First whip: belly

My first belly is ready. Actually it is my second, but the first one was all twisted and didn't have a chain inside, so it doesn't count.

I filled 150cm paracord with beaded chain and folded it into 100cm long core that I taped with duct tape. This too got a little twisted, but not very much. After rolling it was relatively even.

I plaited the core with 6-plait using two 3 meter cords and one 2 meter cord, taped it again for smooth taper and rolled again. Result was decent, I think.

Final belly is now 100cm long with beaded chain running all the way to the end.

First whip: handle

My first whip was to be a stockwhip, since "How to make whips" is mainly about them. Also, florida cow whips also have rigid handle so they are sort of like stockwhips. A bit. A very small bit...

I just finished the handle. It is build on a 20mm x 500mm rod of pine (I think). Took me something like 25 hours to make. Learnt a lot, the next will propably be faster.



The keeper is made like suggested in "How to make whips". I carved a groove to the end of the rod for better keeping. Then I plaited 6 strings (50cm) into a flat 6-plait. Then I plaited a few passes over the rod and taped it securely. Over the tape there is 5-part 4-bight turk's head knot.



The plait in the handle is a 16-plait solid band. With 20mm diameter and 550 paracord it seems I would need even more strands to cover it well. The end is again covered with 5-part 4-bight turk's head knot.



The knob in the end is 6-part 5-bight turk's head. It's too big, but 4-part 5-bight was too small and I already have done it again and again for something like 30 times. But now I know how to tie turk's heads without instructions. Well, at least two turk's heads.

A good video in youtube about turk's head in whipmaking.

Accessories

Whips are cool. Therefore I must have one. Because they are expensive, I must make one myself. Logical?

Luckily I don't have a daytime job at the moment.

First things first. Some information. I ordered a book by Ron Edwards called How to make whips. It is a good book, altough it makes me want to try a kangaroo whip as my first whip...

Since I decided to make my first whip out of nylon (paracord), Dallas Dogsled gave some good tips in their Cow Whip page

Then all I needed was some tools. Knife, grindstone, scissors, lighter, butane burner, pliers, measuring tape, several kinds of tape and a letter opener.



An of course some paracord from Operator.

Ruoskus

I started this blog mainly to make notes about my whipmaking progress. Name Ruoskus is derived from Finnish word "ruoska" whitch means "whip".