My first real piece of gear!!

Well, I've done it. After years of gathering "Close Enoughs", I have taken the plunge and gotten the first real piece of Indy Gear. Here it is...



This beauty is a 9' kangaroo hide David Morgan bullwhip. Quite a step up from my previous whip...



The Morgan cracks like a cannon. It's very well broken in, with a new white hide fall and poly cracker. I purchased this whip from Adam Winrich, maker of the Indy On A Budget bullwhip, and world's record holder for most whip cracks in a minute (272!!), among others. A classy guy. Please, support him.

I am very happy with this whip. I feel it is the most recognizable part of the costume, and I've been wanting a quality whip for some time. When a Morgan came available for about the same price as a new replica, I had to have it. I had it shipped to my work, and when it arrived, I demonstrated it for my boss. He acctually jumped out of his seat!!

I will post more pictures as I take them. You may all be jealous now.

Looks great!

Nice, Wraith! How's it crack? I've always wondered about wide flat falls such as that.

Taking the Morgan out for a test crack...

The Crack is Nice and Loud, I Scare the Kids With it all the Time ~ LOL

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Nice, Wraith! How's it crack? I've always wondered about wide flat falls such as that.

Taking the Morgan out for a test crack...

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Well, I've done it. After years of gathering "Close Enoughs", I have taken the plunge and gotten the first real piece of Indy Gear. Here it is...

Would you also show us some of your close-enough? That would be cool.

Sure! I'd be happy to. I'll start with the holster, and add more photos later.



Handmade from a $2 vinyl thrift store handbag. I used a template I found online. I crafted this to go around a .357 squirt gun I had painted. A buddy of mine with an industrial sewing machine stitched it up for me. The hardware is a spike from a leather bracelet, sanded down. I think it does the trick. For now.

Hey, Shtick,

The wide fall on a whip like the one above can still give a nice, loud pop. However, the fall tends to "plane" in the air, and is not so good for accurate target work due to the twisting effect of planing. These wide falls were popular on Texan swivel-handled bullwhips, and in some cases were actually the main point at which the hide was cut from, so the whip was actually braided backwards, from the point to the butt, the fall being an integral part of the point rather than a separate leather strand. This whip appears, however, to be conventionally braided. Also, some drovers were made to use wide falls if they had a habit of hitting the livestock with the whip. The wider falls cause less injury to the animal due to spreading-out the impact over a wider area, and were required by some livestock owners before a drover was allowed to work the animals.

I really enjoyed playing with your Morgan whip that day at Legoland, by the way!

Actually, you are more correct than you think. When I first acquired this whip from my ex brother-in-law, the fall was indeed on backwards. I changed it to the way you see it, because I thought it was wrong. While learning, I got fairly good at tageting leaves with it though. 8 times out of 10, I would hit the one I was aiming for.

But I prefer the Morgan overall.

At one point I and my friends tried different materials for poppers. Regular shoelaces (from sneakers) create a very thunderous pop, but need more "push" to get them to work. We even made a popper out of one of those luminous glowing necklaces that are popular at concerts. That looked pretty cool at night, but one really good pop and it'll explode all over you! These days I use two types of nylon poppers: a relaxed, floppy one for wrap-arounds, and a stiffer one (made from bailing nylon) for cutting tricks.

You can tell that my two whips have vastly different poppers on them. The stiff popper was purchased from a feed store, and is very rigid. I'd be afraid to get hit with that one (which I have been; back of my calf, tip of the ear, forearm...) I have one of the pink synthetic poppers for the Morgan, but I haven't tried it yet.

I usually just make my own crackers out of some white or neon green polyproplene that I have in the garage. Once in a while though, I'll buy those nice black nylon ones, and they're a treat. Now to start making my own falls...

Uh, oh. Pretty soon, you are going to start braiding!!

Mr. Fusion,

Most falls (like on my Joe Strain whips) are made from baseball leather. The stuff they eventually skin a baseball with. Remember, if you do try to make your own, they need a bit of taper, and they should be gently (firmly, actually) rounded. Whitehide is what they are sometimes called. A good length is around 30".
Also, if you do want to try braiding, and want something that's similar to kangaroo but without the hefty price, try calfskin.

PonyR wrote:

Whitehide is what they are sometimes called.

Right - until you buy redhide, or latigo. I've been using whitehide for years, and recently bought a redhide fall from David Morgan to try something different. So far I've been impressed, despite the many accounts of them snapping easily. I know the whitehide tends to stretch more, but I think with good maintenance, a redhide fall can be durable too.

Mr. Fusion, I'll be interested in your results. I used to use latigo falls, and I had a LOT of breakage problems, but I'm not sure I can blame that entirely on the falls themselves. There may have been other factors at work, such as using dressings that may have weakened the fibers due to having Neet's Foot Oil in them (like, unfortunately, R.M. Williams) or maybe the latigo I was using was poor to begin with. I will say I've had virtually no breakage with whitehide, but since I've been using better whips (like Joe Strain's, which come with whitehide), I've also been practicing better techniques, so there are a lot of mitigating factors.

That, and I just like to work the word "mitigating" into a sentence.