We always need rain here in the panhandle, but the last 10 days have been a bit much. We’ve had 4-5 inches of rain, and day after day of cloudy, dark, cold, gloomy weather. It’s not something you see here often and it’s a good thing. A big part of why we live here is the sunshine, at least for the native Texans, and we don’t do well when it doesn’t show for days on end. I didn’t get out much at all and certainly didn’t get the kayak out. Birding and hiking were also pointless.

So the only things left to do was make whips and brew beer. I’ve brewed a very nice stout

and am already drinking some of it, and have made a couple of whips-the black one that I posted last week, and this one.

Number 17 is a 6 ft snake whip in olive drab and khaki. It has a twisted, tapered core, a new technique for me, a small shot load in the handle in place of the steel rod of the bull whips, 2 bellies, each one ending by twisting the last few strands into the core, an English eye fall hitch, a 24 inch twisted tapered weighted fall and a Dyneema cracker.

I usually use a 3 strand flat plait for the English eye, but this time decided to see what a 4 strand round plait would look. I like the way it turned out, look wise, but because it is a 4 plait it makes the tail of the whip an 8 plait and that is a bit thick, so I don’t know if I’ll do it again. If I do I’ll try to figure out a way to drop 2 of the strands into the middle of the plait as a core for several inches and then bring them back out into the plait further up the whip.

I think that I;ll also make another fall for this one as well. One of the perks of the English eye is how easy it is to change out falls. Because of the TT core on the whip and the thicker tail and the amount of binding I did on the core and bellies it is a pretty stiff whip and the core needs to be a bit heavier to balance that.

Core twisted and bound

Second belly boundStarting the overlay with the English eye into a n 8 strand diamond plat and then into an 8 strand herringboneThe finished whip. the thong is finished with a 16 plait herringbone that transitions into a barber pole diamond plait for the 8 inch handle. The heel knot is a doubled 7×6 Turk’s head knot.