Essentia Report post Posted December 29, 2009 Click the banner above to be taken to Bevan’s web site, not only does Bevan make a very decent whip, he also sells a very clever whip making tool that will cut and taper your strings for you aswell as bevelling them……………… The Machine *Note for those reading this review I have to say I was able to use this beautiful little tool with ease right from the get go as I have used similar, though much more crude machines for many years already, If you’ve never made a whip before or if your using a machine for the first time then you should expect a learning curve…. The Man Behind the Machine Before I start to sing the praises of the little machine I must first sing the praises of Bevan the man that made it, and of course the brains of the operation his good wife Lisa…. I first ordered the machine some months back, just at the time our *Royal Mail* decided to stage a series of strikes, you guessed it my little machine went walkabout, we would hope one day it turns up but who knows? Bevan didn’t hesitate for a moment after rucking the Australian Post Office at his own cost he sent me another machine registered post and that one thankfully arrived in a few days…..the moral of the story being:- if your worried about shopping on the internet, don’t be with this guy he is totally honest and honourable…… The Machine Well where to start really, it is very very well made, no rough or sharp edges, quite ingenious how it fixes to the bench, you just need to drill 2 holes in your bench to accomodate the 2 steel dowels that screw into the base of the machine, these hold it firmly in place as you use it, and to use the opposing side simply flip the machine round and as if by a miracle the two holes line up to make the transition from lace cutter to beveller super smooth and easy, even this thick old english man got it first go….. All the moving parts where you can loosen and tighten to fix blades or adjust cutting widths have a nice cylindrical screw attached so it’s easy to pinch them up by hand but also as a double check there is in the end of each fixing an alan key hex and the machine comes with an alan key…..as soon as I got mine out of the box I fully undid all the screws and smeared all the threads with white vaseline, it’s hot and cold here in the UK so it doesn’t hurt to keep things greased it also makes the actions easier too, so if you buy one I recommend you do the same, it’ll be a benefit for sure! On the side of the machine you use to cut your lace and taper it, there is a nice little guage, this is really handy but I’m so much in the habit of using my calipers I haven’t as yet tried this out, I’m not sure I will being a creature of habit even when habit is not always the best policy, but for those new to the machine and to whip making I think this is a really great feature as it’s not always easy to *nip a bit off* when your first starting out, I can well remember the days of nipping a bit off and having to start over…….ggrrrrr!!!! The bevelling side really is ingenious fix the blade just behind the guage, hold the resized & tapered lace down flat behind the finger guard, slide the lace under the cleverly created overhang of the guage and pull through, the overhang is brilliant and I think even a novice or first time user would bevel easy with this……. In Conclusion The machine is a very well engineered bit of kit, the man selling it is honest and honourable, the price is more than reasonable, I can’t say enough good about it….. Tony Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
