haha it's no problem, Mr. Bond. Let me see what I can do to answer your questions.
- I certainly I didn't make them, and really couldn't come anywhere near their level of quality even were I to try for years and years. There are only perhaps in the dozens of people in the world who could. Many master whipcrafters are in Australia, with others in the UK and sprinkled around the rest of the world.
- Indy used a bit of a strange animal with elements of both a bullwhip and a snakewhip. A bullwhip typically would not have a wrist strap, as his did, nor would most bullwhips have such a short handle as the one he used. However, the Indy whip has become so iconic that it's really what most people are talking about when they say "bullwhip". Catwoman? As I recall from the Batman film, if that's what you're talking about, she used a long bullwhip of the Zorro style, definitely more like what is traditionally meant. My bullwhip is similar though not quite so long. I think hers was in the 10-12' length range, and mine is more like 8'. The snakewhip has very different construction. As you can see, it lacks a handle entirely and is flexible end to end. The handle area is instead packed with lead shot to give it some additional mass. Both are made with multiple layers of kangaroo leather, which is the aluminum of leathers - strong for its weight. I try not to abuse them very much but I can certainly testify to the strong and light bit. Abrasion resistance, eh, not so much.
- Skilled. Hmm. Define skilled <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />. There are certainly plenty of folks far more skilled than I, but after about a year of practice I got to the point where I could say I was comfortable throwing them and rarely did as much harm to myself as I did to the target. I'm sure many people will tell you they can reliably hit bottlecaps with a 12' bullwhip, and maybe one or two of them would be telling you the truth. Sort of like pistol marksmanship, if everyone who said they could hit an aspirin tablet thrown into the air could actually do it, there wouldn't be any Taliban left on the planet, that's for sure. Realistically I can say that a soda can is quite easy to hit, a hockey puck would make you concentrate if you wanted to hit it and you wouldn't be too upset with yourself if you missed once or twice, and if you see someone snuffing a candle with a bullwhip, keep in mind that the air whiffing by is what's doing the work and it wasn't actually necessary to get all that close. Bullwhips tend to be more accurate than snakewhips, and shot-loaded snakewhips hit quite a bit harder. Let's just say that whatever you just hit with a shot-loaded snakewhip knows it got hit, and doesn't care so much about exactly where it got hit.
- Common lengths for bullwhips are shorter than what you'd see in the movies - maybe 6-8' with a 10' bullwhip getting into the "that's a long whip" category. Snakewhips are typically shorter, with 5-6' being typical. Other than reach I wouldn't say there are particular benefits to any length, though there are distinct differences in handling and performance between snake- and bullwhips. Bullwhips tend to be much lighter and more accurate, though ironically this accuracy helps to prevent you from hitting anything. Bullwhips, in general, aren't really supposed to make contact. They're more intended to place a big bang with some precision to tell a stock animal "go the other way," because you don't want to hit any hide with one if you intend to sell that (now scarred) hide later on. Don't get me wrong, a bullwhip certainly imparts considerable force and it's no mystery why there were so few lazy pirates. Snakewhips, however, are specifically for hittin' stuff. Not as accurately, but yikes, be glad you aren't a soda can. By way of example, as a matter of fact, just last weekend I had a few very unhappy soda cans flying around the yard. A good solid whack with a snakewhip sends a soda can flying twenty feet, folded rather neatly in half, often cut partially through looking about like it would if you slugged it with a very dull machete.
- easier to throw a long whip than a short whip? Good question, really. I'm not sure I can say either is easier than the other. I learned on a shorter whip before moving to a longer one, so made fewer mistakes with a long whip in part because I already knew more or less what I was doing. Again the difference if any has more to do with the weight of the whip, and people I've taught how to throw whips tend to think of the heavier whip as being more difficult, though I suspect it's really that it's just less forgiving of mistakes. A really bad botch job with a light whip might give you an interesting welt. A really bad botch job with a heavy whip might give you some interesting stitches. If by more difficult one might take the meaning "more likely to result in the need for stitches," then heavier is more difficult <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
