Budget Boudoir Signal Whips

BB Signal Whips Cover Photo

Copy and paste version: desert.minx@mojaveoutliers.com

Price: $220, plus shipping

First, for those who are impatient to know, the Budget Boudoir signal whips are $220.00 plus shipping, and are 3ft at 12 plait. I ONLY make these on spec as I have time away from my custom order queue, but feel free to send me an email to let me know you’re interested! Otherwise, I’ll post any available BB signal whip inventory in the upper right side bar (as well as on various social media sites).

And now, if you’d like to know more about the BB Signal whips, then naturally read on!

Presenting the Budget Boudoir Signal Whip!

BB Signal Black Pink Red MSK

So, what’s the story here, eh? I made a couple of BB signal whips (3ft 12 plait) a couple of years ago and sent them out to two of my clients who were experienced throwers, and the report I got back was that the whip tended to jump back and bite them in the hand. A 3ft signal is quite small to start with, and thus terribly fast. Since the idea was to build a scaled down version of my regular build so that folks could GET a signal whip at a price point that was more readily affordable, I decided at that time to refrain from offering them up for general sale until I could attack the problem to see if I could mitigate this, because otherwise only really experienced throwers would enjoy them out of the box, whereas everyone else would be faced with a bit of a longer learning curve.

Here’s the first one I built, and note that the overlay is plaited backwards to provide a braided in cracker loop. Yikes, the cracker is pretty badonkadonk, too, eh? lol! Prolly whoever has this whip now has changed the cracker.

Kimmo's BB signal

I don’t recollect what the finished diameter at the handle was, but if my client still has this whip, maybe he’d be kind enough to measure and let us know? Ah! He just chimed in, and he tells us that his is at 18-19mm diameter at the heel. So my estimate at 18-20 mm, which is the same size as my BB snake whips, was pretty close (I built it three years ago, and at that time I wasn’t recording the finished diameter at the heel in my build notes).

Here’s the other one, also plaited backwards:

Black & Red BB signal whip prototype 2015

Pretty, quite functional, but a bit of a handful unless you really knew what your were doing as a thrower.

Finally this past fall I attacked the problem and built THIS BB signal. This one of course has my very successful Dyneema tail assembly I’ve developed (thank you again, Alex Jacobs!):

BB Signal Whip Prototype Fall 2018

I sent her out to be tested, and the results came back positive! No more jumping back impertinently! Yay! Mainly what I did, besides develop the Dyneema tail assembly in the meantime, was experiment with slimming down the back end of the whip, thus dropping the rate of ratio of change in taper from the heel down to roughly where the shot bag in the belly ends, bringing it more into line with the rate of change at the tail, so the balance of taper was more even. There is a huge technical discussion that could be had among whip makers about this, but I’ll spare the rest of you for now, eh? lol! Suffice it to say that it worked, and for those who are curious about such things, the diameter at the heel is around 16mm, so it’s quite slim.

And with that report, the last couple days I went ahead and built the first production model, as you saw above, and here she is again, up close at the heel:

BB Signal 1st Production Black Red Pink MSK

You still need to be mindful how you throw this little beauty. My client who tested the prototype for me said “It’s so fast that when swinging one has to delay the wrist snap until the whip is out in front of the body.” THAT has to do with the whip being as short as it is (and also a bit stiff for being new), which can’t be helped except by making the whip longer, and then it’s not a Budget Boudoir signal, is it? :) So bear that in mind as you contemplate making a purchase.

Here’s a couple more shots. First, the Dyneema tail assembly:

BB Signal Whip First Production Dyneema Tail Assembly Mojave Outliers Whip Makers

Note that I put a Kevlar cracker on it, very slim and tough, which also helps.

And a detail of the plaiting, just for fun:

BB Signal Whip 1st Prod Plaiting detail

Again, I only make these on spec, but if you don’t see any listed at the top of the right side bar, feel free to send me an email telling me you’re interested! And to spare you having to scroll up to GET my email, here it is again:

Copy and paste version: desert.minx@mojaveoutliers.com