NEWS:   I   am confirmed to do:

Oct. 18, 2025 - La Domaine Essemar, Stephentown NY

Aug 27-31, 2025 - AKA, Rome Italy

Aug.  21-24, 2025 - DK Kink Convention, Skive Denmark

Aug.  2 , 2025- MAsT R.I. Presents Whips With Dante Master class, Warwick R.I.

July 24-27, 2025 - Casco Days Parade - Lobsters and Whips with Dante, Casco ME

July 3-6, 2025 - TBA

NEWS: Look for my article "Creating a Whip Cracking Community" in the next issue of ThirtyThreeOneEleven

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61565899169605#

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

       Paracord is a legitimate material for whip making, though it’s a soft and porous material which absorbs the energy wave moving through the whip...

    This usually makes the whip handler throw harder and faster to compensate to get the same result they would get with a gentle throw with a leather whip. It is so important get a tight braid on every level with paracord. The whip should be hard as a rock and still want to roll. It will hang wonky in the air until you start to swing it, then the fibers tighten up and the whip will behave like a whip should.

    Even a good journeyman whip maker can be inconsistent. It helps to try out the whip you're going to buy.

    The best way to break in a whip is by using it. If you want to speed up the process, check out Joe Wheeler’s Whip Rotating Technique. Twenty minutes or so of gentle stretching is as good as 6 months of daily use, and it does not harm the whip, from what I have seen.

    There was one whip maker I questioned about a failing in some of his whips - the strands squeaked awfully as they rubbed together, even slightly. He first blamed the leather tanner, then blamed me for not knowing a good whip because I was not a whip maker. The actual answer, I think, was because he was using Armor All on his whips instead of plaiting soap or conditioner.

    It is amazing how many decent and quite good whip braiders there are these days compared to even 10 or 15 years ago. So, if someone showed me a whip they were thinking of buying, I would ask the name of the whip maker. Then, I would ask the last time it was conditioned.

    And yes, I usually crack with the belly. The whip is made to have a natural curve (the belly). It wants to roll this way. If the loop is tight, the crack will be excellent. If the loop is fairly open, it will "waffle" in the air. If you crack 90-degrees to the plane of the belly, the whip will skew wildly in the air. So the trick is to let the whip do the work by throwing the loop along the axis of the belly/spine. It will be less work to achieve more power, and it will not wear out the strands at the transition between the handle and the thong.

    A cowboy hat is a great tool, if you’re learning some new moves, because it keeps the whip from clipping you on the nose or ear. But it also lets you hide in plain sight. If one is in a park and cracking a whip while wearing leathers and chains and a studded belt, and so on, there will be complaints. But if I do my relatively gentle cracking while wearing a cowboy hat, I have suddenly created a context for folks to accept what I am doing: “Oh, it’s a cowboy thing!” And they turn their attention to something else, leaving me in peace. It was always the kids who dragged their parents over to watch me cracking away.

    If something is pure, it becomes a parody of itself.

###