This idea is by no means original, but this is a prototype of a design I’ve wanted to try for a while. These aren’t currently available to be ordered, but maybe one day in the future I’ll add this style to my online store. The handle is 16.5″ and turned on the lathe from laminated Padauk and Oak blank with an Aussie style keeper attached to the handle instead of the traditional cow whip cup. The thong is a standard nylon stockwhip style.
I announced on Facebook last week that I am planning to throw my hat into the ring and start producing the ever-popular “pipe whips” popularized and marketed by Lauren Wickline as Performance Hybrid Stockwhips.
I haven’t began working on my design yet, but when I get it completed, I am going to give it away in a drawing.
For details on how you can enter, click the link below:
The internet whip market is really one of the freest markets there is today. People can freely buy and sell all over the planet. Every whipmaker is free to market his or her wares in whatever way they see fit and charge whatever price the market will bear.
Thankfully, there’s no Federal or U.N. Whip Agency overseeing what we make or how we make it. In having such a free market, I think we have to police ourselves so others won’t have to.
With that idea in mind, I want to touch on the topic of truth in advertising.
For now, I’m withholding names to protect the guilty, but I’m hoping a few whip buyers will read this and be more alert. Better still, maybe the guilty sellers out there will read this and have a change of heart.
I recently started keeping a small inventory of items on eBay. I hoped perhaps it would get me more established in a market I’ve not really taken advantage of over the years. To me, eBay is a real mixed bag when it comes to whips. Over the years I’ve seen hucksters succeed there, while a few really good whipmakers couldn’t seem to make a go of it. You’ve got some great stuff being sold right along side of rubbish, and unfortunately, lots of people can’t seem to tell the difference.
There’s nothing at all wrong with “talking up a product.” In marketing, sellers are supposed to do that. No whipmaker in their right mind is going to advertise a whip with a line like “Eh, they’re okay. I guess.” I could nick-pick about claims I see about whips sounding like cannons, but I think (hope) most customers recognize such things as the hyperbole that they are.
What I’m talking about are those who make claims that are plainly false in order to deceive unsuspecting customers. That’s what really irks me!
I’ve watched one eBay whip seller for a while. He’s on the 3rd seller I.D. that I know of… In a recent listing with his new seller I.D., he states that he’s new to selling whips eBay, which is flatly untrue. In addition to that, he can’t seem to figure out when he started making whips. At one point the date was coincidentally the same year as I started making whips. In another place, it says that he’s been making whips for “going on a decade.”
So which is it? 22 years or less than 10?? 1991? or 2003-2004?
I don’t expect someone to know the exact day they started a new hobby or craft, but there’s something fishy if they can’t decide which decade they started.
Another inconsistency I’ve seen is great swelling claims of having made “[insert random number] thousand” of nylon whips on one listing and then another “[insert random number] thousand” of nylon whips on another listing. An unsuspecting customer may not think anything of this, but it sets off all sorts of warning flags for me.
A while back I did some math with the claims I saw on one eBay listing. If I recall correctly, it came out that in order to support the claim, he had to be making something like 750 whips per year in order for it to be possible! That’s 2 whips per day. While I won’t say that’s totally impossible, I’d say it’s highly improbable. From other information I’m aware of, I’m almost certain our unscrupulous seller just picked a large, random number in order to fool people about his experience.
The most prolific whipmaker I know of in the USA is Krist King. He has many retail outlets selling his nylon whips and they are literally everywhere. He tells me he produces an average of 12 or 13 whips per week, depending on what kind he’s making. I believe that claim because I’ve seen evidence of it over the years. With the particular eBay seller I have in mind, I’ve seen no evidence to support the outrageous claims that have been made.
Personally, I see nothing to be gained from making boastful claims of having made “[insert random number] thousand” whips or something when I know it’s not true. I’d rather be known for quality instead of quantity anyway.
I don’t understand why some people can’t just be real. What’s wrong with being honest about your experience and doing your best to make a good product? Why not be proud of what you’ve actually accomplished instead of trying to deceive people into thinking you’re something you’re not?
In closing, I hope whip buyers will take time to evaluate some of the claims they see. Compare listings and see if the seller is being consistent in the stories he or she is telling. If a seller won’t put his real name on his product, that should be a red flag right there.
If you see claims of thousands of whips having been made in a certain period of time, break out a calculator and see if the numbers look realistic. There’s far too many good sellers out there for you to be doing business with shysters.
