How to Make a Wire Whipping

These photos were all lost due to the photo bucket fiasco. I've just re -edited my first 3 posts here so I could host all 13 photos here (due to the 7 photo per post limit I went back to my 1st 3 posts since hey all had more photos as well) I hope it's not too confusing to follow now.

Wire Whippings seem to be slowly disappearing but I bet many of you have some tools either you or some old timer has put a whipping on. If so please post some photos on this thread, it's a dying art. Wire whippings are used for many things. I learned to do them for spicing cables to keep the strands from spaying out. I used to put whippings on my splitting axe handles right from new as well as using them on slicks and wood chisels.

When working with wire, wire rope or cable there are names for each end. The running end is the end that keeps going from where you are working with it and the dead end is the short end you are starting with.

To make a really nice job you can cut down a 1/16” trough in the handle where your whipping will go. This is not necessary but it has a nicer finish. I repaired a cracked hammer handle from work here for this demo. This chinese handle was pretty well rotten right through so I did kind of a hack job on it but had it been a respected tool I would have made a more precise trough.



You will get a much neater winding if yoiu take all the little bends and kinks out of your wire before you start. You’ll need 5 or 6’ of tie wire. Grab each end with a pair of pliers or wrap each end around a screwdriver shank or bolt, anything and bend the middle of the wire over something round and solidly situated. I used my vice screw. With lots of pressure slide the wire over the round steel implement, back and forth until all the fine bends and kinks are gone and it has just a smooth curve to it.



There are a few different patterns you can make with the windings but this is my favorite as it is neat and simple and is unlikely to come apart from abrasion. Start with a right angle bend 6” from one end of your wire and hold it so the the bend is at the end of the trough you made or if you are not using a trough it will be where the end of your whipping will be. The dead end of the wire is running along the middle of the handle on the wide side of the handle. Now wrap the running end right around in a complete wrap over top of your 90’ bend and keep going until you have got to the middle of your trough.



Now lift the dead end up and lay one more wrap under it.



That was the easy side, now we do the tricky part, I hope I can explain without getting tongue tied.

Take the running end and lay it across the whipping in the opposite direction to the dead end and also over top of the last winding you did. The last winding you did will always be under both the running end and the dead end.

You will be working with the center of the wire now in a big loop so you can pass this big loop over and over the handle with each wind.



I clamped the running end to the handle to free my hands up to get a photo but anytime something like this helps you manage by all means do what is necessary. Remember how nice and smooth the wire was when you passed it over the round object? It will be getting some new kinks again but we’ll get to them.



Use a smooth plier handle or what have you to smooth them as best you can. They should be at the end of the wire and will likely be cut off eventually.

way cool

Damn that is cool! I have a handful of splitting axes (from yard sales) that I actually set off to the side until I came across new handles. Now I need not wait.

Thank you.

Thanks for sharing the procedure for whipping. I have never used wire for that but have done it many times for rope. You essentially use the same process for wrapping thread onto a fishing rod to hold the guides. Good skill to learn.

Is that what is called a Egg Loop with fishing line! Nice job

Very good demostration, thanks.

Thanks for taking the time to instruct the GJ members on this. Very well done. Another technique to add to my arsenal.

I don't ever recall seeing this done before. I could have used it a few times on sledge handles.

That's cool! Thanks for sharing. Reminds me of the whip finish I use tying flies to finish wrap the shank.

Neat post, thank you sir!

2oolhound said:

When working with wire, wire rope or cable there are names for each end. The running end is the end that keeps going from where you are working with it and the dead end is the short end you are starting with

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Amazing the cable clamp installations you see "in the wild" in which no attention was paid to running end vs dead end. My logger dad would have their @$$'es.

CONTINUED

When you get to the end of your trough or the end of where you want to stop if you are not using a trough, pull the running end tight through the last 1/2 of the windings.



Take a small hammer and tap the last winding as you pull to help it along.



Take some end nippers and use the curve of the head to pull the 2 ends of the wire up tight at the centre of the whipping but be very careful not to cut into the wire yet. Take a blunt chisel and tap the kinks in the whipping out and tap the windings together tightly to finish up the whipping. Pull the slack through by prying with your end cutters.



When you have it as tight as you can get it give the ends 2 or 3 twists prying up as you go but being carefull not to break the wire. Cut the ends off about 1/2” up.



