Bullwhip?

O

Omega Leather Works

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Jun 13, 2007
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I've been a fan of playing with bullwhips since I was a kid and saw Indy rocking one. I've had a few, although never a good one.

Has anyone here ever made one? Ideally they are made from kangaroo, but I can see that getting pretty expensive. There are some instructions around the web that show how to make one from paracord which I have plenty of. I figure it will give me some idea of how much work is involved, while also learning some tying/braiding techniques.

I'd really like to know if any of you have attempted anything like this.
 
Made a couple. Their rough. Check out calvin singo on facebook. Have a few of his (paracord) whips. Beautiful craftsmanship. Good prices. Love mine.
 
I worked with an Old guy years ago ( he was in his seventies when I knew him ) on a remote Outback Property here in Australia that made Stock whips and yes your correct he used Kangaroo hide , he also made his own Green Hide ropes that were used years ago at Branding time .
One of my big regrets is that I never paid much attention when he was making them . He's been dead for years now and I suspect those skills , particularly the Green Hide rope making have probably disappeared for ever .
I have seen whips here in Aus for sale , so people are making them , but to be honest they seem to be more "show" than "go" and don't look like the true working ones that I remember .
It would be a cool learning exercise if you take this further , keep us updated if you do make something .


Ken
 
Ken, what is "green hide"? I see "red hide" occasionally, but not green. Is it referring to tannage, or the type of leather? If I'm not mistaken, red refers to the tanning of roo hide, but I'm not even sure what that means.

There seem to be some prolific makers out there still, often from your neck of the woods.

I'm still very much learning about these tools, but if a nice whip can be made from a single roo hide it might be fun to try. A hide, Australian strander, and a piece of steel rod seem all one needs. Well, that and time and skill. :) Fortunately we live in a time of free information so it seems unlikely that time honored crafts will continue to get lost. I understand your regret though as I have similar ones.

That Paul Long whip looks awesome. Leave it to Paul. His talent is getting kinda irritating. :p I'm kidding, of course. Anyone that has put so many years into gaining unparalleled skill has my respect.
 
A green hide rope is one made from a hide that hasn't been tanned .
I think it might also be called a Rawhide rope over your guys way .
A hide is laid out and a strip of hide is cut in a continuos spiral in to the centre .
These long strips are twisted together by securing the ends with a pegs in the ground .
That's where my memory starts to go a bit wonky .
How it's twisted etc I'm not to sure of .
I always remember Buck ( the old bloke I mentioned before ) saying the real skill was on the cutting of the hide .
The strips of hide that he cut were not always parallel sided , the thickness of the hide determined how wide a strip he cut , so thicker parts of the hide were cut narrower than a thin part .
This was done to create uniform volume of the leather , so the finished rope was uniform in diameter for its full length .
After the twisted rope dried it was then worked to soften it .

Ken
 
Ah green hide, rawhide, that makes sense.

I believe rawhide braiding is alive and well here. Dave was telling me a while back about roping ropes made of rawhide. I believe he mentioned that they are very costly. Hopefully he'll be along to offer more information.
 
Omega Leather Works said:
That Paul Long whip looks awesome. Leave it to Paul. His talent is getting kinda irritating. :p I'm kidding, of course. Anyone that has put so many years into gaining unparalleled skill has my respect.
Click to expand...

Anthony, What does this mean???? I never made a bull whip on my life. You must have been playing over in that other back yard where you saw Joe Paranee's whips with my simple little carrier straps.

I wish I did know how to braid them.

Paul
 
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There are still several makers left here in Florida; they now make them out of waxed nylon with wood handles and a rawhide attachment & popper. They are often weighted with lead shot and are typically made in 2' increments 8 -16 ' although they charge by the foot so the length is up to you. I have two of this type. Most cow hunters (that's a Florida cowboy) carry and use them daily afoot and on horseback.

The old ones are all rawhide and are mostly heirlooms or in museums these days; a friend has an old one made from deerskin

These are not toys, but expensive working tools for the cattleman or cow hunter. They have on occasion been used as weapons; at a cattleman's cookout next to a swamp we were invaded by a very large and aggressive water moccasin who was promptly dispatched with a bull whip.

