I’ve finished all of the internal layers of this bullwhip and have the overlay cut out.
Here’s the core with four plait belly attached:
Here’s the inner belly braided:
Then I put on another bolster and braided a second 4 plait belly. On top of the second belly goes a second bolster:
Then I cut out the 8 plait overlay:
This whip should be finished tomorrow and ready to ship out!
Louie
http://bullwhips.org
I started work on a 6 foot bullwhip. This will will have an 8 plait overlay. I went up to David Morgan and picked up a 58 dm kangaroo skin for this:
Here’s the skin trimmed and the core cut out:
Here’s the inner belly cut out:
Today I should be able to get the inner layers of this bullwhip completed.
Louie
http://bullwhips.org
Today I made up some polypro crackers to ship out for an order.
Next up is starting work on a 6 foot 8 plait bullwhip.
Louie
http://bullwhips.org
Now for the actual making of the Apple Watch band. The first step was to get some connectors to attach the watch face to the watch band. I got these on Amazon:
The watch band buckle came from a local leather shop.
I cut out the flat part and did the edge braiding. The flat part is actually two pieces of kangaroo skin, they are glued together on the flesh side. Then I did the braiding that would make up the actual watch band. I used the Pyramid pattern I found in a Ron Edwards book called Little Snake:
All of the Ron Edwards books are great, and are worth checking out.
Here’s the finished watch:
I like, and I get a lot of compliments on it!
Louie
http://bullwhips.org
I got an Apple Watch recently and I don’t like the band it comes with, so I decided I’m going to try to make my own. I remember seeing David Morgan wear a watchband that was kangaroo and I remember seeing it an old David Morgan catalog, but couldn’t find it on their website.
A quick drive up to visit everyone at David Morgan and we found an old catalog that had it listed:
For some reason I thought they made them in house, but they were imported from Australia. Not only did they find the catalog for me to look at, they also managed to find a couple of the watch bands! One was new and one was used:
Here’s the front and back of the used one:
And here’s the new one:
As you can see it’s a pretty simple design. It’s got the plaited strap, then the flat leather part. I don’t know the technical name for the leather part that’s not plaited, so I’ll just call it the flat leather part. You can see it’s got some edge plaiting on the flat leather part. I don’t do a lot of edge plaiting, so I looked it up in Bruce Grant’s book Encyclopedia of Rawhide and Leather Braiding and to my surprise I found the same watch band and the picture was supplied by David Morgan!
Will Morgan was nice enough to show me an early edition of the book that Bruce autographed to David Morgan:
Now that I had my foundation, it was time to make the actual watch band, we’ll get into that in another post.
Louie
http://bullwhips.org
Not too long ago I was hanging out with a buddy who is a magician and didn’t know he also cracked whips. Here’s his whip:
Louie
http://bullwhips.org
I finished making the 8 foot stock whip a while ago, and I just realized I never posted a finished picture of it. Here you go:
I took it to the park and gave it a few cracks before shipping it out to its new owner!
Louie
http://bullwhips.org
Here’s a email I got and I figured the answers would be relevant to some others:
“I’ve made a couple whips before and they turned out alright. But I’ve been asked to make an Aussie stock whip for a girl from Australia. Any tips or advice? And what is your take on saddle soap as a conditioner and plaiting agent? Thank you for any advice you might have.”
Let’s start out with a general thought about making stock whips:
A basic stock whip is a lot easier to make than a bullwhip.
While I don’t know the length you are going for, there’s a great pattern for making a stock whip in David Morgan’s book Whips and Whip Making. If you basically follow that and adjust it based on the length of the whip you should do fine.
Next up is using saddle soap. I personally do not use it, the main reason is I can’t stand the smell. Every brand I’ve tried stinks! There are other valid reasons to not use saddle soap as plaiting soap and as conditioner.
First for plaiting, you really can’t beat using soap and lard. You can find the recipe for making this in David Morgan’s book Braiding Fine Leather (I think it’s also in Whips and Whip Making). Soap and lard is much cheaper than buying saddle soap, and it’s usually much easier to buy, as you can get everything you need from the grocery store.
Now as for using saddle soap as a conditioner. Yes, it has some stuff in it that’s good for leather, but it also has stuff in it that’s bad for leather. Products like Pecard’s Leather Dressing and Fiebing’s Aussie Conditioner are generally accepted as better for kangaroo. The nice thing about products like Pecard’s is that it’s ready to go, you don’t need to add water. You can throw a small tub of it in your whip bag and you can add conditioner to that fall you didn’t realize was dried out when you are at the park cracking your whips.
Hope that helps!
Louie
http://bullwhips.org
Here’s the lace for the 12 plait handle. This lace has been hand cut, stretched, resized and pared.
Here’s the almost finished handle for the stock whip:
I still need to do some “finishing” things to it. Next step will be making the lash for the stock whip!
Louie
http://bullwhips.org
My current project is making an 8 foot stock whip. This whip will have a 12 plait handle and an 8 plait lash. I’m starting with a 61 decimeter kangaroo skin that I picked up yesterday at David Morgan.
For the handles I’m using a fiberglass stock whip handle. I got a bunch of these many years ago from David Morgan, they had surplus’d them.
Today I should get the handle finished and hopefully get all of the leather cut out for the lash.
Louie
http://bullwhips.org