Bullwhips – Handmade by Louie

I’m having a little 4th of July sale on all my IN STOCK bullwhips!  From now until 10pm on Sunday July 5th, 2009 you can save 17.76% on any IN STOCK bullwhip!  Since I only have one of each of the IN STOCK bullwhips they will be sold on a first come first served basis.

Right now I have four bullwhips (actually five, but two are being sold as a pair):

bullwhips in 12 plait kangaroo skin - matched pair

Pair of 6 foot bullwhips

kangaroo bullwhip

6 foot Bullwhip

7 1/2 foot bullwhip

7 1/2 foot bullwhip

12 plait bullwhip

8 foot bullwhip

Click here to see what I have bullwhips I have IN STOCK!

Louie
http://bullwhips.org

Shot Bag

July 2nd, 2009

Right now I’m experimenting with a new design for my the shotbag that I use in my signal whips.  I’m making two right now, one that’s a bit thinner, but that will have a plaited belly over it, and I’m also making my usual shot bag.

The plan is to make two four foot single tail whips at the same time and try them out side by side.

single tail bullwhip

I’ll probably have time to fill them up with lead shot today and finish cutting out the kangaroo belly and overlays.

When I first started making signal whips I used duct tape to make the shotbag, because that was the only way I had figured out how to make the shotbag.  For a while now my shot bag has been all leather.  There’s are a couple of reasons for this:

  • Tape will lose its stickiness when it gets dressing on it…so the bag will fail quicker.
  • Tape around a leather core will prevent dressing from penetrating the leather core and the leather could dry out…causing the bag to rupture.
  • It’s much faster to make a leather shot bag than an all tape or tape and leather bag.
  • Something in my head just doesn’t think that tape belongs inside of a whip.

Louie

http://bullwhips.org

Making a signal whip

July 1st, 2009

I have decided the next whip that I’m making will be a 12 plait Signal whip.  I’ve got an idea for a pattern on the overlay that I’d like to try.  This whip will be red and black kangaroo.

I started to  cut out the overlay yesterday while sitting on a bench at a park between shows.  Summer time is one of my busy performing seasons, so I don’t know how many bullwhips (or other whips) I’ll be turning out over the next couple of months.  I can do all the cutting and paring between shows at parks or in my car, but the braiding really needs to be done on my hook at home.

Today I have three shows and I should be able to finish up cutting out the overlay between my 2nd and 3rd show today.

Louie

http://bullwhips.org

Signal whip

June 30th, 2009

Here’s a 4 foot 12 plait signal whip that I just shipped out:

Signal whip
12 plait kangaroo signal whip

I’ve been thinking of making another signal whip or snake whip before I make some more bullwhips…but I’ve have a 12 plait bullwhip with a 24 plait handle in my head for a little while and I’ve got great kangaroo skin for it right now, so maybe the signal whip or snake whip will have to wait.

Louie

http://bullwhips.org

12 plait signal whip

June 27th, 2009

Right now I’m working on a 12 plait signal whip that’ll be 4 feet long.  I’ve got about 18 inches of the overlay plaited and with a bit of luck I’ll find some time tomorrow to finish it.

Signal whip

I’ve been thinking of making a couple of signal whips when the order for this one came along…so that worked out well!

Louie

http://bullwhips.org

kip sucks!

June 26th, 2009

Well my mind is made up kip sucks for whipmaking!  For the first couple feet of the kip bullwhip that I was making it was doing alright, but once the strands started to taper and weren’t 8mm wide they were breaking like crazy.  I was breaking  a strand every 6-9 inches.

12 plait bullwhip
kip bullwhip

I wasn’t pulling very hard either (maybe 60% -70% of the pull that I’d use for kangaroo), and after fixing the strands about 6 times I’ve decided to cut off the overlay.  I don’t know what I’ll do with the bellies that are done…maybe I’ll cut out a kangaroo overlay and plait that over the kip bellies.

Anyway as far as my whipmaking goes, I’m not going to mess with kip for anything other than bolsters or 4 plait whip.

Tomorrow or Sunday I’ll start on making a 12 plait kangaroo signal whip.

Louie

http://bullwhips.org

Kip Bullwhip

June 26th, 2009

Yesterday I was cleaning up and found two kip bellies and a core that I had cut out a while ago.  So yesterday I plaited them and I’m making a 9 foot bullwhip. I also cut out the 12 plait overlay and sometime today I’ll probably do all the strand prep for it.

It’s been a while since I’ve made a 12 plait kip (or any cowhide) bullwhip.  There’s been a couple of whipmakers lately that have been saying that kangaroo is overpriced and kip is just as good.  Personally I disagree with that, and I think kangaroo is a superior material for making a whip.  Maybe making this bullwhip will change my impression of kip…but probably not.

Now I’m not saying that a bullwhip made from kip is a bad whip, it’s just not as good as a kangaroo whip.  If feel like I need to add a disclaimer to the above statement.  A kangaroo whip made by a horrible whipmaker will not be as good as a kip whip made by a great whipmaker.  Give me the choice of two whips made by to equal whipmakers, one is kip and the other is roo…I’ll pick the roo everytime!