Sorry I have never made one or seen it being made but they are still a part of our stockman culture here.

Tom
 
Arredondo, no doubt about that. I like to crack a whip and target practice (like throwing knives too) but I don't like doing it with junk. It's really nice that the high quality tools are available for those of us living a less adventurous lifestyle. :)

From a professional prospective I can teach everyone all about how cheese is made, but that's not very interesting. :(
 
Rawhide braiding is alive and doing very well in our buckaroo stye of stockmanship. Whipmaking not so much. It is simply foreign to our deal. I've only worked around one guy that carried one. Only seen him a couple of times, wasn't very handy. A rawhide rope is called a reata or riata (either spelling is good). There are two kinds, a twisted one such as Ken described and a braided one. Twisted reatas are stronger and easier to make but not seen too often. The draw back to them are if they get "stranded", or one strand is broken they can't be fixed. A braided reata, while much more delicate, can be repaired when stranded. That is a whole skill unto itself. I've done it a few times but when I do it it looks like a snake that just swallowed a gopher. Making a braided reata is very difficult and specialized and good ones are very expensive and prized. For a plain jane 4 strand one its not unusual to pay $7.50 to $8 a foot or more. Reatas also tend to be longer than most other types of roping ropes. If you've ever seen a team roping or a rodeo those ropes are about 28' long or so. I have a reata that is 80' and have seen them 100' plus. A reata under 50' is a kids toy. Most of the ranch ropings that I compete in will have a rule specifying 50' or longer. I recently traded with a guy for a twisted reata. Its the only twisted one I've ever had. This was a used reata about 70" long and 3/8" s plus in diameter. I gave him a damascus knife and a stainless knife both handled in stag with sheaths. So my $ value on this trade was about $600. We were both happy. Roping with a reata is an art form that is making a come back. 25-30 years ago I'd go to somebody's branding and I'd be the only one using a reata. Other guys might have one but they wern't using it. Now they are getting very common again. Using one in a branding is really good for the stock. Its gentler on the calves and on your horse. After a calf is roped the reata is wrapped around the saddle horn quickly. This is called dallying. When the calf takes the slack out and he's going one way and the horse is going another the reata must be allowed to run over the horn. If it is held too tight the reata will break. So in this style of roping the horn becomes not a brake but a clutch. Much easier on the critters.

Here's a few pics:

j50Z0Ng.jpg


Twisted reata.

MOILVJM.jpg


Braided reata. The reata is 4 strand my reins which you can see there too are 12 strand braided rawhide. On my saddle horn you can see the grooves left by allowing the reata to run.

In use shots:

a8esiqX.jpg


I've caught this calf by the head, allowed the rope to run to a stop and then Mia (my son's girlfriend at the time) took the heel shot. She is roping with a nylon rope.
 
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Dave ,
How much give and stretch does a Raw Hide rope have compared to the modern synthetic ones ?
Do you condition them with anything ?


Ken
 
Well I have Encyclopedia of rawhide and leather braiding by Bruce Grant which is worth in gold its weight and in states it is about 20 $(in Europe its 180 euro), also must have is Ron Edwards Bushcraft 8. There is enough information of everything concerning braiding (my favorite) Get that and enjoy!:thumbup:
 
There are a lot of books I need to grab. I'll add those to the list. :)

Good question about the stretch. Do the nylon ones have a lot of stretch? Do they return to their original length for the most part?

I saw a guy making a roo whip and he treated the strips with fat, although it wasn't clear to me what tannage the leather was to begin with, or specifically what the treatment was necessary for.
 
The most popular modern ropes are polys, nylons are used but not as often. Usually more of a beginners rope. Nylons don't get as hot as polys, easier on the hands while learning. Most folks even very experienced guys will wear a glove on the right hand when using a poly. I do. Last few years nylon /poly mixes have become very popular. Under the pressures we subject them too not a lot of stretch in any of the ropes. If you use an old rope (never a riata of course) to pull your buddy's truck out of a ditch you'll noticed them stretch but not roping with them. The reatas due tend to strectch with use. They seem to get a little longer. But this is probably the briading pulling down tighter as much as anything.

