Florida cow whips for sale
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Professional bullwhips
Swivel handle whips and non swivel!
Bullwhips,Cow whips ,stock whips, and quirts.
•Florida cow whips
The cow whip has a medium length wooden handle roughly 12-17inches with the thong tying into the top or cup of the handle. The tie strings can also be used as a saddle horn loop to carry the whip while horse back.
•Australian stock whips
The stock whip has a 20-22-inch handle and can be either fully plaited, half plaited, or even bare wood.
•Plaited handle bullwhips
The whip is plaited from butt to tip. A steel rod provides the core of the handle.
•Wood handle bullwhips
The wood handle bull whip is a whip that the thong is attached solid to the handle and with no swivel, but can swivel if requested.
•Quirts
A quirt is a forked type of whip which usually has two falls at the end.
My goal is to make you the best whips at the best price. All of the bullwhips made here at Flying “D” Whips are handmade by me; so there is no assembly line, no one somewhere else plaiting your order, or branding your handles. I also rarely have any whips in stock; I make them upon order as well as payment.
The whips are loaded to give the whip the necessary weight to crack easily. All whips have or should have at least one belly then the overlay. I make my cow whips with the loaded strand, then a 10-plait belly. The belly is 2/3 the length of the over all whip. I don’t gut the para-cord for the belly so that it will give the overall body some size as well as a little more weight. Then I’ll do a 14 or 16 plait belly, this will depend on the number of colors, the pattern or width of the cord I’m using. For example, if you order a coral snake patter It’ll have 3 red, 3 black, and 2 yellow. 8 strands on each side is a 16 plait, dropping strands to get a balanced tapper down to the twist of 2 strands, tie on a single doubles strand for the fall that the cracker ties to. Then I dip or soak the finished whip in molten paraffin wax, this helps shed water as well as slow any wear or fraying of the strands. It also gives the thong especially the first foot or two of the body.The Florida cow whip is a product of the “Sunshine State.” Most people don’t realize that Florida is the oldest cattle producing state in America. Ponce De Leon brought his Spanish cattle over in 1512, just shy of 20 years behind Christopher Columbus bringing his cows to the Dominican Republic, up through Mexico and then into Texas. Argue if you like on who was first and where it was; I’m just glad they brought those tasty creatures! Have you ever heard the nickname “Cracker” or “Florida Cracker?” The Florida cowboy wears that nickname as a southwest cowboy like the nickname of “Puncher” or Punchy.” The nickname Cracker came from the Florida cowboys using their whips to drive the herds of cattle just as in a cattle drive. Could you imagine the sound 4 to 10 mounted cowboys with 12 ft whips would make? Speaking of the length, most seasoned crackers would carry 8-12 ft whip in moving cattle horseback; that would be for a couple reasons. One they would have enough length to keep from hitting their horse and be able to get a loud enough crack. They also wouldn’t want the thong to be so long that it was bulky, heavy, and hard to use. Also and one of the most important reasons is most of the guys who would be making the whips would be doing them in the bunkhouse, tack room or shop. The room would only be big enough corner to corner to plait a 12 ft whip. However, there are always the “stories” of the cracker who always carried an 18 ft whip and could take a small fly off a cow’s back without ruffling the cow hair. Anything is possible once, but it’s their lie, they can tell it how they want. Back to the whip itself. The Florida cow whip is a unique design all of it’s own, from the interchangeable handle to the tapered twist and easy to change fall. A cow whip handle would have been a hand carved handle that was tapered from butt to top. And the deer hide thong loosely tied at the top or into a cup just as they are now. The original thong was made from brain tanned buckskin so that it would last as long as it could in the harsh and humid Florida climate. Combine sand, water, brush, and daily use to regular leather and it would break down pretty quick. Now the most durable hide in the world is kangaroo hide, unfortunately there weren’t any kangaroos coming from Spain or native to Florida. So they used the best they had and it was deer hide.Fast forward 450 years to WWII and parachute cord became available to the public. A weather resistant, workable, flexible material that just happened to be a sized similar to whip strands. Thus the Florida Crackers started making their whips from para-cord. Won’t mold, rot, rust, stretch, or shrink like leather. They also didn’t have to tan, cure, skive, bevel, and stretch the strands to plait. I’m certain at that time you could get any color you wanted as long as its O.D. Green or maybe black, now days para cord does come in a large variety of colors. At this time the nylon whip was born. But, being that nylon is a lot lighter than leather there had to be weight added to it. So all of my whips have a BB loaded core, this is considered weighted or shot loaded. I have experimented with plastic coated cable for the core. It keeps the thong of the whip stiff. I most always use the shot load method. The handle again is a unique as well as a very important part of the whip. Most cases the cow whip has a wood handle, there are other styles of whips that use PVC pipe or other light weight synthetic tubing for the handle. Also, there are about as many types of wood that can be used as there are colors of para-cord. Different types of wood can come from all over and can be gotten, some next to free to really expensive. I usually use wood that’s readily available, white oak, poplar, cherry, locust, walnut, maple, birch, beech, and gum. All the different types of wood can and will have a different feel as far as the weight of the handle goes. If there is a particular type of wood such as exotic wood, you’d like feel free to ask. Basically, if it costs me extra it will cost you extra, no real mark up you just pay for what you want. But wood on hand is included in the price of the whip. Length of the handle can vary from whip to whip as well as person to person. I turn all the handles on my lathe right here at the house. The handles are just as custom as the thong. I typically make the handles between 14-16 inches with a round knob, heel, bell, at the bottom of the grip. Most of my handles have a typical pattern as most whip makers will have. If you look through the gallery of the cow whips or the handles you should notice that. I do like to try different styles, also if you’d like something replicated I’d be happy to accommodate . I also offer branding for handles. If you’d like you initials or brand burned in the handle I will count it a privilege to do that for your YOUR CUSTOM whip!
Now that you have read through all this grand information lets get your whip ordered and let you “Get Crackin!”
Bullwhips,Cow whips ,stock whips, and quirts.
