A Couple Of 24 And 32 Strand Stockwhips

[Peter T]

G'day All.

Here are some stockwhips I made recently. The lighter coloured whip (natural and whisky) is a 24 strand thong and handle and is 6 foot long. The darker one (saddle tan and brandy) is a 24 strand thong with a 32 strand handle and is 7 foot long. All kangaroo hide, of course.

Pete

[megabit]

SWEET!

[rcsaddles]

Very nice indeed. I am trying to learn how to do a whip from the hide to finish. I admire all you folks that can do that.

I spent seven months in Linville, Qld in 1988 and picked up my first Ron Edwards book. Spent some time at the World's Fair and at the EKKA.

[scorpiofire]

Absolutely gorgeous!! I lift my hat off to you ,it takes an amazing amount of skill to create such works of art ..

[rawhide1]

Excellent work!! Color combinations in both is great.

Mike

[Peter T]

Thanks for your kind comments, everyone. Much appreciated.

Joe, I had not heard of Linville so I looked it up and it's only a couple of hours from here. I was 13 in 1988, living in Brisbane and also went to the World's Fair (Expo '88).

From a whipmaking point of view, it's a shame you're not still there as there are so many talented whipmakers in this region that are willing to share their knowledge. You would be familiar with some of them through the Australian Plaiters and Whipmakers Association. I also started with Ron Edward's books, but have certainly benefitted from the wonderful craftsmen around here and in turn am more than happy to share my experience as well, for what it's worth.

I know it's not always easy over the net, but if there's any way I can help you, fire away and I'll do my best.

Pete

[ifoo]

Excellent work! Gorgeous! :clapping:

What is the width of the strings?

[Peter T]

Thanks Ifoo.

The strings at the keeper end of the thongs start at 1.25mm. They taper out to 2mm at the swell (9 inches from keeper) and stay that width all the way down.

The handles start at just over 1mm and taper to around 3mm or so for 24 strand handle and just over 2mm for the 32 strand handle. I split all strands to around 0.5-0.6mm for these finer whips.

I love how kangaroo hide has the strength to allow the strings to be cut so fine.

Pete

[Leatherpownder]

Very Nice work.

[HorsehairBraider]

How cool. I so admire this type of work. I would love to be able to do some of it in miniature.

[bucksnort]

Super cool. I can see that part of the patterns are part of the braid, are the geometric patterns in the braid or are they an interweave? Thanks, Buck

[Peter T]

Thanks again for the kinds comments, everyone.

Buck, the patterns are all in the braid. The only time I have ever used interweaves have been in some turks heads on handles. Not on those whips though.

Pete

[bucksnort]

Pete, I posted a reply yesterday that somehow didn't get posted. I'm sure it couldn't have been my fault since i"m such a computeter genius. Anyway, just wanted to say WOW. Buck

Edited July 27, 2013 by bucksnort

[Leatherpownder]

What do U use for a core Peter. Super smooth work and agreed Roo is very nice to braid with.

[Peter T]

Leatherpownder, the core is all kangaroo hide. I make it by cutting long, teardrop shaped piece of roo that starts around 10mm at the keeper end. About 9 or 10 inches down it will be its widest point. How wide is determined by how thick I want the final product to be (I usually cut it at around 30-35mm). It then tapers down to a point. How long it is depends on the length of whip you want but as a guide, for a six foot thong it will be about 4 foot.

I then bevel the edges to a feather edge and grease it up ready to roll. I want it fairly slippery at this stage. At a point about halfway down I use my fingers to start folding one edge in until I can roughly roll it across to the other edge. When it is rolled over, I wrap a thin piece of roo lace around it a couple of times and run this up and down the entire length which rolls it all up into a tight, solid core. If all goes well, the rolling is pretty easy but sometimes it doesn't want to play fair so there's a bit of mucking around to get it right.

I hope that makes sense. What you end up with is a tight, solid core of roohide that will determine the overall shape of the whip as all the other layers just build on that shape.

Pete

[JLD]

love your work peter. Do you hold classes? And what do you use to cut your lace. Please do not say by eye using just a knife or I will give up

Johanne

[Peter T]

Thanks Johanne. I've never held classes as such, however I occasionally have had people come around to my place to have a look at how I go about it. If you were able to stop by, I'd be more than happy to help you out if I can. How close to Brisbane are you?

As for cutting lace, I definitely don't cut by eye which is good news for both of us! I do sometimes use my thumbnail as a guide when I'm cutting strands for bellies and some overlays otherwise I have some tools I use. Either way I purposely cut wider, stretch the strands, split them then trim to size. Here are the tools.

I made the lace cutter myself. Other products around will do the same job. I'm pretty comfortable with this one, though. It suits the methods I use.

The metal tool in the middle is a hand splitter. A real beauty. The knife is a cut throar razor that I put a handle on. Also great. The pegs are what I use to trim to size. I have a whole set of these I've made up from 10mm down to 1mm in 0.5mm increments. Doesn't have to be pegs. I've used all sorts of bits of timber for the job. I made a whip while I was camping once and just used a stick off the ground that I cut the notches in with my pocket knife. The photo will give you a bit of an idea how I use it, although I would usually hold the peg with my left hand and use my left thumb to keep the strand where it needs to be rather than taking a photo!

Hope that helps...

Pete

[foxhill]

Amazing work!!

I have braided quite a few pineapple knots over the years, but not many multi-strand turkshead knots. I made a doubled turkshead the other day and struggled to keep them spaced evenly when tightening. On the bottom of your whip on the left, you made the turkshead from 3 colors. How did you tighten that knot or did you braid it tight?

Thanks in advance

[Peter T]

Hi Foxhill,

When I tie a knot with 3 passes like that, I tie the first strand on and then poke and prod that one until all the spaces are even ie the width of two more strands. Once I've tied the three strands on, it is usually pretty tight.

I will go around it all to tighten it a little bit but mainly to tidy it up. To do that, I'll use a fid to tighten and position all three strands at each part and do that all the way around the knot. It works for me, but there are better knot tiers than me around and if someone had a better way, I would welcome the advice.

Incidentally, the knots on both those whips are basically the same. Both have 3 passes. The one on the left has the lighter of the three strands in between the two darker strands. The one on the right has the two darker strands together with the lighter one on the side, which gives that different pattern.

Hope this helps.

Pete

[acox4t4]

Austie's sure know how to do beautiful whips. Looks great.

[acox4t4]

The hand splitter, are they for sale somewhere or was it made by you? Do you think it would split rawhide? That looks like a niffty device.

[Peter T]

Hi acox4t4,

I didn't make the splitter. It is made by Dene Williams here in Queensland. I was fortunate enough to live close enough to him at Toowoomba here to buy it from him personally. I think Paul Nolan at Midwest Whips stock them in the US. It is a very good tool and worth a look.

I can't really comment with any confidence as to it's suitability for rawhide as I have never worked with it, but I assume it would work well. If it helps give you an idea, the splitter uses a utility knife blade, which is replaceable of course. However I don't often replace the blade but rather keep stropping the same one. I get the blade sharp, keep it sharp and use it for ages. A very handy tool.

Pete