In the picture above is a buckskin cow whip that belonged to well a known Florida whipmaker named Curley Dekle. I found this photo in the Florida State Archives. It is a good example of what cow whips looked like before the advent of nylon.
Though I’ve achieved some measure of success as a nylon whipmaker, for a long time I’ve wanted to try my hand at making a Florida Cow Whip from leather. I’m currently in the process of gathering up the materials I will need for my first attempt.
The first time I make one it will probably be out of pre-cut lace of some sort just to get a feel for how leather plaits. The I am considering will be similar in size to the nylon cords I use when plaiting whips normally.
I’ll post updates as I progress with this project.
Photo Credit: Florida State Archives
Synthetic and Supersonic 
February 15th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
[…] Did you know that whips evolve? The Florida Cow Whip has! It started as a whip often made from the hides of whitetail deer and and has really changed over the […]