van Leeuwen]

Flemming, you say lack of experience in cracking, but, correct me if I'm wrong, I interpreted that the whip was poorly constructed, right?

That's why I thought it was a bad experience, buying a 400 euro whip only to find out it was sh*t. But I could have misinterpreted your OP.

Sven

[Flemming Bo Christiansen]

Yes Sven - you are right and it is an awful lot of money.

I have been sad, angry, mad about it, but as my lawyer says - if you cant' get the money back, then leave it behind you. Don't let such - on the long run - small things annoy you !!! Hmmm...

Flemming

[Ron May]

Sven, even real mountains erode with time.

Ron

[Sven van Leeuwen]

Flemming, so true. If you can't get the money back, there's no need to ponder on it anymore, what's done is done.

Ron, I'm not familiar with that phrase, could you elaborate, please?

[Ron May]

Sven, the mountains (problems) we worry about today, with time, may not seem so big as time passes and they erode to a smaller size if not disappear completely.
So, I tend not to sweat the small stuff, until it becomes big stuff.

Ron

[Ben Varsek]

Flemming, I'm sorry to hear about this issue!

I think that self proclaimed professionals who are selling bad quality for a huge amount of money will always exist (in each and every working field) - the only way to limit the amount of bad experiences with those people is to share your personal experience with others - like you did in this thread.

All the best
Ben