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.

Third whip: core

The core is like the one in my second whip, only the lengths are different. I have four strands: 8ft, 4ft, 3ft and 2ft. Three shortest ones are loaded with chain. All strands have 25cm extra for the handle.

I attached the strands to the handle with artificial sinew so that the sinew runs about 5cm to the core. This time there is no swell in the transition. The strands start from the end of the handle so the thickness is same in both ends of the handle.

I taped everyhthing together with electric tape. (My flatmate was kind enoug to bring me dirt cheap tape from Biltema after I ran out. Hence the blue tape.) After taping I had an idea that I could try to twist the core into a more round shape before taping. It seems to twist a bit after taping anyway. I will try that next time.

I also left some cord after each chain so that the transition from one thickness to another wouldn't be so steep. This worked nicely and produced even taper to the whole core.

Third whip: handle

Before finishing the turk's heads for my second whip, I begin the next project. This will be 10 foot bullwhip in desert tan color.

For my hanle I chose this time something lighter. 6mm thick and 25cm long stainless steel with thread. I just sawed it and filed the end.