Great instructional! Our jib sheets were in serious need of whipping, and following along with the video, the ends are shipshape and Bristol fashion! (Now I'm whipping main/mizzen sheets, vangs, etc.). Thanks again and smooth sailing...
+varleymon Thanks for the comment @varleymon. Be careful, you may catch yourself whipping everything now like we do> including our shoestrings occasionally. Sail on!
I know... TLDR... I came up with a bitter end line whipping that is virtually indestructible. I call it the Constrictor Whip. Required supplies: The line needing whipping, Dacron polyester whipping twine, tape, 2 hemostats/medical forceps (or 2 pair of needle-nose pliers would suffice), and a heat source, i.e. butane lighter, butane mini-torch or matches. For whipping ½” line (example, this works on most any size line of any type of fiber), I would prep the line by tightly wrapping the bitter end of the line with masking tape. Better yet, wrap a longer uncut line at the point I will cut for the finished length that I want and then cut through the center of the wrap of tape. This insures that the integrity of the cut line ends on both sides of the cut and they stay intact and keeps unraveling to a bare minimum. I would then cut a piece of Dacron whipping twine about 3 feet long and I apply a constrictor knot next to the tape and I try to keep the initial ends of the twine equal in length, but that is not critical. I pull the constrictor very tight by clamping the hemostats 6 or 7 inches on each side of the constrictor knot, twisting the twine around the hemostats until the hemostats are about an inch from the line being whipped and then pulling the hemostats apart to get the constrictor very tight but not as absolutely as tight as I can get with this “first constrictor." The first constrictor needs to be slightly looser than the following layers as it has no compression vectors to either side, and will compress the line to a smaller diameter than the following layers. The following layers cannot compress that small so the final whipping will be a truncated cone shape rather than a barrel shape. This is purely cosmetic and will have no outcome on the performance of the final whipping. Then I take whichever is the shorter of the two ends and wrap 1/2 turn around the line to the side of the constrictor that is away from the tape and then wrap the other end of the twine 1 1/2 turns around the line and slide its end under to complete another constrictor tight up against the first one making a second layer of constriction from the bitter ends of the first constrictor. I try to keep the head of this second constrictor 180 degrees in opposition to the head of the first constrictor (not critical, but cosmetic). I pull the ends of the second constrictor layer as tight as possible by wrapping the bitter ends of the twine around anything I can grip in my hands to give me additional pulling power on those ends to increase the constriction. Now I continue to add additional layers of constrictor knots always using the shorter of the two ends of the twine for the 1/2 turn and try to maintain the 180 degree opposition to the heads of the previous knot. This keeps the two bitter ends of twine of approximately equal lengths to allow for as many additional layers as possible out of the length of twine. I will continue to add layers, usually between 5 to 7 layers, until the whipping is at least as wide as the line's diameter. When the final layer is completed and very tight, I will pull on the ends of the twine to force them as tight in to the "Vees" created by the overlaying rounds by pulling both bitter ends of the whipping twine directly away from the head of the final constrictor. Then I cut the ends of the twine off leaving about 3/16 to 1/4 of an inch (4 to 6 mm) length and carefully using my heat source, I melt the stub ends of the twine tight up to the final constrictor head while being careful not to heat-damage the overlaying turns, and then QUICKLY lick my thumb and smash the molten blob into the "V" between the turns of the final constrictor. This insures that the bitter ends of the whipping twine CANNOT pull back through the knot and loosen. This whipping has shown to be indestructible to me. After whipping a ½” line, I beat the whipped bitter end on a hardwood floor for hours at a time with no effect to the whipping what so ever. This whipping is so tight on the line that it virtually turns it into a solid mass. The compression is so great that the finished whipping is markedly smaller in diameter than the original line and will have no problem running through blocks. Its only downside is that I have so much confidence in this whipping that I can be neglectful in checking for loosening whipped ends! I have never had my Constrictor Whipping loosen or fail. I have also used this method as an alternative to making an eye splice. I added some lanyards made from 1/8” double braid Dacron using this method. Using about an 18” length of line I put one bitter end thru the lanyard hole on a flashlight with about 1 ½” out to make a bight. I made a second bight with the other end of the line overlapping the first bitter end by three quarters of an inch. Then I added my layered constrictor knots completely filling the space between the overlapping ends and encompassing both bitter ends and the standing line in the stacked constrictors. This made a perfect lanyard of two eyes, one big and one small, joined by a common splice with the bigger a large enough loop to encircle my wrist. I hope you find the use of my Constrictor Whip to be worthwhile.
Thank you! Every resource explained this using three strand and while I understood the concepts, it was still intimidating.
