If you have come looking to make TRULY dangerous toys for boys you are at the right spot! Or maybe you have finally succumbed to the constant whining about "needing" a bullwhip since the release of the new Indiana Jones movie.
Thank you to Wesley Scoggins Indy Mogul for the clever idea to use duct tape!
You will need:
- Brown "duck" tape (we found this at Wal-Mart) cut into 3- 12 foot lengths
- 10" piece of 3/8" wooden dowel rod
- a foot or so of twine for the "popper" if desired
Begin by placing two chairs 12 feet apart. Place three strips of tape between the chairs.
Fold each of the pieces of tape in half length ways-leave attached to chair
Leave tape hooked on one of the chairs and begin braiding. Braiding 12 feet of duct tape isn't really pleasant but is certainly less painful than paying $50.00 plus for a bullwhip! We tried several methods: hanging it up high, laying it on the ground. We found it easiest to leave it attached to the chair and have another person help untangle the strips of duck tape as you braid. My eleven year old was able to do most of the braiding.
Once you have reached the end take another piece of tape and wrap around the braid to fasten off.
Remove the other end from the chair and attach these ends of tape to the wooden dowel.
Begin wrapping the dowel with tape until you have completely covered the handle. When finished we took a small piece of tape and covered each end and then wrapped a small piece once again around the dowel to make it secure.
If you want to make the popper you tie it on like this
Finished! How does it work?-----probably not well enough to kill someone or allow you to hang from a tree (we're trying though) but well enough to cause some damage to your house and possibly harm to a friend, so please be careful!
Updating...
how many rolls do u need
plz tellllllll
awesome i will make one of that bullwhip but please can you make video of that
I love the opening statement to the article, it’s the exact situation i’m in with my young Indiana Jones.We are going to make one tomorrow, i’ll keep you posted. Excellent idea!
Thank you! Thank you!
Cheers,
Brad
awesome! my 3 boys have been dying for bull-whips! now…the hat?
I played around a bit and if you substitute on of the strands with rope it is stronger, or if you add a piece of rope or leather as a 4th strand and braid it in,
My 7 year old kept trying to swing and hang on the doors with the plain duct tape whip, so i (regrettably) beefed it upa bit,
but i’m going to make another plain one for him for hallowen next week
Loved this idea! Not hard to make and it looks so realistic! I only bought 1 roll of ‘duck’ tape and used some to also cover a satchel bag for my son’s Indiana Jones Halloween costume!
Many thanks!!!
Thanks for the post. This worked out great. Our 7 year old loves the whip. And, of course, his 5 year old brother had to have one too. Neither one of them have put theirs down all weekend. Their 2 year old sister says, “Daddy, will you make me a whip?” She’ll have to wait a couple years though. I used a 10″ section of 1/2″ PVC for the handle and attached it with the un-folded sections of tape at the beginning of the braid so it wrapped around the end and protruded from the center, rather than the side of the handle.
Thanks again!
That is a great idea – and I would have used this if I had found it first. I bought some braided curtain tie back (cut to length) in dark brown. It looks great and it is easy to fray the end. I will use your idea to attach a dowel to the end of it. Thanks!
My 9 year old son Blinded my 7 year old Daughter in one eye
Great website!
[...] Duct tape bull whip: [...]
My DH has just finished making a leather whip from scratch. He made it for a friend’s homeschooled son, and wrote a very informative letter to go along with it. I realize that leather and duct tape are different, but you may find the basic information interesting!
_________________________________________________
I remember the day you were at my house and cracked a whip for the first time. You were a natural. It took me months to learn to crack a whip and you did on the first try! Since then, I have intended to make a whip for you, but have only just gotten around to it. You will find in this package your very own whip and holster to carry it.
This kind of whip is called a “snake whip”, because it does not have a rigid handle. Cowboys and cattle workers were said to like these because they were quick and easy to handle, and could be tucked into a coat pocket or saddle bag.
I made this whip from scratch. I started with large pieces of leather and cut the lace by hand, then plaited it all into a whip. There are four plaited bellies inside the whip with a final overlay of brown and blue – all told there is well over two hundred feet of leather lace in this whip. At the end of the whip is a nylon fall with a nylon cracker on the very tip. When you crack a whip, the cracker passes the speed of sound and makes a little sonic boom.
The whip is made from leather that was originally intended for making furniture, but I have liberated it and given it a new life! (In fact, the brown leather used to be recliner.) I think of this as a high form of recycling and call it adaptive re-use. It only took my time to make it – over twenty hours, in fact. The final overlay (the brown and blue you see on the whip) alone took almost six hours to plait.
To crack the whip with your right hand, swing the whip to the left and up over your head. As the whip goes behind you and begins to come back around to the right, throw your right hand straight forward sharply and turn your thumb inside and down toward the ground. Keep the whip high, don’t throw it toward the ground, just turn your thumb down. When you turn your thumb down, you will put a loop in the whip, and that loop is what makes it crack. You don’t have to throw the whip too hard; it is mostly technique that makes the crack.
Take good care of your whip. Don’t hit things with it, especially the ground, or sand or rocks. You should not use the whip in the rain or get it wet as this will shorten its life. The leather will loosen up over time and get softer and it should be cared for. Whips have a “spine”, that is they have a natural curl in one direction. When you store your whip, just coil it loosely, snap it in its holster and hang it up somewhere dry.
Most importantly of all, whips are fun to use, but they are not toys; one must exercise great caution when using them. A whip should never be used to hit a person or animal or anything you don’t want broken. The fall and cracker are moving over 1,000 feet per second when the whip cracks; this is fast enough to cut a person’s skin open like a knife, or put out an eye. Cowboys never hit cattle with their whips, they just use the sound to drive them – a whip can cut a cow just like a person.