Cowwhips.com has a new look, new products, and a new way to order!
The first new tab you’ll notice on the navigation tab is the new online store. There you will find all of the nylon whips and other products that are available. Under the store tab you will find a FAQ page where I have attempted to post most of the common questions people ask me as well as a few hypothetical questions I think may arise from time to time.
As far as products, we have a few new additions to the site:
The 2nd tab is all “About,” there you will find a drop down that contains lots of information about myself and the business.
The 3rd tab is the Gallery. There you can find lots if pictures of whips I’ve made. I intend to keep this updated with new pictures on a regular basis.
The 4th is the Contact page. Please note the new business hours and email address.
The final tab is a link back to this blog.
And that’s about it for the tour. I hope it helps.
Rhett Kelley
Rhett Kelley Whips, LLC
I’m very happy to introduce my newest line of nylon whips. It is the very affordable “FCE stockwhip.” FCE stands for “fast, cheap, and easy,” a name coined by my wife and I while out for lunch recently. The FCE was developed out of a desire to offer a simple, high quality, nylon whip at price low enough that even those on a very tight budget could afford it.
Why the name “Fast, Cheap, and Easy?”
FAST: With its 4ft thong and 20″ fiberglass handle, these whips are fast. Not only that, the FCE whips are fast to make. By using a fiberglass handle with a non-slip rubber grip, it reduces the amount of time it takes for me to make the whip and enables me to get them out more quickly.
CHEAP: At a base price of just $87.00, these whips are among the cheapest professionally made nylon stockwhips on the market. And although the FCE is priced cheap, it’s not cheaply made. Unlike a certain popular line of low priced whips from New Zealand, the thong of the FCE are handmade [by yours truly] to the same standards as my regular stockwhips -and cost less than the competition to boot. No machine woven nylon rope here!
EASY: Easy to crack, easy to make! These little whips really crack nicely. It takes little effort to get a very nice crack out of them. With the 2 major customization options being the handle colors and the length, the whips are easier for me to make than some of my other more customized whip designs.
Options:
The basic $87.00 FCE whip is 4ft long with choice of handle and the keeper and thong in solid black. The main option for customizing the FCE is handle color. Handles are available in orange, blue, purple, pink, and green. Add $10/ft for thongs longer than 4ft. Other customizations will be handled on an individual basis with prices to be determined during the ordering process.
To order, visit my contact page.
Do you want to learn to crack whips like a pro?
Buy the Whip Basics DVD series and let whip coach Robby Amper show you how!
I have just lowered the price of the Whip Basics 3 disc compilation to $45.00 with shipping included to U.S. addresses!
For more information or to order your set, please email me at Rhettswhips @ Yahoo . com.
Click here to see video clips from the series!
The dreaded scenario goes something
like this:
You’re at a whip practice and inadvertently leave your whip bag on the ground. Some very inattentive person comes walking up, doesn’t see your bag lying there, and steps right on it. Simultaneously, you hear a loud “crack,” but it doesn’t come from the popper of the Noreast nylon bullwhip you were just volleying, rather, it comes from inside your whip bag, from a toheti cane handle snapping in two like an old crusty chopstick. You resist the urge to yell at the idiot who just stepped on your bag, but you also want to kick yourself for being foolish enough to leave the bag lying on the ground in the first place. You regret not opting for a fiberglass handle on your nylon stockwhip. When you get home, you promptly fire off an angry email to that Rhett Kelley guy who made the whip…
This humorous, very exaggerated scenario demonstrates what I’ve read online about toheti cane whip handles becoming brittle over time and breaking if tread upon inside of a whip bag. What I want to do is examine the claims I’ve seen on the web that stockwhip handles made of toheti are prone to breakage. To be specific, I want to look at the probability of breakage with half plaited, unskinned cane handle. Now as a matter of personal opinion, I’ve always liked the looks of a half-plait cane handle whip and I believe they make an excellent handle for a stockwhip. However, this is not a discussion of what’s “best” or the most aesthetically pleasing. Such discussions are subjective, based largely on personal opinion, and of no real value to me.
I’ll be the first to admit that I do have a dog in this fight. I use a variety of materials on for my stockwhip handles, but cane is my favorite and seems to be preferred my diverse customer base. In the age of the internet, people do lots of research and form opinions based upon what they read. In light of some of the claims out there, some may shy away from my half-plait cane handles as a result of reading that cane can become brittle and break if it is tread upon.