The main advantage with kip is that it’s cheaper than kangaroo…but is it?  A side of kip about 17 square feet is about  $60-$80  depending on quality.  A roo hide is about 7 square feet and about $60-$80.  So you buy in cost is the same, but you get about twice as much leather from a side of kip.

Next you figure that when you trim a roohide you don’t trim off very much of the hide, just the ragged edges.  On a side of kip you end up cutting off most of the belly of the side of leather, the neck and any branding that might be on the hide.  You you are losing a couple of square feet of the side just in trimming!

Now you figure that a kangaroo hide is generally drum stuffed (meaning it has oils and dressing worked into the hide at the tannery) while a side of kip isn’t, so  you need to grease it yourself.  While greasing  a side of kip isn’t very hard or expensive, it does take a bit of time and adds an extra step to the preparation of the whip.  So you are losing money in time that it takes to grease the side of kip.

Kip is also thicker than kangaroo, so you’ll need to split down the strands of your whip if you want to use the stanard two bellies and two bolsters construction for your whip (or you’ll end up with a whip as thick as Hulk Hogan’s biceps).  You can skip the splitting if you are doing a whip that’s a lower plait count.  Also remember that splitting down also adds another step (and time) to the whipmaking process.

Everyone says that cowhide handles abrasion better than kangaroo, so you can use the whip on concrete.  Some cowhide handles abrasion better (like latigo) but kip doesn’t.  Kip will last a bit longer on concrete than kangaroo because it’s thicker, not  because of any special property of the leather.  I use a 4 foot kangaroo bullwhip on concrete all the time when performing at festivals and fairs and I’ve had it for 5 or 6 years.  I use this whip on concrete because I have to, I don’t like to use it on concrete, but it’s either that or cut out 10 minutes from my show.  As a general rule you shouldn’t crack any whip over concrete or abrasive surfaces…no matter what it’s made out of!!  I can’t think of any reputable whipmaker that would  encourage you to use their whip on concrete.

Finally some people say that kip is as strong as kangaroo…I strongly disagree with that!  There’s a reson that Chris Barr chose to use kangaroo for his 72 plait award winning stock whip!

72 plait stock whip

There’s also a reason you don’t see 24 pait whips made in kip. You can’t get strong, fine strands out of kip.

So at this point you might be asking me why I’m making a 12 plait kip bullwhip?  I’m hoping that making it will change my mind or opinion of using kip.

Louie

http://bullwhips.org

Neawhips…

June 25th, 2009

My buddie and fellow whipmaker Steve Huntress is hiking some of the Applachian Trail to raise money for Cancer research.  If you donate $25 or more he’ll put your name in a drawing to win a whip.

For more info and to donate visit http://neawhips.com/hikeforcancer.aspx

Steve makes great nylon whips, I have a pair of 6 foot 12 plait nylon whips that he made for me.

Louie

http://bullwhips.org

5.5 foot stockwhip pictures

June 24th, 2009

Here’s the almost finished stockwhip:

24 X 12 plait stock whip

24 plait stockwhip handle
12 plait stockwhip thong

This stock whip is 5 1/2 feet and the thong is 12 pliat.  The stockwhip’s handle starts as a 12 plait and finished as a 24 plait at the heel knot.

I gave it a few test throws on my deck and it’s not cracking quite right.  I’m going to take a few inches off the fall to see if that fixed the problem.   If that doesn’t then I may have to try either adding weight to the handle of shortening the thong a bit.

I still need to add a knot at the keeper on the thong and shellac this whip.

Louie

http://bullwhips.org

Turkshead Cookbook

June 23rd, 2009

After trying out some of the knots in the Turkshead Cookbook with kangaroo, I have some opinions about the book and tool.  These might change after doing more knots with it.

This book has tons and tons of turkshead knots and it’s a great resource to have around.

The main thing for me is that it’s hard to guage how thick the kangaroo lace should be when tying the knot on the tool and not directly to the whip.  I was making them too wide or too thin strands.  When tying directly to the whip you know pretty early if the lace is the right size. With the tool you have to tie the knot, then move it to the whip and tighten it before you know how well it’s going to fit.

I did do all my experimenting with knots that were new to me, and I’m sure that if I did knots that I knew how to tie the outcome would have been better…but since the knots that I already know I can do from memory I don’t need the tool for those (that’s why we didn’t try it with those knots).

I think my plan of actions with the Knot Tool and Turkshead Cookbook will be to learn one or two new knots with the Turkshead Tool and keep practicing them with the tool…and eventually work them out to memory (or semi memory) so that I can tie them directly to the bullwhip.

I also just ordered Introduction to Turksheads by Tom Hill.  In case you haven’t notices I’m working right now to improve my turksheads and my turkshead vocabulary.

Today I only have one morning show, so I’ll probably get a chance to make a stockwhip thong for my handle.   I still need to take a picture of the stockwhip handle.  I’ll probably do that after I shellac it.

Louie

http://bullwhips.org

Copyright 2009 by Louie Foxx LLC http://bullwhips.org.