Take note of that one wrap in the middle that is under both ends of the wire. It allows for a neater twist on the ends of the wire. Now tap the twisted end flat and almost under the windings so you don’t catch your skin on it in the future.



This is a really short whipping, about 1/2 the length I used to do on handles and the trough could have been more uniform but you get the idea. After you’ve done a couple you get pretty good at it and it doesn’t take long but they last a long time and save a lot of handles. On splitting axes there is a lot of abrasion just below the axe head from sinking the head into a knotty round of wood that doesn't want to split. Pretty well any wood handle that is getting damaged can be aided by a whipping. Cracked handles can be glued or epoxied first.




Thanks for the gratitude guys, much appreciated.

You know it shanny19, it's a rarity to see cable clamps installed correctly.

One thing I didn't get into the photos were the carew pliers which traditionally are the #1 tool for doing whippings. They allow you to pry the wire tight much more than a pair of pliers. The trick is to grab the wire just enough so you don't cut it and then lever on it to pull it tight. The final twist and tightening is done with them or a good pair of end cutters.

This is an 11" set:

Is this for reinforcement? I really dig this.

Do I need to add whipping to this hammer???



Jokes aside great info, I hope to apply this some day.

Here are some tools I've picked up that have whippings on them. The finishing hammer has had solder or lead melted into it. The ball pein has some kind of fabric like you would use on a fishing rod. I'm not sure of the intent. The 3rd one is a small bearing scraper I bought at an estate sale of a german machinist. This whipping is quite interesting as the ends are tucked into a hole drilled into the wood and then soldered down to the wires near it. It is very nicely done.:

BajaBound said:

Is this for reinforcement? I really dig this.

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The original intent as I learned it was to wrap the strands of a cable together so the individual wires wouldn't fray apart. When splicing cable it is impossible to keep the wires from fraying because of all the bending involved without putting whippings on the strands. The end of a cable could also get a whipping to prevent it from fraying apart as well, much like the this hemp rope:



After learning the technique I started using them elsewhere like on my splitting axes mainly to prevent abrasion to the wood behind the head where it would get chewed up from sinking the head into a knotty round of wood that wouldn't split. It acted as a kind of shield. Also if the handle was starting to crack it would prevent the crack from opening during a strike and getting worse. I also used them on the end of wood handled tools like chisels that would start to deteriorate from striking them with hammers. In this situation whippings are acting more like steel ferrules. example:


They are not as strong as a properly fitted dedicated ferrules but an advantage is you can put them on after the tool is fitted to the handle and a roll of wire is all you need. No searching for a properly fitting ferrule.

KamiCrit said:

Do I need to add whipping to this hammer???



Jokes aside great info, I hope to apply this some day.

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Har hardy har har smart ***! ............Good one KamiCrit!

Thank you for the explanation and continue the good work. I have absolutely seen this done before on ropes and never knew it had a name.

Thanks for the demo...never knew how that was done!

I learnt how to whip the end of ropes in the Scouts, theres all kinds of decorative ways to do it too, ask an old sailor!

I learned about whipping from its application in weaponry. I worked for a company that sold mail order arms and armor. The owner hired high-schoolers to do the restoration work on the antiques. The process of creating a handle could be as complicated as you like- including the addition of precious metal strands or ribbons. The above example shows a contoured whipping- the wire was bent over each contour of the wood core. Generally, both ends were tucked into holes drilled into the end of the wood core. The ends were protected by the decorative braided bands (braided by hand to fit tightly). Those braided bands were called "Turk's heads."

Jolomite said:

The process of creating a handle could be as complicated as you like- including the addition of precious metal strands or ribbons.

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Wow! that's taking it to a whole new level!

Any newbies tried one yet? Post some pictures. Even these simple functional ones make a tool look kind of cool. In the sample I posted above the finishing hammer which is quite small looks a little weighted down by the whipping. The wire should have been finer for that tool. The bearing scraper looks very classy though as the wire is thinner and doesn't look out of place. Axes and sledge hammers can use heavier wire. I used standard 16 gauge tie wire mostly. The bearing scraper must be about 24 gauge which looks appropriate for a tool that size.

A similar technique is used for serving bowstrings as well.

Thanks for that demo, this is a neat technique. Is that safety wire? What determines the kind of wire you use for different whippings?

