Information
Stuff you were wondering about but weren't sure where to look.
Construction:
All of my whips are built around a shot filled core rope. Around this I place an electrical tape bolster to help seal in the shot. I then braid an 8 plait belly over the core rope followed by another bolster. Depending on the length of the whip this is followed with either a 12 plait overlay for shorter whips or a second 12 plait belly/bolster combination follwed by a 16 plait overlay for longer whips. My whips are braided a bit differently than most whip makers as my overlays are braided from the tip of the whip back down to the butt or handle instead of the other way around used for most whips. The reason I do this is to make changing the fall or in some cases the cracker easier. With this method it's a simple matter of unhooking a couple of loops and then looping them back together instead of needing to rebraid the tip of the whip to change out a damaged fall.
I normally put a small hanging loop on the end of all of my whips but ths can easily be omitted and replaced with either a piece of leather or a small concho. On whips that have a wrist strap it is braided in as part of the first belly, making sure it will not seperate from your whip during use.
Why Nylon??
There are a few reasons why I have chosen to build my whips out of nylon instead of leather. Nylon cord is a lot less expensive than leather so this allows me to offer you a quality product for lower cost. Another reason is that you do not have to be afraid of getting your nylon whip wet as it will simply dry out with no ill effects. This is really nice if you practice or use your whip when the grass is damp from dew or rain. Leather on the other hand tends to draw all kinds of bugs and even some types of molds that thrive in areas of high humidity. Nylon also is pretty maintenance free, just treat it well, don't hit it against gravel or hard surfaces constantly, and your whip will last you a very long time.
Now I'm not saying that nylon whips are better than leather ones. When you compare whips of equal quality you will find there is virtually no difference in performance between them. For some leather is and always will be the material of choice for whips and that's fine, I own a leather whip (from a top name whip maker) and really enjoy it. However I find I use my nylon whips more often as I don't have to worry if it's wet out when I go to practice.
Physics:
Whips work due to a couple of very important reasons. One is that they follow Newton’s law on the Conservation of Energy. This means that if you put a certain amount of energy into the whip, as in when you throw it, then you should get the same amount of energy released at the end. The other important reason a whip works as it does is it’s shape. That taper you see isn’t just for looks, it’s the main reason we can accelerate the cracker of the whip to speeds in excess of the speed of sound without needing to have arms that are hugely muscled. Now before you all start wondering how these 2 things are linked in order to make a whip crack let me explain. When we throw a whip we transfer a certain amount of energy to it. Now according to Newton’s Law of the Conservation of Energy we have to have the same amount ( or darn close to ) of energy at the end of the cracker as we did at the handle. So in order to make this happen we have to make the light weight cracker move a lot faster in order for it to have the same energy as the heavier but slower moving handle. We do this by applying the energy to the handle of the whip. This energy travels down the length of the whip which due to the taper, not only gets smaller in diameter but also lighter in weight the further down the whip we go. This accelerates the cracker to speeds in excess of the speed of sound creating the crack and obeying Newton’s Law. If the whip didn’t taper it would be moving at the same speed at the cracker end as at the handle and would not generate the speed needed to make the crack. You can see this for yourself by taking a piece of rope the same length as your whip and throwing it the same way as you would your whip. When you do you’ll find the whip cracks easily but the rope doesn’t.
