Third whip finished

There was about a meter extra in every strand. Long enough to use them in knots and handles. I finished with 6-plait, which is a bit thicker than my previous whip, but not at all too thick.

The handle is 16-plait double diamond plait. The end knot is 7 part 5 bight turk's head with herringbone interweave and the transition knot is a headhunters knot of 3 passes.

I haven't tried this one yet, because it keeps raining...

Third whip: thong

I'm having a problem with cord lengths. I can't find any estimates about how long they should be for 8 foot whip.

I made some calculations. It seems that 50cm strands make about 20cm plait using 16-plait, 14-plait or 4-plait. I also noticed that 4-plait can't cover one full strand and two hollow strands. Therefore I plan to remove the core filling before 6-plait drops to 4-plait. Then 4-plait only has to cover three hollow strands (core and 2 from 6-plait).

I will use following cord lengths: 12m, 12m, 11m, 10m, 9m, 8m, 7m and 6m. There is propably loads extra, but it's better than too little.

Third whip: belly, 2nd layer

And here is the second layer of my third whip's belly.

This is 12-plait with 26, 26, 20, 18, 16 and 12 foot lengths of cord. 12-plait went for 2'9" before dropping to 10-plait. I tried tucking strands by threading them inside another thread like suggested in Dallas Dogsled website. I didn't like the result, it was not smooth at all. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?

Anyway, I have a problem with droppimg strands. Everytime I drop a strand (or especially if I drop two) I get a bulge to my plait. The dropped strands add too much to the core thickness. I don't know if this happens only to me or just that other makers don't worry about it.

Strands were once again too short. 6-plait should have gone further down, so next time the 6-plait strand will be at least 26ft and 4-plaits 30ft.

I was thinking of trying to make an extra handle plait that would have 2 extra strands that would add some bulk to the core. I could drop them when I drop the thong plaiting from 16 to 14 and there would hopefully be no bulging.

I tied the transition with sinew for about 20cm and taped it a bit further.

Third whip: belly, 1st layer

Oh, kay. My third belly is ready.



I tried some exotic patterns just to get some feel about them. They look nice enough in the handle. Under-over sequence seems to be more solid than the whipmaker's plait, but also slooow.


I reinforced the transition with artificial sinew and taped the whole thing agin with electric tape.