My current project is making two signal whips (aka single tail whips) that will be 3 1/2 feet long. I’m starting with a 74dm kangaroo skin that I picked up at David Morgan:
This is going to be used for the bolsters, and plaiting.
Louie
Tag: kangaroo
Martinet Whip
Recently I was contacted to make a Martinet Whip. I’d never made one of these whips before or knew what they were. You can learn about them by clicking here. Basically it’s a flogger with multiple lashes.
The customer wanted 10 lashes, so I had a plan. I did a six plait braid over a tapered rod, then at the end of the rod, I did a 4 plait section that the six plait when over. That gave me 10 lashes.
However these 10 lashes being kangaroo didn’t have much weight to them, making them ineffective at transferring energy. I didn’t like this. So I tied them off below the rebate in the rod that was the handle.
I took some five latigo strips and thinned them down in the middle. I folded them in half and bound them to the end of the handle. Doing it this way gave me very little bulge at the end where the lashes were attached and also gave the lashes a very firm foundation.
I braided the 12 plait overlay over the top of that and here’s the finished Martinet Whip.
It’s in the mail to its new owner.
Louie
http://bullwhips.org
Finished 6 Foot 8 Plait Bullwhip
The 8 plait bullwhip has been finished and is in the mail to its new owner. Here are a few pics of it:
This was a fun whip to test crack!
Louie
http://bullwhips.org
6 Foot Bullwhip
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
Making an Apple Watch Band
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
8 Foot Stockwhip Progress
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
8 foot stock whip
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
Short Bullwhip
My current project is working on a 4 1/2 foot bullwhip with a 12 inch handle. I’m using a 57 dm veg tanned drum stuffed kangaroo skin that I got from David Morgan:
This bullwhip will have a core, plaited belly, two bolsters and a 12 plait overlay. Here’s the first bolster sitting on the plaited belly:
And here’s the bolster after it has been tied onto the belly:
I then attached the 2nd bolster (not pictured) and cut out the 12 plait overlay:
Tomorrow I’ll get onto plaiting the overlay.
Louie
http://bullwhips.org
Riding Crop
I recently had an order come in for a 24 plait riding crop in brown kangaroo. Here’s the riding crop before a coat of shellac:
And after a coat of shellac:
Here’s a close up of some of the plaiting:
The core of this riding crop is cane that was wrapped in rawhide. Next up is making an 8 foot 4 plait cowhide bullwhip.
Louie
http://bullwhips.org
16 Plait Bullwhip
Here’s a bullwhip that I finished a while ago, but hadn’t shellac’d.
It’s now ready to go and listed on my IN STOCK whips page.
Louie
http://bullwhips.org