This is the second whip,
A 6' bullwhip in OD and Black. The handle is a 3/4" unknown dowel rod with a shotgun shell but added onto the end. Guts consist of 4 strands twisted together, 3 staggered lengths of ungutted paracord and a 2' strand with zinc coated steel BB's (copper are too rough to slide through the paracord). Then a belly in 8 plait ending in 4 and a single strand running to the end of the whip, hence the stretching and slipping of strands near the end which I figured out after I finished the whip. Overlay is a 12 plait, with diamond plaiting over the handle. I didn't add enough binding and e-tape for bolsters and the transition so the whip is a bit lifeless, however the weight still allows it to crack without too much effort.
Here is the third, slightly better whip
This whip has a crudely shaped maple handle (no access to a lathe, so a hunting knife it is!) with a shotgun shell on the end and 5x4 Turks head for the knob. Construction is similar to the second one with minor changes. The diamond plait covers the transition this time and is extremely tight there, this once also has considerably more binding and e-tape over the belly and tape over the core, one of the four core strands runs through the entire whip, and the belly is ended gradually to avoid the issue of the strands slipping over the drop such as the end of the second whip. Overall this whip has more life to it and performs decently, but cracks less readily as it has fewer BB's than the second whip.
