A recent Metafilter thread about whips prompted a reply by me (copied below). They were discussing this article on the topic.

posted by soulhuntre at 12:41 AM EST on July 13

“you don’t do much damage, and the tip starts to disintegrate rather rapidly. It’s certainly no more, and probably less, destructive than a “rat-tail” one might make from a gym towel.”

Our experiences are markedly different. Granted my usage is more specifically geared to the effect of the whip on skin, so I may be having different results. In the BDSM context (the one I use a variety of whips ranging from 6-12 foot in) it has become clear that the tip of a cracking whip when handled correctly will absolutely do much more damage than a towel snap. For instance if you have practiced to do so it is common to break and open the skin.

I doubt it could be done against a fast moving opponent of course.

Obviously the dangers of the whip are over dramatized (stories of an accidental strike shattering bone is, for instance, not something I buy into) but I have seen it cut thin cloth, cut skin and a number of other things.

Again, this was not an accidental strike which rarely does any of this… and it was not in a moving, fluid combat context. This was a deliberately executed strike specifically designed to inflict “damage”. Almost always this is using nylon poppers as well, they are much “sharper” and more durable than cotton.

“And even then, the subset of things you can entangle is limited. You need something rather thin and rough. Poles won’t do. And you need unrestricted room around the area being entangled – So legs are out since the whip will hang up on the other leg. And you need to be very close since the action required is more of side-arm motion rather than a fly casting one.”

Again, my experience differs but maybe we are saying the same thing just differently. I have entangled arms and legs and can get enough pull to take control of the limp… I have seen legs pulled out from under people. In each of those though it is the friction of the whip on itself and the object that did the pull, and in a short time the whip was free again. You had to act in a very short time span.

When I worked with Antony DeLongis (he does a lot of whip work in Hollywood) for an afternoon I saw he had an uncanny ability to get his whip to wrap an object and loop itself. He is the only man who I believe could wrap a whip on something overhead and have it briefly support his weight.

As for the crack I have always felt that it was the loop that was crucial, the rapid acceleration that happens when that loop unrolls greatly accelerates the tip and makes the crack you “want” to hear, but a badly thrown whip can crack much higher up it’s length. What I suspect is that while the loop hits speed much earlier it’s lack of an “end” prevents it from generating a shockwave easily.

It’s utility as a weapon is limited… though I think the 4 foot might be useful. It wont get in the way of Judo or Ju-Jitsu and would make a nice choke tool for a lot of the finishes, not to mention a handy tie to substitute for cuffs in some of the police techniques 🙂