buckwhip

Thank you for the kind words! Thanks, it actually cracks nicely. I'm finishing up a solid black 3' that I shot-loaded, both are going to a leather retailer here in Las Vegas. Will get a video of each one cracking before I deliver them to the buyer.

Morning folks, Here's a 10 plait, twin-belly, 3' bullwhip in black and red. Bellies and black overlay strands are cut from drum-stuffed kangaroo hide, the red overlay strands are cut from a chrome-tanned roo hide. Solid black gaucho knot at the transition, two-tone pineapple knot at the heel. And here's a 14 plait, three-belly, 8' bullwhip in all black. Drum-stuffed roo hide used for the whip. Gaucho at transition, pineapple at heel.

Biglew - I pay roughly $75 shipped per hide. This particular bullwhip was sold for $475.

Give it a whirl - just keep in mind that it is not easy! This is my 121st whip and I am still struggling with certain whipmaking techniques. At a minimum, you'll need a stranding tool (look at Tandy Leather's Australian Strander for $30), a good pair of leather shears, and some plaiting soap (can be made at home for ~$2/batch). For roo hide whips, 2 standard hides will yield a decent 6' bullwhip, 3 hides for a 9', and 4 - 5 hides for a 12'.

Just finished this bullwhip and shipped it to the buyer. It was a custom build. 9', three-belly kangaroo hide bullwhip with a 10" steel handle, bolstered latigo core, and a 16 plait overlay. Strands were stretched, resized, split, tapered, and beveled. Great cracker, really very fluid. Buyer will receive it in the next couple of days and I look forward to his review. Video of the whip: https://youtu.be/iyZTeqvDI50

When cutting strands for whips, I measure the diameter of the core I will be plaiting over. Then I multiply that number by 4. I then divide that number by the number of strands that I will be plaiting with. That finals number is the width needed to cover the core. For example: 1. Core diameter is 20mm, 20mm x 4 = 80. 2. 8 Strands need to cover the core, 80 / 8 = 10 3. Strands width needs to be 10mm

Love it! I'm a big fan of the gaucho, but the only one I know how to do is the 5b gaucho, I use them as transition knots on my bullwhips. Would love the incorporate something like what you've got into a future whip build. I can whip out a 5b6l and 6b7l Turk's with my eyes closed, and can do the basic gaucho and a pineapple without much of a hiccup. How tough would it be for me to move up to the gaucho you did?

Thanks Stu. Generally, an 8-10 foot leather bullwhip will take me between 30 and 40 hours. That includes stranding the hide, building the core, bolstering and plaiting bellies, plaiting the overlay, rolling, and knot work. It's easy work once you learn the basics, just tedious. Here's a video of the unfinished whip I posted a picture of above, complete with knots and all the jazzy. 8' White Deerskin Bullwhip:

I shot-load my nylon bullwhip cores, but with my leather bullwhips, I usually use 4 - 6 tapered leather strands of different lengths and bolster them with some cowhide. Then I bind the core strands and bolster to my handle core, which is usually a 10" chrome steel spike, then bolster the handle and core and bind it all. I grease the strands sufficiently before the first bolster so that, while binding, the grease squeezes out and acts as a lubricant for the plaiting of the first belly. Here's a video I did of a core I used for a deerskin bullwhip. I bind them differently now than the method I used in the video, but it is essentially the same concept.

By stiff, I mean not "floppy soft" the way deerskin usually feels. It is still soft and supple, and will regain the typical texture once it has been handled enough, but there is a bit more stiffness after drying. This makes it easier for me while plaiting because the strands don't all drape next to each other and co-mingle, which causes less tangling while plaiting. I wish I had a video to show you what I mean, all I have is this one of me plaiting deerskin that is drenched in plaiting soap.

Howdy folks - new to the forum. Showing of my deerskin bullwhips, along with a couple of cowhide bullwhips. First up is a white deerskin I just rolled out today. Still needs knots and some minor finishing work, but 90% of the tough stuff is complete. I made this bullwhip with nothing but left overs from previous builds. Here's a pic of the 2nd belly, which was made with black, tan, and gold deerskin scrap strands I had lying around: Here's the finished thong, without knots, at an exact 8': Here's a detail shot of the tapering of the strands: Strands are 5.5mm at the handle, and taper down to 3mm at the fall. Here are some random shots of other deerskin bullwhips, either finished or mid-build:

I make bullwhips with deerskin. I use the Aussie strander to cut my strands, and I get really good lace after I resize my strands. You can set the strander to a very small width, but you can get the lacer tool from Tandy for $8 and it will do what you want. You can certainly use deerskin for fine braiding. I just finished a white deerskin bullwhip today that tapers down to a 6 point fall hitch with 3mm strands. One bit of advice - after cutting your lace, dunk all of the lace in warm water, then stretch it by winding it around a hook and pulling all of the lace through the hook. This will squeeze most of the water out, but you still need to let it dry. I usually wind the damp and stretched lace around the legs of a table without any slack and then let it dry. This way any stretch you get will not revert during the drying process. If you skip this step, you will have a lot of gaps in the braid because of the stretch. Also, you will find that the lace is stiffer and, in my opinion, easy to work with after it dries.