I had some strands left over from a couple of kangaroo hide whips I made a few months ago and I thought I’d try another quirt.

The core is not kangaroo, it is a 20 inch long piece of 8 oz., veg tanned, cowhide cut about 1 inch wide on one end and tapered down to about 1/4 inch on the other. I wet and twisted the piece and nailed it to my workbench until it dried, inserted a 5 inch long tapered steel rod into the but end and bound the entire thing with artificial sinew.

The quirt is loosely based on Bruce Grant’s quirt (plate 71 in the Encyclopedia of Rawhide and Leather Braiding and he uses a technique he calls a back braid of 6 thongs (plate 41) for the overlay. It starts out with a very loose O1 U1 braid around the core. This is 1/8″ kangaroo hide lace wide throughout, no taper.

Then 3 of the strands are are braided back up the whip parallel to the left side strands

and then the other 3 strands are braided in an O2 U2 pattern to the right hand side strands.

Which results in this gaucho braid. Strangely enough, the drawing of the quirt shows a short herringbone braid even though the drawing of the back braid of 6 thongs shows the gaucho pattern.

The lash is also 8 oz., veg tanned cowhide is attached using a Spanish ring knot under the lash and another one over the lash.

The heel is a 9×8 casa knot and the strap is a flat braid of 3 thongs. All the knots, the strap and the overlay are kangaroo hide.

The quirt is finished with thinned shellac.