I was peeking on ebay to see what whips were being sold and I noticed that someone currently has a Terry Jacka bullwhip for sale. It’s a 10 foot 12 plait bullwhip and here’s a bit from the description:
Excellent condition. Cracked only 3-4 times.
You can view the auction here: http://cgi.ebay.com/Terry-Jacka-Authentic-Australian-Kangaroo-hide-bullwhip-/170589924417?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27b7f3ac41#ht_877wt_1091
First of all I’m always curious who these people are that buy $800 + bullwhip and only crack it a handful of times. Based on how the cracker looks in my opinion it’s been cracked more than three or four times…maybe Jacka put an old beat up cracker on it before he shipped it out (unlikely…but maybe?).
My big issue with the description and I’m going to assume it’s the seller being uneducated about whips but they’ve completely ruined newness of the transition on that bullwhip. It’s nowhere near in “excellent condition“. The thing that makes a Jacka bullwhip a Jacka bullwhip is the transistion being soo stiff. I had my Jacks bullwhip for about 3 years and it was well broken it, but I couldn’t get it to coil that tight…and mine was only 8 feet, the one for sale is a 10 footer!
The person selling it probably tried to artificially break in the transition (which doesn’t work well on a Jacka bullwhip because they are supposed to stay stiff!) and in the process destroyed an important part of the whip. If you look at the picture they have a whip holder keeping it coiled tightly, that’s a strong indication for me that they forced it to coil that tightly instead of that happening naturally.
The transition on that bullwhip is supposed to be an extension of the handle, not a byproduct of the the making process that should be eliminated. When the seller coiled the whip that tightly and destroyed the handle extension they also ruined the way the whip will flow off the handle.
Personally I’m glad to see that that whip has no bids right now. The opening bid is $475, but in my opinion it’s worth a lot less due to the broken in transition, really it’s worth in the $250-$300 range and it’s that much simply because it’s a Jacka!
Louie
http://bullwhips.org