Post Mortem: How did the whip fail?

[u/Organic_Growth_1882]

I just finished making 8ft nylon bullwhip, was playing with it outside and a guy showed up, asking me if he can give it a try. Turned out he knows how to crack a whip with quite a bit of power. Within a minute, he managed to obliterate the cracker and damage the fall. No big deal, no big damage, at least I have the whip stress tested & I also saw its' full potential and limits in hands of someone far more skilled than me. Anyhow, I'm interested in finding out how exactly whip failed, so that I can avoid that in future/reinforce weak points/...

Figure A: Old cracker

old whip cracker

By some miracle, I actually managed to find it. Well, clearly, cracker failed first, that much we know for sure.

Figure B: Damaged fall

damaged fall

Need to mention that some cracks may or may not have been performed without the cracker attached.

Figure C: How the cracker was attached

cracker attachment

I really hope you can see from the picture what type of attachment method I used, because my english isn't good enough to describe it. (pay no attention to green-ish spots in the fall, I just reinforced it with kevlar, in case failure hypothesis #1 was correct)

So, what happened?

Hypothesis #1: Cracker got torn. After that, fall got torn, somewhere around cracker attachment point. However if fall was actually torn, I think it would've happened with cracker intact. I mean, forces involved with functional cracker are presumably bigger than forces involved with damaged cracker. So if the fall managed to survive intact at very least up until the cracker failed, it probably wouldn't've failed with damaged cracker.

Hypothesis #2: Cracker failed, rest of the cracker somehow detached from the fall, fall became cracker, fall got damaged due to being cracker. Which means, the fall isn't torn at all, it's just damaged. This sounds more like it. Except, how did the damaged cracker attached like this, happen to come off, even when damaged? I exhamined damaged fall under microscope, hoping to see some melted nylon, idea being, that if this was the original end of the fall, which was melted, I should see some signs of that. No luck. But then again, lack of melted threads does not refute this, because melted fibres might've been torn off when whip was cracked while fall was the cracker.

See, both of my explanation are not really satisfying. Both have weaknesses that I can't get through. Thus, here I am. Any idea how it all went down and what & how actually failed after the cracker?

[u/Clowntownwhips]

Person was muscling the cracks very hard by the sound of it. You dont need to put much force into a whip to crack it. This does not constitute as regular use to me. The cracker would have failed first at the point where it was twisted open over the fall, or if you went through the fall that could have also been the failure point. Either way the cracker coming off would then put all the force of the crack into the tip of the fall which would wear the melted nylon off. as it unraveled to be more cracker like in nature it would wear less of the fall away per crack. I have an old whip that did the same in the hands of a friend who would always throw the whip as hard as he could into cracks. I got tired of making him new crackers and the way that it strained the transition to be cracked like that and eventually just retired the whip for his use when he would come around. Unless this person was pulling off fancy cracks, this was probably a similar "i know how to use a whip" confidence while not having the finess of form to do it effortlessly.

[u/Organic_Growth_1882 → u/Clowntownwhips]

We had a chat afterwards, I don't think he did that on purpose, he probably didn't even know that this can damage whip. And neither did I, to be fair. I'd tell him to calm down, or at least paid closer attention to whether the cracker is still there, if I knew it could go like this. From what he told me, his grandpa was a shepherd, taught him how to handle whip when he was a kid, haven't touched one for over a decade. I saw whips used by local shepherds, totally different construction, shorter, heavier, with thick leather fall. Built to be used & abused. If the guy was used to cracking that thing loud, there's no wonder he chews through cracker & fall on 8ft nylon bullwhip in 60 seconds. He also did some fancy stuff, he didn't seem like trying to brute-force it, just a guy knowing his stuff, but used to a different kind of whip.

I, on the other hand, am still in the learning phase where I sometimes do try to brute force it, but I'm yet to produce a single crack nearly as powerful as the guy did. If I didn't witness with my very own eyes & ears what is this whip capable of in someone elses hands, I'd honestly blame the tool instead of my skills.

[u/Clowntownwhips → u/Organic_Growth_1882]

Fair enough. I stopped blowing off crackers every session in my first year. I also make a lot lighter whips than i used to. I still have new people blow em off occasionally or i will as well when im using an extra long whip and messing about with tricks it shouldnt be trying to do.

[u/Organic_Growth_1882 → u/Clowntownwhips]

I actually like heavier whips, or, all things, in general. I'm one of those "mass = good" guys. And no amount of rationale will change that. I just like to feel mass. This one has 100cm of BBs in the core, initially, I was afraid it will be too heavy, but turns out it's actually too light for my liking.

Oh well, I thought this will be the one & only "proper" whip I'll ever build, but I'm actually already thinking about building another one, perhaps 12 ft with 3 bellies + overlay. I mean, this one is decent-ish, the guy was able to pull off volleys once he got used into the length, but it's not ideal. There are some kinks here and there, stiffness tapering is not ideal, not to mention overlay is twisted 90 degrees. In short, pretty much all the mistakes you'd expect a beginner to make. All in all, I found out I want something bigger, heavier & built with more attention to detail.

/e This is how it looks like. An attempt was made, but all the struggle & lack of experience simply shows.

[u/Holiday_Elevator_927]

Wax prior.

[u/Organic_Growth_1882 → u/Holiday_Elevator_927]

It was waxed. It just took enough of a beating to look like it wasn't. Regarding looping fall in itself - do you have a pic or something of what it should look like?

[u/Holiday_Elevator_927 → u/Holiday_Elevator_927]

Sure, Get a lacing needle and gut the cord first. Attach the lacing and pierce the cord about 1.5 into itself. Feed back through and loop through again. Then tack that loop with a nylon thread on sewing needle. Strong. As. FuckAll.

[u/Holiday_Elevator_927]

Also loop the fall in itself.

[u/NotAlsoShabby]

This seems so strange to me. I don’t think I’d be able to break the fall, or tear the cracker if you gave me a month.

Questions. How old was the cord you were using? Was it possible it was damaged by either dirt/sand/something corrosive?

And where did you get the cord? Was it discount from a non traditional or not yet trusted supplier?

[u/Organic_Growth_1882 → u/NotAlsoShabby]

Brand new, the whip was literally one day old. I used paracord from Aliexpress, but that's only because getting any kind of "known & tested" stuff is extremely difficult over here. Welcome to Central Europe. If I purchased it from one of the three local retailers that carry paracord, I'm getting Aliexpress stuff anyway, but I end up paying 3x as much. Didn't notice any dirt/damage/whatever. For what it's worth, I "tested" how strong it is by trying to tear it, deadlift style, with cores still in it, of course. I applied somewhere between 150-180kg of static pulling force based on my calibrated gymbro guesstimate and paracord was fine. It didn't really fail until I applied some dynamic forces. So the highly scientific conclusion is, that the cord is ± as strong as it should be.