Yesterday I got a bit more work in on bullwhips than I’ve been getting lately. I cooked up a batch of plaiting soap.
I also cut up a bunch of falls and got those soaking is some goo and they should be ready for their final rounding today.
As for plaiting on the pair of bullwhips, I’ve got both of them started.
And plaited one of them to the point where the lace needs to be resized a little bit. before I lace it I’m going to need to plait the other one to the same point and I’ll resize them together.
I’ve got two early morning shows today and a ton of phone calls to return to finish booking up my spring, but I should be able to find a bit of time to get some plaiting in!
It’s not raining today, but it’s still wet outside at the park by my house. So I’ve been brushing up on some targeting with a signal whip in my living room.
I’ve still need to finish the overlays on final two of the three bullwhips that I”m making for myself. Everything is ready for my to plait the overlays:
Hopefully today I’ll find time to at least get the handles started on these bullwhips.
This morning I made a mini bullwhip. Here’s how I did it:
Handle and core
core attached
belly set
Plaited belly
Inner bolster
Outer Bolster
overlay
And here’s the finished bullwhip on a playing card:
This bullwhip was a lot of fun to make and an interesting way to use up my scrap. The last mini bullwhip that I made was over a year ago and I made it as a Christmas tree ornament. That one was only 8 plait .
This mini bullwhip’s construction is a core, 4 plait belly, two bolsters, 12 plait overlay. The knots are 5 X 4 turks heads, but the heel knot is only two passes and the transition knot is only one pass. If this was a screen accurate mini bullwhip those would have one more pass each, and the wrist loop in only 4 plait instead of six. The fall is whitehide and in a little bit I’ll make a little cracker for it and try to crack it.
In the post about this about the mini bullwhip, did you notice anything funny about the picture? The playing card the bullwhip is sitting on is a large playing card that is about 6 X 9 inches. I was having a bit of fun with proportion!
Here’s the bullwhip on my hand:
I was going to try to find all the oversized items (like a giant toothbrush, or comb) at my local joke store and take pictures of this bullwhip next to them. However I didn’t get around to finding things like that.
I guess the moral is don’t believe everything you see on the internet!
Here’s the first finished bullwhip (of the three I’m making for myself):
On thing that was fun for me when making this bullwhip was the heel knot.
This knot is a two pass 7 X 6 knot with a black interweave. I’ve always wanted to do a knot like this, but until now I’ve only done it as a one pass 7 X 6 with interweave. From a distance you really can’t tell the difference between a one and two pass with the inteweave, but close up you can see the two white strands (passes) between the black strands.
The first bullwhip of the three that I’m making for myself is a 4 foot bullhwhip that will be used for targeting on stage. I’ve got all the overlays cut out (but only one set pared):
The set that’s been prep’d for plaiting is about 1/2 of the bullwhip already:
This bullwhip still has a way to go, but I’m over the halfway point. I don’t know how much work I’ll get done on it today, I’ve got a busy day working on some writing projects.