This pictorial shows the construction of a very simple bullwhip which was special ordered with the request that it should be as thin and light as possible while being a full 5.5 feet from the butt knot to the end of the braided thong.
The intended purpose of this whip was use by a stage magician in his act , the stated requirement was a whip with a quick action capable of impressing onlookers with it's speed and versatility while requiring less actual space to make crack than a heavier more full bodied whip.To this end it was decided that the handle would be longer than the standard "North American style bullwhip" and should in fact be more akin to the "Aussie" style of bullwhip.
To accommodate the wishes of the purchaser the normal method of using bolsters between each layer of braiding was modified in that no bolsters were used ,which in effect caused the overall diameter of the whip to shrink by about 30% a side effect of this was that the whip was about 15% more flexible after braiding which made the "breaking in" process somewhat shorter than is usually required.
The omission of the bolsters also to my mind made a smoother more evenly flowing whip and is something that I believe I will continue in the regular whips we make by simply substituting a extra layer of braiding to replace the 2 bolster layers that are generally used.
