AUTHOR: Louie Foxx DATE: 7:16 PM ----- BODY:

A couple of months ago I decided that I was going to try to learn to make my own whips. Fast forward to now and I've finished two whips (one bullwhip and one stock whip).

My first was the stock whip and the second was the bullwhip...well the bullwhip was technically my third whip. The second whip was a bullwhip, but wouldn't crack, so I plaited around it and the 2nd whip became the belly of the third. To make a boring story short, the 2nd/3rd whip will be called my second whip.

When I got interested in learning to make my own whips I got David Morgan's book, Whips and Whipmaking. That book is more about the history of whips and whipmaking. David Morgan actually refers you to the book How To Make Whips by Ron Edwards for a good "how to" book on whip making.

So I ordered the Ron Edwards book from amazon.com and when it arrived I read the section on making my first whip.

Luckily for me MacPherson's Leather (a leather supplier) is about a mile from my house. So I drove down and started bought my first side of leather. While I was there I met a guy who makes whips for "people" not for cracking and he gave me a little advice on selecting a hide.

The hide was very thick, but the thickness that Ron mentions in his book. I didn't really need a whole hide, but they didn't have much in the way of remants that was big enough.

I cut out the whip by hand with a utility knife and so all the strands were very wavey. When I finished plaiting it, I was amazed that it came out and actually cracked!

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