Busy With Christmas Orders

Well, I'm busily cranking out whips for Christmas.  Currently I am booked through about the second week in January, even though I've been able to get out several whips lately rather quickly (well quickly for me that is).  I'm currently finishing a three foot snakewhip to send to Canada for a gal who has told me this is her first whip.  I think she's going to enjoy the final product.  The colors she chose were colonial blue and neon orange - and I have to say I really like this color combo.  Here are a couple of pics of the whip in progress...

This one is not the clearest resolution, but here's the belly being plaited.

In this shot you can still see the loop where the butt knot will be that I hang the whip by as I plait it and the five strands of paracord on the other end that I'll tie the transtion hitch with.  I took this one outside in the sunlight with my iPhone.

Anyway, I just thought I'd write a quick update.  Feel free to contact me with questions about my whips, whips in general, or about ordering.  Have a wonderful Christmas season.

~Ryan

http://www.happycracking.com/

Snakewhip on Sale

Check out my ebay auction for a chance to own this beautiful black and yellow 3-foot nylon snakewhip "The Pocket Rattler."  Overall it measures about 5.5 feet from the butt to the end of the cracker (the three feet is measuring only the plaited portion). 

This whip is a 3-foot, 12-plait snakewhip.  It sports a weighted core about half the length of the whip and is topped off with a turk's head butt knot.  The 'handle' area has a short reinforcement to add a bit of 'springyness' to its cracking.

Scroll down on my blog to see this whip being made.

Here's a YouTube video of me cracking one of my 3-footers:

Click here to see the auction.  In fact if there are no bids on this whip I will sell it to you for my starting price of $58 plus $9 shipping.  This is discounted from my regular price of $62.  Send me an email through my website and I'll pull it off ebay and get it out to you. Let me know if you have any questions.  I'd be happy to help you out.

Take care and happy cracking,

~Ryan

Three-Footer in Progress, part 3 - The End!

Well I finished my black and yellow Pocket Rattler (3 foot snakewhip) last night.  Here are a few more pics of the process.  I wrap electric tape just above the diamond plait and then cut away the excess on top.

I tape two small metal discs, i.e. two pennies :), to the top of the whip for a bit of weight.  Some whipmakers wrap a lead strip for weight instead of the pennies.  This is the beginning of the foundation for the butt knot.  The tape is stapled to the whip eight times in different layers.

When I finish building the foundation I tie the dreaded turk's head knot.  When all this is accomplished, the whip is finished!  And there was much rejoicing.  Yeah.

The pistol is a Ruger P95DC 9mm and the hat is my black "Spirit" fedora made by John Penman. 

Happy cracking!

Ryan - http://www.happycracking.com/

Three-Footer in Progress, part 2

Well I've made some more progress on the black and yellow Pocket Rattler.  Here I have added the six strands for the 12 plait finish.

Pocket Rattlers begin with a short section of a diamond plait and then changes over to the regular whip plaiting.  The top section will eventually get cut away and then covered by the butt knot.

When you finish plaiting it is important to roll each section to smooth out the plaiting.  Here I use a short piece of a 2x4 and roll the whip on the floor.

When I'm finished rolling then I'm ready to attach the fall and tie the fall hitch.

To make the fall I use approximately fifty inches of de-cored paracord.  I attach one end to a small crochet needle with a bit of electric tape.

Then at about the midway point I insert the needle into the paracord and work it through.

Here's the finished fall.  It's around two feet long and is doubled back into itself.  The loop is placed over the end of the whip and then snugged up tight.

After I tie the fall hitch I use a Super Jumbo Perma-Lok Lacing needle to pull the final pass on the knot back through it self.

Here's the finished knot and fall.

More to come.  Hopefully I'll get it finished by this weekend.  Happy cracking!

Ryan