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

[Ben Varsek]

Thank's Robert !

Here is a picture of the 2017 Dog Shelter Donation whip that I've made.
It's a 5 foot snakewhip, lead loaded from heel to tip, three plaited bellies (8, 12, 16) and a 20 plait overlay. It has an English eye and a twisted, lead loaded, double looped fall.







All the best
Ben

[Ben Varsek]

And here is a picture of the twisted fall of this snakewhip:



All the best
Ben

[Ben Varsek]

When I'm using BB's to load my cores, I'm pretty much always using the same method of attaching the the BB cord to the solid handle:

I peffer using stainless steel as handle foundations (V2A steel) with a diameter of 6mm.
Since I'm using 550 paracord as a core string, the front portion of the steel handle needs to be tapered down in order to be small enough to accept a strand of 550 paracord.



I prefill the core strand with the needed amount of BB's before sliding it over the tapered part of the steel rod and I grind two grooves into that taperd steel portion.






Before I slide the core strand over the steel rod, I apply epoxy glue to the tapered portion (up to the second groove. The reson why I don't cover the entire tapered portion with epoxy glue is this: the epoxy glue will start to "rise" towards the thong when sliding a core string over it and as soon as the epoxy glue would reach the flexible part of the whip, the entire core would be ruined.

After I've slid the core over the tapered part of the steel handle (and while the epoxy glue hasn't dryed yet), I'll bind those grooves with artifical sinew.
The following picture shows these first attachment stepts WITHOUT EPOXY GLUE since I've taken them on an older construction, but you'll get the idea of this concept.



The attachement is far from beeing done - the next step for me would be to apply epoxy glue from the "outside" of tapered steel/paracord portion and to wrap it once with sinew(closed loop binding). The sinew wraping will avoid "glue bumps" and assure a round shape.
After the epoxy glue has dryed, I'll make sure that all BB's are as close together as they can be, double check if the BB's reach out as far into the thong as I want them to and then I'll secure the end of the BB's with a constrictor knot (just like I did it on my experimental whip).



Now the core is ready for the next step - the binding.
To be continued...

All the best
Ben

[Ben Varsek]

Thank's Ron !

I apologize for responding so late to your post, I was so focused on reposting my old pictures that I haven't seen your post until now!

All the best
Ben

[Ron May]

Thanks for taking us through your processes.
This is very instructive and interesting.
I look forward to seeing further progress with this.

This is basically the same way I do mine and I am very pleased with the way this works out.

Ron

[Mark Elliott]

Excellent work, Ben.

[Jyri Haveri]

Ben, really, really good looking whips! Keep up the good work!

[Ethan Mitchell]

Ben,
Thanks for reposting your pictures! I've been quite curious as to your whipmaking style.
Even though I am not a fan of white I like the looks of black & white three footer. And the neon orange bullwhip is my favorite! I've actually been wanting to do the exact same thing, but you beat me to it! :p

[Scott A. Cary]

Ben, these are very nice. You have some very visually appealing plaiting patterns incorporated into these whips. Well done!

[Sir Roger Tuson]

This is a great journey you're taking us on, Ben. There's so much to see there and I love that heel knot on the green/yellow/black whip. Thanks for showing all this.

[Brandon "Sparky" Lam]

Love to see your progress over time! ^_^

[Robby Amper]

Ben. I know how you work. And I‘ve seen some of your whip in the meantime. And you leave me no other choice. I‘m sorry to say that, but I had to make a decision. I don‘t know if you like it or not, but I think, you‘ll have to have your own Masters Gallery in January 2018.






Robby

[Ben Varsek]

Thank y'all very much !

I've just realized that I posted the last picture of post #84 twice...
Here is the picture that I wanted to post as the last picture of post #84:




All the best
Ben

[Ben Varsek]

Robby, that blows my mind - thank you so much !!!
Christmas has come early this year !!!

All the best
Ben

[Mark Elliott]

Congratulations Ben! Well done.

[Brandon "Sparky" Lam]

Ooh congrats Ben!! ^_^ Amazing work~

[Rachel McCollough]

Congratulations Ben!!!

Robby, I strongly agree.

[Sir Roger Tuson]

Ben, that's such an honour. Very well done.

[Ben Varsek]

I'm still speechless - thank ya'll very, very much!
All of you have helped me a lot to improve on my whipmaking - THANK YOU VERY MUCH EVERYONE !!!

All the best
Ben