Great instructional! Our jib sheets were in serious need of whipping, and following along with the video, the ends are shipshape and Bristol fashion! (Now I'm whipping main/mizzen sheets, vangs, etc.). Thanks again and smooth sailing...
+varleymon Thanks for the comment @varleymon. Be careful, you may catch yourself whipping everything now like we do> including our shoestrings occasionally. Sail on!
I appreciate that you showed with full size line 👍
thx helped me out greatly
The first insertion straight across is actually 180 degrees not 90 degrees.
I know... TLDR...
I came up with a bitter end line whipping that is virtually indestructible. I call it the Constrictor Whip.
Required supplies: The line needing whipping, Dacron polyester whipping twine, tape, 2 hemostats/medical forceps (or 2 pair of needle-nose pliers would suffice), and a heat source, i.e. butane lighter, butane mini-torch or matches.
For whipping ½” line (example, this works on most any size line of any type of fiber), I would prep the line by tightly wrapping the bitter end of the line with masking tape. Better yet, wrap a longer uncut line at the point I will cut for the finished length that I want and then cut through the center of the wrap of tape. This insures that the integrity of the cut line ends on both sides of the cut and they stay intact and keeps unraveling to a bare minimum.
I would then cut a piece of Dacron whipping twine about 3 feet long and I apply a constrictor knot next to the tape and I try to keep the initial ends of the twine equal in length, but that is not critical. I pull the constrictor very tight by clamping the hemostats 6 or 7 inches on each side of the constrictor knot, twisting the twine around the hemostats until the hemostats are about an inch from the line being whipped and then pulling the hemostats apart to get the constrictor very tight but not as absolutely as tight as I can get with this “first constrictor."
The first constrictor needs to be slightly looser than the following layers as it has no compression vectors to either side, and will compress the line to a smaller diameter than the following layers. The following layers cannot compress that small so the final whipping will be a truncated cone shape rather than a barrel shape. This is purely cosmetic and will have no outcome on the performance of the final whipping.
Then I take whichever is the shorter of the two ends and wrap 1/2 turn around the line to the side of the constrictor that is away from the tape and then wrap the other end of the twine 1 1/2 turns around the line and slide its end under to complete another constrictor tight up against the first one making a second layer of constriction from the bitter ends of the first constrictor. I try to keep the head of this second constrictor 180 degrees in opposition to the head of the first constrictor (not critical, but cosmetic). I pull the ends of the second constrictor layer as tight as possible by wrapping the bitter ends of the twine around anything I can grip in my hands to give me additional pulling power on those ends to increase the constriction.
Now I continue to add additional layers of constrictor knots always using the shorter of the two ends of the twine for the 1/2 turn and try to maintain the 180 degree opposition to the heads of the previous knot. This keeps the two bitter ends of twine of approximately equal lengths to allow for as many additional layers as possible out of the length of twine. I will continue to add layers, usually between 5 to 7 layers, until the whipping is at least as wide as the line's diameter. When the final layer is completed and very tight, I will pull on the ends of the twine to force them as tight in to the "Vees" created by the overlaying rounds by pulling both bitter ends of the whipping twine directly away from the head of the final constrictor.
Then I cut the ends of the twine off leaving about 3/16 to 1/4 of an inch (4 to 6 mm) length and carefully using my heat source, I melt the stub ends of the twine tight up to the final constrictor head while being careful not to heat-damage the overlaying turns, and then QUICKLY lick my thumb and smash the molten blob into the "V" between the turns of the final constrictor. This insures that the bitter ends of the whipping twine CANNOT pull back through the knot and loosen.
This whipping has shown to be indestructible to me. After whipping a ½” line, I beat the whipped bitter end on a hardwood floor for hours at a time with no effect to the whipping what so ever. This whipping is so tight on the line that it virtually turns it into a solid mass. The compression is so great that the finished whipping is markedly smaller in diameter than the original line and will have no problem running through blocks. Its only downside is that I have so much confidence in this whipping that I can be neglectful in checking for loosening whipped ends! I have never had my Constrictor Whipping loosen or fail.
I have also used this method as an alternative to making an eye splice. I added some lanyards made from 1/8” double braid Dacron using this method. Using about an 18” length of line I put one bitter end thru the lanyard hole on a flashlight with about 1 ½” out to make a bight. I made a second bight with the other end of the line overlapping the first bitter end by three quarters of an inch. Then I added my layered constrictor knots completely filling the space between the overlapping ends and encompassing both bitter ends and the standing line in the stacked constrictors. This made a perfect lanyard of two eyes, one big and one small, joined by a common splice with the bigger a large enough loop to encircle my wrist.
I hope you find the use of my Constrictor Whip to be worthwhile.