#4 thong plans

There is a small challenge in the thong. I want to make a two tone thong so I want to have brown strands to the other side and the black strands to the other. Since I want to plait the keeper first, a solid plan seems to be in order.

First: How long is the keeper? I checked my first whip and the keeper there seems to be so long that a single strand runs six times across the plait. I will go with that.



Second: How should the strands be arranged in the flat braid so that I can move to whipmaker's plait so that the colors are properly arranged? Simply put: I want to have the colors so that same color strands are parallel to each other. I also want that on the bottom of the flat braid the black strands are on the left side and on the top of the flat braid the black strands are on the right side. If the strands are arranged like this I can put the keeper on top of the belly so that the "down" side is on the front and the "up" side is on the back. Then the plaiting starts from the "up" (back) side outer strands and continues towards the middle strands. After "up" side has been plaited, plaiting continues frome the "down" (front) side outer strands that go first around the back and then join the plaiting.

Third: How long strands? I calculated that 50cm string makes about 20cm plaiting. I also add 50cm for the keeper to each strand. Strand lengths: 200cm, 300cm, 375cm, 450cm, 550cm and 550cm.

Fourth: I want two different colors to drop at a same time. Therefore I can't have 2x200cm=400cm string for the first strand pair. Besides, the keeper would mess that logic up anyway. Since the strings run from left to right and right to left in the flat 6-braid, I can pair any two black and two brown strands as long as I pair them same way for both sides. I shall use

First string: 1st and 6th strand = 750cm
Second string: 2nd and 5th strand = 850cm
Third string: 3rd and 4th strand = 825cm

Propably too much again.

Now I must make the flat 6-braid in the right spot so that after that all the strands have the desired length. Propably easy?

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.

Second whip: The Thong

My second whip is almost ready. The handle was way too thick, my 12-plait was not enough to cover it fully. There is also a lump at the end of the handle. Too much sinew.

I used equal amounts of black and green cord for this. The lengths were (like in the tutorial) 720cm, 720cm, 540cm, 480cm, 420cm and 300cm. For this belly they seemed to be good lengths. The whip is 185cm long. Six-footer. The fall is single 70cm piece of paracord.

I don't quite like the look of the thing. I was hoping for something more lively. But it cracks well and that is the most important thing :) At least for now...



That's not me by the way...

First whip: thong, fall, cracker

Instead of sleeping, I made my whip.



Thong is 12-plaited, beginning with a keeper braid. The cords I used were 4 x 2,5m, 4 x 1,5m, 2 x 2m and 2x 1m. That's 22 meters in 6 pieces. One of 3 meter strips was desert brown. It made a nice figure but when the 1 meter part ran out, the rest of it was kind of lonely looking covering only one side. Thong is 130cm long.



The fall is 60cm long single paracord that has a loop in the end. It's been attached the way "How to make whips" suggests. Cracker is 20cm long, made out of single paracord inner strand. I'll replace it with a real cracker when I figure out what to use for one.