Yesterday I was doing a gig in Bothell near David Morgan's shop and I popped by. I ended up getting Bruce Grant's Leather Braiding book and David's new book on the history of whip making.

I chatted with David and brought in a couple of whips for him to look at (#9 and #10). He picked them both up and cracked them and said they cracked fine. Then proceeded to critique them.

On both the falls of both whips I left too much extra leather at the end (the part that sticks out from behind the fall keeper, making almost a little tab).

The strands on Bullwhip #9 could have been a bit thicker. the strands can squish a bit, but can't ever get thicker while being plaited.

on #9 the whip didn't hand enough taper and on #10 it was lumpy. David said to fix the lumpiness to hold the bolster curled in my hand when plaiting.

The strands on #9 were too thin on the handle and the strands on #10 tapered a little too quickly in the middle.

My knot where the thong and the handle meets was flat. He said to wrap some string around the whip then tie the knot over it to give it body.

It was funny how he critiqued the whips. he picked them up and would mention one thing. then say, "other than that it looks OK". then tell me how to fix it...then notice something else and say "other than that it looks OK". It went on like that for 20 minutes!

David also mentioned that he doesn't do the braiding anymore on his whips (his granson does).

Also if you look at the picture of David Morgan on the left side over his shoulder there is a 10ft indy bullwhip hanging. This is his "shop whip" and he took it down to show me what things should look like on a whip...compared to mine!