My husband has a collection of nice, old hunt whips. Being old, almost all need new poppers. Does anyone know of any directions, either print or online describing how to wrap the popper on the whip and make it look good. I would like to learn how to do this, but there must be a secret to the nice finished look that I have not been able to master. Thanks for any input/ideas.
Mike Murphy, at Murphywhips.com has a good DvD on whip repair. He also makes awesome kangaroo thongs.
You can buy poppers from him, too.
Does anyone have any advice on where to find good used hunt whips for sale? Is there an online source? If anyone knows of a tack shop that has them (new and used) please feel free to PM me. I have checked Ebay, but very few seem to be posted, and almost always overseas. Thanks in advance for the ideas.
What exactly do you mean by wrapping the popper? The leather piece directly attached to the shaft of the crop is the keeper; attached to that is the lash/thong (long and braided); attached to that and the end skinny piece is generally referred to as the popper/cracker. It should pass through a loop of braided leather at the end of the lash/thong.
Kevin at Journeymen Saddlers in Middleburg can make a hunt whip look like new AND wrap a popper! Call him at 540-687-5888.
Popper or keeper? I am not referring to the whole hunt whip, just the crop portion and how the popper/keeper is attached and wrapped with what appears to be waxed thread. I am interested in acquiring the skill to do what appears to be rather a fine art of braiding and wrapping the end of the crop to an attached popper/keeper. In looking at either crop or whip, they both seem to fixed in the same fashion. I suspect to do this, there are some specific skills used to make this look neat and professional. I am trying to learn what that is so I can repair those that we have. I have attempted a couple, but am just not satisified with the results, and was hoping someone might know and share some of the finer points of this skill . If so, it would be greatly appreciated.
To answer the question about where to find old hunt whips/crops - most are acquired from England.
I was at Bartville Harness shop yesterday. They had the “handle”, the thong and poppers. I didn’t really look at them that closely since I am a long way from carrying one. I also have no clue at what I am looking at.
I did pick up a couple of poppers since our fieldmaster was just given a whip that needed a new one. They were $ .95 each.
Hey, where would I buy the waxes thread? Thanks!!! HuntinFool
My hunt whips and much of the fox hunting accoutrements I own were all purchased from ebay. But not the US ebay. The UK ebay was a great source. I even have one whip with engravings of the previous owner’s name and hunt and the date 1902 that I found and bought on line from Tasmania. And complete new braided thongs are readily available. The handle is the hard to find component.
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