Handmade Bullwhips by Louie
I had a bullwhip come in that needed a new point:
This is an older style swivel handle bullwhip, and I put a more modern Aussie Style Fall onto it
I took it out and gave it some test cracks and it works great! It also got a coat of leather dressing before I shipped back to it’s owner.
This was a fun whip repair that came in! This stock whip’s leather keeper had broken and it’s owner did a quick self repair by tying a knot to make it semi functional.
When I was contacted, I asked if they had a picture of it before it was broken so that I could try to match what it previously had, and unfortunately they didn’t. I did a little bit of research and found some samples of what I thought it might have looked like before and this is one the owner thought looked the closest.
The picture above is from Whips and Whipmaking by David Morgan. It’s an amazing resource, and if you don’t have it, you should get it!
I replaced the leather for the keeper and retied everything.
Also while I was working on it, I removed the knot that was in the fall and gave it a hit of Pecard Leather Dressing. This whip should have many more years of cracking in it!
-Louie
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.
If the final strand of the fall hitch is tucked under the end of the fall, pull it out.
Next, take the fid and loosen the fall hitch a little bit. Normally you won’t need to loosen it too much, and untie DO NOT the fall hitch.
Loosen all of the hitches.
Then stick the fid into the eye of the old fall.
You will cut out end off the old fall hitch with the knife. I use the fid to protect the lash of the whip from the knife.
Then pull the old fall away from lash, through the fall hitch to remove it.
Take the new fall and feed it through the fall hitch.
Keep pulling till it’s almost all the way through.
Retuck the final strand on the hitch through the eye of the fall (If that’s how it was originally) and then pull the fall against the fall hitch.
Retighten all of the strands in the fall hitch
Now all you need to do is put a new cracker on it and you’re good to go!
*You are following these instructions at your own risk. *
If you would like me to replace a fall for you, contact me for current pricing!
This wood handle bullwhip recently came in for a repair. Besides being coiled up way too tightly and very dry, it needed the point to be replaited and a new fall put on.
On a little side note, please do not store your whips coiled up like this. For a well made whip, coiling it tightly like this may put some memory into the whip causing it to be less accurate and puts unnecessary stress onto the lash.
I coated it with some Pecard Leather Dressing and let that soak in for a couple of days. Then I replaited the point and added a new redhide fall and the whip is good to go!
I offered to redo the transition knot, but the owner wanted to keep the original one. This is back in the mail today, and has a lot more whip cracking life in it!
-Louie