Also remember that the crack of a whip is much louder to others than to you. You should not crack a whip in the direction of someone who is close by. And when you crack your whip, be mindful to have enough room. The whip is over six feet long, including the fall and cracker. Add to this the length of your arm, and you can hit things over eight feet away. So, you should have at least ten feet of clear space in all directions when you crack your whip.
Owning and using a whip requires a lot of responsibility, self control and maturity. With your parent’s permission, I am giving you this whip to use and enjoy. Have fun with it and make lots of noise – this is what it is for. But at all times be responsible. If you find yourself unable to be safe and careful, your parents have my permission to take the whip and put it and you in time out for a period of time they deem adequate.
Along with making all of creation for His own glory, God also made the world for us to enjoy – else he would not have given us the capacity for happiness and laughter and joy. I find great joy in the laws of physics God created which allow a whip to crack. Eric Liddell, the famous Christian Olympian, said that God made him fast and he felt His pleasure when he ran. Enjoy your whip. When you crack it, remember the God who made the air for sound, and enjoy Him, too.
Awesome!I have a leather one and some bushes are dying and have a few leaves so i like to cut leaves that fell down and wrap the branches, I enjoy cracking because it’ll keep you entertained for hours!
But i have a question, where did you get that whip holder?My whip did’nt come with one but i sure could use one.
Plus where did you find a dowel stick?Wal-Mart?
wow, now does it pop. like when you whip it, whipp it pop if you attach the popper? that is the whole idea is it not?
thanks josh
[...] rockets. For the movie fans on your list, let them live out their Indiana Jones fantasies with a packaging tape bullwhip, or give ‘em a shot at emulating the Caped Crusader with a packaging tape Batman [...]
Thank you so much for the idea.. My son is really into Indiana Jones, he is 7 and he saw this idea and is very interested in making it. Maybe we can teach him to braid at the same time..
Thanks again, what great inguinuity.
Great idea my grandson found the idea and we made it together
this looks really cool. I think I might give it a try. I have some electrical tape…think it’ll work?
I finished my first one using electrical tape. It wasn’t as long but it still works. I used 3.2 mm nylon rope for the popper and a rolled up magazine for the handle. I had the rope from making wooden nachaku, tons of magazines just lying around, and my dad’s an electrician= plenty of electrical tape so….didn’t spend a dime.
if you want a belt whip holder take a piece of the tape and fold in half but cut have of the off at the ends so they stic and there you go
i jst made it i only i improvised a bit on the cracker but its loud i only no how to do the simplest of cracks though
[...] rockets. For the movie fans on your list, let them live out their Indiana Jones fantasies with a packaging tape bullwhip, or give ‘em a shot at emulating the Caped Crusader with a packaging tape Batman [...]
Hello, I just made one of these, and it’s the coolest idea! I have a tip to consider: I bought three rolls, and left the tape on the rolls, only unrolling about 18″ at a time and folding/sticking it to itself, then braiding with the rolls dangling. Repeat as needed. MUCH easier than dealing with 12 feet lengths of stickiness! I also put some cord inside the fold of the tape to strengthen it wherever I wanted extra strength. Next I’m going to try one with four strips of tape, and round-plait it over a center rope! Thanks for this site – it’s such a creative idea!
well it about 2 in the moring and im so damn tired yet this design was so simple that i was able to pull it of and make a fine whip i added my own little touches to the whip 1 being a wooden lightsaber hilt and 2 a small strip of leather. its about 12 ft long and cracks well also if you whip it at ofject it will grab them and or stick to pull though i highly doubt it could support a person i think that if you take 2 peices of tape and stick them together on each length and then braid it may be strong enough to do so
indiana jones is awsome i have the full suit i made it well bought stuff and made a costume i bought the whip and hat but my whip was a little cheap so i looked up how to make a whip clicked on thius and found it
does it actualy break the sound barrier?
how do you braid it?
Thank you so much for this briljant and dangerous toy-idea! My nephew will love it!! I also wrote about it on my blog & used some of your pictures, hope you won’t mind. If so, please contact me. (http://kleinezaken.blogspot.com/2009/10/gevaarlijk-speelgoed.html)
This is a great tutorial. I would like to add if you don’t have a dowel rod, you can roll up newspaper or printer paper and duct tape it. It is proving to be just as sturdy as a dowel rod when wrapped tight. That’s what I did because I forgot to get a dowel rod when I went shopping! Thanks for sharing this!
Now THIS is a great teacher appreciation gift!!!
A high school teacher
It works REALLY well fun until you snap yourself with it
Great motivation
My friend always joked that someone should get her a whip for her birthday. I made it and gave it to her yesterday. This was rather quick and easy to make and she loves it. Just tell whoever you make it for to be careful; she’s already got some nice welts.
If your not specifically going for the Indiana Jones look, try using three diferent colors of tape. It’s not much more expensive and it turned out looking great.
Thanks for the idea. I’m gunna go make one for myself! hehehe
[...] i wasn’t entirely sure what I was going to do until I came across an article online (found at Skip to my Lou about making a whip out of duct tape. The one on the site didn’t look half bad, but I wanted [...]
[...] Bull whip (skiptomylou.org has a great how-to for making your own bull whip) [...]
I have muck up day next week and am going as cat woman. So instead of trying to buy a real whip my mum and I are going to make a black version of this, should be alot of fun for us to do
This was the best website I found 
Ill post back next week when I finish it and let you know how it went.
this completed my cat woman suit for the 2011 Halloween celebration!!!! Great Site, Thanks A lot!!!!!
I love the idea and I cant wait to try it