leather work – Bullwhips.org

Redhide Bullwhip Falls

Today I’m cutting out a small batch of redhide falls

Whenever I cut out falls, I do more than one as doing multiple isn’t much more work. I cut them out, but leave them attached at the narrow end. I first hang them by the narrow end and pare the top left and bottom right corners. Then I cut the end off so they are all separate and hang them from the wide end. I then pare the top left and bottom right corners, to “knock off” all the corners.

I came up with this technique for another whip maker whose paring abilities to do the top right and bottom left weren’t as good at their top left and bottom right skills. While I can do it both ways, I still pare mine this way.

-Louie

82 dm Kangaroo Skin!

I’m trying to use up some natural tan and whiskey colored kangaroo centers that I have. I’m going to make some two tone whips using the centers as the second color. I drove up to David Morgan and picked up a black kangaroo skin for the base color for these whips.

I’m not sure what kinds of whips I’ll make, but with this veg tanned, drum stuffed skin at 82 decimeters, I have options as to what I can make!
-Louie

Signal Whip

I’m working on a 12 plait three tone signal whip!

This single tail whip has a removable/replaceable cracker

The end of the whip h as a 4 plait point that’s back braided on itself to form a loop for the cracker. You could also put in a slapper to make it like a quirt.

All that’s left is to put the knot on the handle.

-Louie

Bullwhip internal parts

Today I’m starting work on an 8 foot bullwhip. This will have an eight plait overlay. I cut out the core:

And cut out the two bellies:

The next step will be attaching the core and getting started working on the plaited bellies and bolsters.
-Louie

Bullwhip Making on the Road

Sometimes when I travel, I make bullwhips in my hotel room. I’ve done this enough over the years that I have a system. It starts with laying down a plastic drop cloth on the ground to make my mess easy to clean!

Here’s the outer belly of the six foot bullwhip I’m working on:

And here’s the whip with the boslter attached:

And the 8 plait whiskey overlay that has been stretched and pared:

I have a way I lock the whip into the door jam to keep it from slipping out while I plait.

This 6 foot 8 plait bullwhip should be done tomorrow! This is a whip I’m making for fun, so when it’s done, I’ll list it on my IN STOCK whip page.

Horse whip

Here’s an 8 plait horse whip that I just finished:

It’s two tone in black and whiskey colored tannery dyed kangaroo.

This horse whip is off to its new owner!

Six Whips!

I’ve got six whips to make, three stock whips and three bullwhips. All of them are going to be made from veg tanned drum stuffed kangaroo in natural tan color.

The three bullwhips are going to be more labor than the stockwhips, so I’m getting started on those first.

Hoping to bust my butt and get all six whips done in a couple of days.
-Louie

Bull whip Repair

Here’s a swivel handled bullwhip that recently came in for a repair. The first thing is needed was to have some Pecard Leather Dressing put on it as it was pretty dry. Once the bullwhip had drank that up, I could start to deal with the reason it was sent it, it needed a new point and fall.

I also n0ticed that the heel knot was non-existent and it was just the knot foundation leather, so I got the OK from the owner to replace that as well.

Here’s the whip with the new fall hitch and redhide fall attached:

And finally here’s the bullwhip with the new heel knot:

This whip just needed a little bit of love (aka maintenance) and it’s back out there cracking!

-Louie

Plaited Bracelet

A little bit ago I got a request to fix the braided part of a bracelet. Here’s the pic that I was sent:

The wanted the 4 plait part replaced and the color hopefully matched with the original color. Here’s a pic of the bracelet when it was new:

The leather on that was glazed and by that I mean it has a coating of blue on top of the grain side of leather. For me to get that color in a decent material, I would need to either get lucky and find the color at one of my local leather suppliers, dye or paint the leather.

My trip out to look for something premade, I struck out and to dye it, I really wouldn’t get that color of blue. That left me with painting as the only real option to color it. Painting and dying leather is a pain, you need to give the leather a hit of deglazer, paint/dye it, then seal it.

I picked up two colors of blue and between the two I figured I could get pretty close to the original color.

Lucky for me the owner of the bracelet said the lighter blue straight out of the jar was what he wanted. I think the color came out pretty well after cutting the lace, doing all the strand prep and then completing the painting process.

Here’s the finished product bracelet:

In the end this is a better product as it’s a higher quality leather as I used kangaroo. Also the painted leather that should hold it’s color better than the previous glazed leather.

This was a fun project as it’s slightly outside of what I normally do.

-Louie

Fall Replacement*

Changing a fall on a whip is pretty easy all you need in addition to the new fall is a knife, a blunt fid and some Pecard Leather Dressing.

The first step is to slip the new fall onto the lash of the whip.