For conditioning on rawhide I use either Ray Holes Rawhide Cream or Ash's Rashide cream. This is very important you can't let rawhide dry out. In fact breaking in a reata to rope with is a long and involved process. There is a saying: "once a reata is broken in its about broken out". Here in California the old traditional conditioner was bear fat from a grizzly. Then transferred to beef tallow once grizzly roping was on the wane. A light rubbing of beef liver after provides a nice kinda natural shellac coating. Stinky though. Those Bruce Grant books are very good if interested in braiding. Kind of the braiding Bible.

Rawhide braiding is one of the "cowboy arts" of the TCAA. Traditional Cowboy Arts Association. This is an extremely exclusive organization of the very best artists in: Saddle Making, Braiding, Silversmithing and Bit and Spur making. Joh Willamsma, my saddle maker is a member. If ya have time google TCAA and go through their site. Simply unbeleivable work.
 
I'll second the work at TCAA. Half the time I don't know exactly what I'm looking at, but I know amazing work when I see it.

Thanks for the explanation Dave. You're like my "wishin' boot" for information.

Wishin' Boot - Saturday Night Live:

[video=youtube_share;YA756ItcL-s]http://youtu.be/YA756ItcL-s[/video]

:)
 
You crack me up Strig buddy! Too much mind, more time in the shop. Speaking of which, I walked out into the shop and noticed this, thought might be a good pic to add here:

3Kfah68.jpg


This is one of my practice ropes. It hangs on a rack in the shop and its just about eye level when I walked out from the house so I noticed it. This rope is a nylon/poly blend and I keep it in the shop in case I have some time. I keep a roping dummy just outside the shop and will throw a few loops when I can. The "hondo" (pronounced honduu) is braided rawhide and very cool work indeed. The hondo is the eyelet, so to speak, that the rope passes through to make a loop. Hondos can be made out of many different things, metal, the rope tied back on itself, plastic and rawhide. I collected rawhide hondos for some time, so have quite a few around. Most are on ropes. I don't have any sitting on a shelf.

So this one starts as a flat braid and folds back on itself to form a loop. After it makes the loop the two flats come together to form one round braid and then this round braid continues to form the shape of the hondo. The round braid then continues on and passes through the loop terminating in the round Pineapple knot. The Pineapple knot acts as a stopper to prevent the round braid from pulling back out of the loop. Additionally this hondo has a rawhide burner. This is the flat piece of rawhide that protects the braided rawhide from the abrasion of the rope. The burner also allows the rope to slide more freely which is important in catching something and important when your groundcrew is trying to let something go afterwards. If you look close the burner has been cut into strings and then those strings have been braided back holding the burner onto the hondo. This type of hondo is called a San Juan hondo. I have quite a few other San Juans but not any like this. One of the style characteristics of a San Juan is the pineapple knot acting as the stopper. Most San Juans are pretty rectangular except at the burner area which is rounded. This whole hondo is much rounder than most San Juans.

My son gave me this hondo about 13 years ago when he was 10. We were at a show and I staked him to a pair of spur straps, a treeline mecate and some slobber straps out of our booth. So then he wandered off to do some trading. He came back a couple of hours later with an arm load of stuff and two of these hondos. He'd traded for all of it. He gave me one of the hondos for staking him. At these cowboy shows guys will walk around carrying things or a bag and you just ask em what they have to trade and then they want to see what you got and there you are, captialism at its finest.
 
That workmanship kinda blows me away. I think a lot of people would just see it and blow it off. I've got a 3d knots app as well as a book on cord tying. There are also a lot of great videos on YouTube. I can tie a turks head knot, monkey fist and other basics, but the work in the pic is an art.

Dave, have you ever thought about writing a book on horsemanship? Might consider it. ;)
 
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