When I started making stockwhips, it wasn’t long before I got some cane to use. I didn’t know what to expect before I got it, but I had read that compared to hardwood, toheti cane was preferred by Aussie stockmen because it was less apt to break, splinter, and injure a rider if he/she fell from a horse onto the handle of the whip.
Cane Cross Section
When my first cane shipment arrived, I was amazed at how light and durable it seemed. Sometimes the cane needs to be straightened a bit, and again, I was amazed at how even when place it over my knee and applied all the pressure I could muster, it would not break! It reminded me somewhat of one of those black plastic combs we carried in our back pocket in grade school. A look here at the cross section reveals that the cane is nothing like either bamboo or hardwood. In my estimation, this is what makes it so tough and flexible.
Before writing this article, I contacted and consulted with a number of my whipmaking friends Down Under. Having just over a year’s experience using the material, I didn’t want to make claims about anything based off of my limited experience alone. Each agreed that perhaps a shaved down, full plait cane handle might be subject to break if not steel lined, but that the chances of an unskinned, half-plait cane breaking from someone stepping on it is virtually nill.
One of my Aussie friends -who is a renowned whipmaker with decades of experience- tells me that only on extremely rare occasions has he seen a piece of toheti cane that would break easily. He theorizes that it was probably as a result of someone harvesting an already dead piece of cane and putting it into a bundle. No doubt, this can probably happen from time to time, but any alert whipmaker with a pulse could probably spot it and cull it out before making a handle from it. He also told me that he recently had a redhide stockwhip come in for repairs; he made the whip over 25 years ago and the handle “was still as good as new.”
I did a bit of experimenting with a very thin and very ugly piece of cane that I culled out of a shipment I received about a year ago. This piece has been left out under the shed and exposed to the elements in ways I hope my whips never are. I put it through a series of tests and got my son to catch the clips on video. I hope this demonstrates that there’s not much to worry about as far as breakage when you buy an unskinned, half-plait cane handle:
Before I begin accepting orders again, I want to post a brief explanation of my new price schedule.
For years I have tried to be somewhat of a “low price leader” among nylon whipmakers. (I guess working for Walmart Logistics for 14+ years has had an effect on my business philosophy.) While my prices have crept up some over the past 9 years, a survey of other whipmaker’s websites recently showed me that have been charging far less than some of my competitors on comparable whips. Things have even gotten to the point where some of my customers have suggested that I am not charging enough for my whips.
Keeping my whips affordable for my cowboy clientele is still very important to me. I have always tried to keep my cow whip prices within an acceptable range for them. This concern has been the main thing that kept me from raising my prices already. While the price of my whips in the “sport cracking” category are a good bit higher, my new prices are relatively the same for the whips most commonly ordered by cowboys from Florida (12ft and 14ft cow whips).
For example: With the new schedule, my 12ft cow whips are only $12.00 more. 14ft cow whips are only $4.00 more… However, these prices are now a much better value than in the past because they now include a choice of several exotic and laminate handles! No more paying extra for a fine exotic handle unless it’s one of the very expensive African species.
Another change is that my bullwhip price schedule now groups woody bulls and regular bulls together. As with the cow whips, there is no additional charge for an exotic handle on a bullwhip unless an expensive African species (white and black ebony, blackwood, or gaboon ebony for example).
If it seems I am being greedy or that my price increases are too steep, I would like to recommend the following article by Steve Huntress. I think he makes some great points on why a quality nylon whip doesn’t always have to be dirt cheap:
Quality Isn’t Cheap & Neither Are Nylon Whips.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me or post them in the comment box.
Thanks!
Rhett
This product is no longer available. Please see http://marksnylonhuntwhipsthongs.com for all your synthetic hunting whip needs.
I am pleased to announce that I am now making nylon hunting whips! This is in response to the requests I have gotten for them over the last 3 years. At present, my nylon hunt whips aren’t exact copies of the traditional English whips, but over time I plan to work with the design for those who may want a synthetic hunting whip that’s more traditional in appearance. The whip shown here is a 6ft with grip made from water buffalo horn.
Here’s the latest stockwhip I’ve made… It is charcoal gray with imperial red highlights, 6ft long with a 20″ half plait handle made from authentic toheti cane from Australia. It really cracks nicely. It has been about a year since I started making stockwhips and they have become one of my favorite products to make and crack. This whip was made for a fellow whipmaker who lives in Louisiana.
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Synthetic and Supersonic 