Bio

My full name is Rhett Bronson Merritt Kelley. I’m married to my high school sweetheart, Diana. We have four wonderful children, and one more due in August.

Though I now reside in the state of Georgia, I’m a “Florida Cracker” through and through. I spent most of my childhood and teenage years living on the cattle ranches of my grandfather J.L. Judy, and my great-grandfather, L. R. Bronson. I thank the Lord for my “cracker” heritage. Making the Florida cow whip, in particular, is my way of staying connected to my heritage.

I was just a young guy when my grandfather bought me a 12 ft Florida cow whip. It was made by a plaiter named Richard Clark. It wasn’t long before I became interested in making whips myself. My grandfather had Richard to come over and show me some things. Richard taught me a 4 plait, told me a few things, and gave me a sheet of handwritten instructions; I took it from there and practiced like crazy. By 1991, at the ripe old age of 14, I was a bona fide plaiter of Florida cow whips!

In the years following, I mostly made whips for actual working cowboys. In 1996, I moved to Georgia and Diana and I got married shortly thereafter. By the year 2000, I got tired of working so much overtime at my job, so I decided to pursue making some whips for extra cash. Not many of the local cattlemen use whips here in Georgia, so I didn’t have very much success selling the whips at the local stockyards and feed stores.

Everything changed when I bought a computer and took my whip business online. After a couple good online reviews of my whips, I had more orders than I could handle coming from all over the U.S.A and around the world. In 2001, I began making nylon bullwhips; snakewhips would follow shortly after that. In early 2009, I decided to develop my own line of nylon Australian stockwhips. Future projects will involve trying my hand at making whips from leather.

When I first took my whips online, I was surprised to find that nylon whips were frowned upon by lots of people. I didn’t let that hinder me and have been fortunate enough to see many minds and attitudes changed in this regard. While I’d never try to claim all the credit for that shift in attitude, I can say that I have seen more than my fair share of emails from happy customers who never thought nylon could make a decent whip. Since 2001, I’ve also seen an increase in the number of internet plaiters who use nylon. This also tells me that nylon is really making some inroads within the whipcracking community.