Whip Basics. The Forum

NEW WHIP!

I've been feeling that my current whip is too light as the end doesn't seem to flow out as I'd like (of course it could be my technique :) and seeing as I don't have the facilities to wax a whip I thought I'd do a fully shot loaded core.
Its going to be a 7ft bull (end colour undecided either coffee brown or green and black?) 2 thirds loaded with 6mm bbs last third 4.5mm bbs and about 6" will be no shot.
Two bellies bound with hockey tape and sinue at the transition and a 16 plait overlay ending in a 6 point fall hitch.

This is purely an experiment for a personal whip (have any of you tried this before?)


The core bound and rolled

First belly

First belly bound and rolled.

You've got a good start there Ross.
I'm interested in seeing how you like it when it's finished.
It is going to be one heavy cracking whip.


Ron

Ron May wrote:You've got a good start there Ross.
I'm interested in seeing how you like it when it's finished.
It is going to be one heavy cracking whip.


Ron

Ron yeah I may live to regret the weight of it after an hours cracking : but you don't know if you don't try
My hope is it will be slower too to help me improve my technique, with my current one a have to move fairly quickly to get it to flow nicely which can be a literal pain when trying something new........... Of course I could be completely wrong about the end result and just hurt myself.......... No guts no glory!

This looks good. I will certainly be interested in seeing how it handles.l

I've made some pretty heavy 3 belly whips at 8 to 10 feet long, even made one 12-footer. The weight does slow the whip down some, but I think that the length might have as much, or more, effect. Having said that, a long whip with no weight is pretty hard to get a nice loop with. I've ever put that many BBs in a core, though. I generally just add a weighted fall to move the balance point out from the handle a bit. Conversely, you can add a few strips of lead to the heel knot to bring the whip balance back. Between the weight in the core, the weight in the fall, and the weight in the heel you can balance a whip pretty finely.

I can only second what Mark said!

I don’t add BB’s to my whips now unless a customer really really is definite about it, as the point of contact is so small down the spine of the whip.
That’s just me, but I see a lot of really cool and great moving whips with BB’s in them.
This is looking good!!! Great job!!!

I used bbs in my first whips but it was wayy too hard to fade out those spots where bbs end.

Adding weight helps to make the whip crack but it also makes transitions work harder and sometimes break. Heavy whip needs heavier handle too to balance the whip.

When customer orders heavier whip i rather make a whip with more bellyes than use bbs.

I don't remember wich method you used in your older whips but keep your eye on that tape and what it does when you are plaiting over it.

Looking forward!

Ross, this will be very interesting!

As a fan of slow heavy whips, I applaud your ambition. As has been said, one problem with bbs is the almost inevitable 'blip' in the thong where they end. I agree with Mark: length is at least as important - although I do have one pretty useless 10-footer (leather) which is so light it scarcely 'flows' as all.

Whatever the result, this experimnent should help you work out how to preceed in future.

Thanks for your input guys its certainly given me things to think about on the next one

Mark how would you do a weighted fall?
I like the extra belly idea but I'm guessing you end up with a bulky handle?

Jyri there's certainly no worry about the bb drop off in this one they don't end : they do however reduce in diameter so that will help with the taper (I hope)
I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out good or bad but certainly won't be repeating this particular design as it took forever to load that core!
The hockey tape has no real tension on it its just stopping the bbs popping out of the core and creating a base for the sinue.

Ross, this tutorial is from Tyler Blake.
I usually do a weighted fall like this with the double loop configuration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMeHI1ct6k4&t=757s

Ron

Ross, very good job, I'm looking forward to see the finished whip.

There are many ways to get more weight into the thong. Besides loading the core, the way of how you end the bellies can make a huge difference. For example if you cut the remaining strands after the 4 plait shorter, the thong will be lighter. If you keep those same strands longer and do a tapered twist with them, the thong will be noticably heavier.

Also the overall "plait formula" has a huge influence on the overall weight - for example if you make a 6 foot/16 plait whip and carry on the 16 plait section for (lets say) 6 inches, the whip will be heavier than a 6 foot/16 plait whip where the 16 plait section is only carried out for only 2 inches.

Ben

Ross, here is something that might help with fading out the diameter of the BB's:

Here is a normal BB core. On the picture you can see that I have made a constrictor knot at the end. I always take a needle, pass the thread through the core and then make a constrictor knot since it is more secure and it wont slide.



Add another strand to the core. I works very good when you feed the needed lenght into the corestrand, but it should also work when sliding the needed length over the core. Dont forget to sew the 2 cords together securely.




If you choose to feed the added strand inside the core, don't make a constrictor knot before feeding in the additional strand.
Feed the addtional strand in right where the BB's end.

About the lenght of the additional strand - it depends on your drop incements. The picture above shows roughly how I would arrange the plaitcount aroud the core: For a BB loaded core, I wouldn't go lower than 6 plait. Carry out the 6 plait over the 2 (green and orange) core strands after the BB's end. Then drop to 5 plait (over 2 corestrands) and let the additional strand fade out in the middle of the 5 plait section. The second half of the 5 plait section will be over one empty strand and then drop to 4 plait.

This is not a given measurement (especialy not the measurements on the paper). 4 plait over 2 strands also works, but if I can avoid it in the core, I preffer doing a 4 plait over 1 strand.

Ben

Ron beat me to it. I learned how to weight the fall from Tyler's video also.

Ben, that's a neat idea to minimize the dropoff. I rarely use anything other than a twisted core anymore, but I'll try this the next time I do weight one. I really have no patience for stuffing bbs.

I have also used leaded fishing line to add weight to a core. You can thread varying lengths into the gutted cord so that you don't have the drop-off or you can wind it around a twisted core to sort of fill in the grooves of the twist and then bind it like you normally would.

Ben that's a great tip thank you I've never thought of adding a sleeve to help the taper before, the stitching bit I already do and on this current one I've stitched the two different diameter cores together.

Looks like I need to get me some ball chain and make a weighted fall for the light whip too

Mark, thank you very much.

Quote from you:"...or you can wind it around a twisted core to sort of fill in the grooves of the twist and then bind it like you normally would."

Thats a very good idea, so far I have only used this type of lead line inside the TT strands, but I will certailny try out this method.

Ross, your welcome.

Ben

So here is the heavy whip completed, I went for green and black and I'm quite happy with the look of this colour combination

Ross, I think the green and black works very well indeed!

Nice work, sir. The pineapple heel knot looks great. It has a nice taper and the planting looks straight. Good job. I like the colors as well.

Mark Elliott wrote:Nice work, sir. The pineapple heel knot looks great. It has a nice taper and the planting looks straight. Good job. I like the colors as well.

Mark thank you, coming from someone of your skill all good compliments, it's only the second try at that heel knot and I'm happy with the result

Robert Gage wrote:Ross, I think the green and black works very well indeed!

Robert thank you, it has a cammo feel to it

I love it, and it looks great!