Whip Basics. The Forum

Hey guys,
I've gotten about half way on the belly of the bullwhip, but decided to take a break and work on another cowwhip thong to go with a beautiful ash handle I ordered from Roy.
TT core:

Bound:

Eight plait belly before rolling:

Rolled & bound:

This will be an eight footer.

I like the green and black color combo. Any idea what you're going to do for the overlay?

Neon green. I plan in using this for the 10/10 & 20/20 challenges.

Good plan - that will show up very well in the videos, I bet.

It aught to. Neon colors are hard to photograph being so bright they often blurr the photo.

Correction: The cowwhip will actually be a 7 footer, not sure why I was thinking 8'...

Ok so I "fixed" my donation whip:

Ethan Mitchell wrote:My donation for this year's Raffle is a waxed 5.5' 14 plait fixed cup cowwhip with a served english eye. The handle is a piece of ash I turned from a piece of a branch. It will come with the TT fall pictured and a matching neon green one, together with two unmeasured straight falls. Also several artificial sinew and dyneema crackers.




The cup hole isn't quite straight unfortunately(if anyone has any tips for keeping the hole straight I would greatly appreciate it!) and the ash I used for the handle is has a rather rough finish since it wasn't completely dry. Otherwise the thong itself rolls out smoothly and accurately.

Ethan a nice looking handle.
I do hope that it doesn't crack when it seasons a little more to a dry state.
But nicely done.

Ron

Thanks Roy! If it does I'll replace the handle at no charge.

Ethan - I love the "happy" green color. It would be a joy to bring to a park for practicing, so that people get an impression, that whipcracking are not only black and brown whips.

It also looks like it has a well designed transition-area, so the whip will crack with minimum effort.

Thanks Flemming! Other than the offline cup it is one of the best flowing whips I've built so far.

That looks great Ethan!

Ok, here is the finished 7' cowwhip:

Turned out great except for one problem...

I used a piece of card board at the bottom like Sir Rogers suggested, but one section of thong was touching the bottom.
After some use I have three broken strands and several brittle ones around that spot. I didn't use a thermometer so I don't know what the temperature was. The problem was the bottom was too hot, the wax was fine, its just that section that was touching the bottom that melted. I need to get a infrared thermometer so I can make sure things are at the right temp next time.

Ethan, that's really unfortunate. I've never had that happen, thank goodness. I don't rememeber what you are using for the wax bath, but until I got my roaster, I used a cheap throwaway aluminium lasagna pan and a cooking thermometer I bought at Wal-mart. Actually 2 pans stacked just to add a little stability. our stove top has a flat griddle in the middle and I would set the pans on there and heat the wax to about 225F, give it a good stir to distribute the heat throughout and then turn off the flame completely and put the whip in. I've heard of people using hotter wax, but I've always been afraid to. I've also heard of using the oven instead of a burner on top of the stove, or a large 5 or 7 gallon pot, but have not tried either of those.

I was using a camping burner outside with my pan. I think part of the problem was I left the burner on. I am still using paraffin without any additives as I like the weathered look it gives a whip. Plan on adding a bit of beeswax next time too see how that works. I was banned from using the stove as I spilled a few drops the last time.

Sorry to hear that Ethan. Is your cardboard covering the entirety of the bottom of your pan?

No, but I didn't expect the edges to be that hot.

Thats sucks.

I use stainless steel pot and portable electrical stove with 2 heaters. I havent got any broblems but that might be becose they dont habe lots of power and the heat spreads out pretty well.

I think that as you used the burner the heat didnt spread so much and got one spot way too hot.

Maybe you could add some flat steel to the bottom of your pot? It would take more time to heat up but it would help the heat to spread out.

Otherwise.. Nice looking whip!

Thanks Jyri! Good idea, we have some sheet metal at work that I might be able to use.

I think I might put a PVC handle on it and build another cowwhip thong to put the wood handle on.