Another handle

Handles are nice. You get to make nice plaiting and beautiful knots. At least you can try.

For my next stockwhip handle base I chose a piece of wood 45cm long and 2cm thick. I shaped it a bit from the end so the keeper would stay more firmly. Then I burned the wood for a nice color effect.




For the plaiting I used 16 strands (8 black, 8 rust), all 50cm long. The pattern is shown below. It seems to me that 16-plait is not quite enough to cover this thick handle. I need to try 18 or 20. I nailed all the strands to the handle with small nails and taped them tightly before building the knots to cover the ends of the plaiting.



With the knots I had a lot of fun. I had several sources of information, but I think the best one was Sidney Wood's Turk's head web page that has lots of theory about knots and iterweaves. Now I understand how to make those knots and I don't have to follow some under-over-sequence that I read (or have tried to memorize). I also got Bruce Grant's Encyclopedia of Rawhide and Leather Braiding. It's got lots of knots and other cool stuff as well.





Anyway, the end knot is a brown 7-part 6-bight turk's head with black herringbone interweave. The other knots are 5-part versions of the same knot. They all seem to be a bit loose, meaning that there are spaces between strands. I may need more parts. I do not need more bights, because 6-bight knots almost slip down. Or then I just need to build my knot bases a bit smaller.



The keeper is made from 6 strands (3 black, 3 rust) that have been plaited with flat 6-plait from the middle (about 15cm). After this the keeper was tied around the handle by plaiting it with tight chessboard pattern. These strands too were nailed and taped before the ends were covered with the knot.

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.

Second whip: The Core

I begun constructing my second whip. Instead of galvanized spike that can't be found in local hardware stores, I used 20cm piece of metal bar that I found from local construction site. Diameter is about 12mm and weight 170g. I made a small taper to it using a saw and a file.



Just like in the tutorial, I have four pieces of paracord, 30cm, 60cm, 90cm and 180cm plus 15cm for the handle, loaded with 30cm, 60cm and 90cm of beaded chain. I placed them evenly around the handle and wrapped with artificial sinew. It's perfect stuff for this. I tied the other end to a bookshelf and winded the handle over the sinew for stronger grip. I finished with five overhand knots.






After that I added the bolster, using electric tape. Since electric tape has some tension when pulled tight, it tends to twist the core into a spiral. Just before taping I rotated the core a quarter turn to same direction I was taping. Then the tension of the tape pulled the core straight. Finally I added some more tape to the end of the handle for smoother taper.



And the result is satisfactory.

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.