Quite often people email me asking me about paring kangaroo. I’m not a complete expert on this, there are tons of poeple that are better at this than me. I’ve only been making bullwhips for just over 2 years, where there are many other makers that have been doing it a lot longer. One thing [...]
Thursday I started work on a 7 1/2 foot Indy bullwhip while I was on the road. Earlier today I finished the 7 1/2 foot 12 plait Indy Style bullwhip. I used a couple of techinques I picked up from Joe Strain to give the whip a more finished (and Indy) look. Here’s the handle [...]
One of the things that I spend a lot of time thinking about and experimenting with in my bullwhips are bolsters. Their lengths and what you use can really alter the weight and taper of the bullwhip. Then getting them to fit right and have a straight seam while you are braiding can be another [...]
Right now I’m on the road performing, and right now I’m in Spokane, WA and I’m heading out to Rockford, WA in about an hour. I’m staying at a pretty nice hotel (thank you priceline.com!) and when I left my house yesterday I brought a kangaroo hide and some kip with me. Unfortunately I forgot [...]
Yesterday I shellac’d an 8 foot Indy Bullwhip that I had finished making a few days earlier. The bullwhip really turned out well. This bullwhip has a great crack to it, honestly I’m amazed at how much I like how this whip cracks! Louie http://bullwhips.org P.S. This bullwhip is for sale on the IN STOCK [...]
Right now I’m working on making a bullwhip that has a cane handle instead of a spike or spring steel foundation. Early on I had made a couple of bullwhips with wood handle foundations (per ron edward’s book). This morning I was reading the APWA’s website and found Glen Denholm’s method for making a bullwhip [...]
So I’ve pretty much come to the decision that I’m not going to use kangaroo rawhide as a plaited layer in my bullwhips. I haven’t ruled out using rawhide in my whips, but the kangaroo rawhide is very thin compared to other kinds of rawhide. I’ve used some goat rawhide that I liked, and may [...]
Lately I’ve been putting more thought into my wrist loops and because of that they are looking much better. I think there are a couple of things that are overlooked by beginners when they make wrist loops: Thickness of the strands: On a 6 plait wrist loop that’s normally used on an Indy Bullwhip you [...]
Yesterday I finished an 8 foot Indy Bullwhip and wasn’t happy with the turkshead on the butt. The kangaroo lace I cut was too thick and they knot was very cramped. I really didn’t want to redo it, but I did and I’m happy that I did. In the picture above you can see how [...]
I’ve had a lot of people ask me here I get the Kip hides that I use for my bolsters. I get them from two places, MacPherson’s Leather and Tandy (two locations in my area). So really I have three places that I can go to look for a kip hide that’s a good size, [...]