(Click on images to see my experience with "adjusting" this whip)
Thanks to the efforts of Tim Bass on Tuesday, July 17th 2001 I received 1000' each of red & black para-cord. That night I started on a 3½' snake whip using spiral wrapped BNC network cable as a core.
I then did a 12 plait belly over the core.
Then a 12 plait overlay & 5 part, 4 bite Turks head over that. It took several goes of the Turks head before I realized I hadn't beefed up the knob enough for it. I still don't think it will really hold through the 1st real practice but we'll see... :)
After looking it over I can see that I really should have used a 16 plait for the overlay to get the strands tighter together & I think shot loading will definitely be used in my next snake. But I may use the BNC cable again also. All in all not too bad for my 1st whip, if I do say so myself. I'm sure it will last for generations, if no one tries cracking it... ;)
The next night I started on my 1st bullwhip. I would have done this first but I didn't have time to go to the hardware store the 1st day to get what I wanted to use for a handle, an 5/8th x 8" bolt. I also got "shot". Actually I'm not sure what it is since they never told me but it isn't BBs & it ain't bearings. But I got a bag of mostly round metal bits. This I stuffed into a 1 meter long strand of cord ala Rhett Kelley. Which I paired up with several strands of different length cord & then spiral wound to make weighted a core.
I then used a bit of tape to hold the core to the small end of the bolt & then did an 8 plait over the bolt & core for the belly. To enhance the strength of this (& also the snakewhip) I started off with 4 strands & made a strap braid in the center then dropped the 8 strands around the bold so that the strap wrapped over the head of the bolt keeping the plaiting from slipping down the length of it. Or keeping the bolt "inside" to consider it another way. As far as I can tell this is rather unique. Though I could be completely wrong I don't know of anyone else who does this. The idea came when I saw an explanation of making a braided keeper knot for a stock whip in the book "How To Make Whips" by Ron Edwards. I saw that & instantly though "Hey that would work great to start a whip & keep the handle/shot-bag in place.
Well
I've only plaited 3 feet of the belly as of this writing so you'll have to wait
until I finish more of the whip before I can scan more pictures... :)
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