Jolomite said:

The owner hired high-schoolers to do the restoration work on the antiques.

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You don't hear that every day.

Thanks for the demo. I love putting details like that in the things that I make.

I have a set of files at the shop with whips done in the fashion of the bearing scraper in post #11. I've done tons of them on ships, never crossed my mind to use them on my tools from metal. Keith

Thanks 2oolhound for the excellent instructions.

cheechi said:

Is that safety wire? What determines the kind of wire you use for different whippings?
.

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To tell the truth I've never given it much thought, always just used what was at hand which was 16 ga. tie wire. It makes sense to use a hard wire but it has to be able to bend around the contours and hold that shape. Hard wire is pretty springy. I'm going to have to try some on small tools with a finer gauge wire like the bearing scraper now too. I guess if you want to get scientific it would be wise to select a dry time of year when the wood has shrunk tight. 40' below and dry then apply the wire hot so it shrinks when it cools.

Thanks for all the positive comments guys, glad it's something useful.

I'm still laughing at KamiCrit's Estwing hammer gag. Too funny

I learned some thing new today.
Thank You

I ran across these whippings at a local fair where a cooper was set up making small barrels. Some of his barrels had traditional metal hoops keeping the staves tight but he told me he preferred these cord retainers as they didn’t loosen when the wood shrunk over time.



The cord is called seine cord or seine twine and it’s available in different thicknesses and makeup. I think the name is derived from seine fishing boats where this line is used for nets and whippings. The black stuff he was using felt like it had a wax treatment of some kind which would help preserve it.



Of particular interest was that he didn’t tie a knot in it to finish. Instead he just wound the line over the doubled over dead end.

Start by making a kind of bobby pin shaped crook on the surface:


Then lay all subsequent windings over the crook stretching it super tightly until the windings were complete:


then poke the final running end through the loop on the doubled over dead end that would be protruding out of one side of the whipping.


Poke the last winding through the loop and pull it under by pulling on the dead end.


Sorry, I wrote the words upside down on my drawing but by pulling the dead end you pull the crossover point into the middle of the whipping (underneath the windings) and the pressure of the tightly stretched windings holds the whipping. The cooper claimed this held in place for years and was superior to using metal bands.

His mallet also had cord whippings on it to prevent cracking and splintering although he tied the ends (perhaps because there weren't many windings on it to provide enough tension to hold it).

2oolhound, I appreciate you taking the time to share this.

Lillooet Suspension Bridge

I came across an interesting whipping on a cable on a very old suspension bridge built in 1913 and located in Lillooet BC. Canada.



I saw the whipping from high above on the bridge but couldn’t get a decent shot with my old cell phone from that distance. When I got down below to it I couldn’t get high enough to get the whole thing in the shot. It had to be about 24” long. I’d estimate the cable to be 2.5” dia. And was one of the three main suspension cables on each side that supported the bridge deck. A fourth smaller cable ran below the deck the length of the bridge also. It was fastened every 15’ or so to the top three suspension cables by short vertical cables which must have added some rigidity to the whole system.



Braided wire was used on this whipping and it ran right up to where the cable disappeared into the concrete anchor that was protruding out from the ground where it was buried. This was the only one of 4 cables that had a whipping so I can only speculate the strands had loosened as they were preparing the cable for adhesion into the anchor and the whipping was applied to hold it together until the fresh concrete anchor hardened.

The same group of cables on the down stream side also had one cable with a similar whipping as you can see in this photo. This set terminated into a yoke. Back in the day the yoke would be slid up the cable, then the strands of wire in the cable unwound, then the individual wires would be unwound and the last 1/2” of the tips of the wire would be bent back about 170º , then pulled back into the ferrule of the yoke and molten zinc would be poured in. You can see the taper on the yoke to allow this type of swedgeing. The yoke may have been slid 8’ or more up the cable during this preparation and the strands of wire may have come unwound a ways up the cable. Each wire would be placed back in it’s position and held there with short whippings until the yoke could be brought down to the end. Once there, a whipping would be applied if the wires seemed loose.




Wires in steel cable are preformed. By themselves they have a pigtail appearance and have flat spots along them so they all come together to form a round wire rope in which each wire and each strand of wire is allowed to move within itself. Most often cables have a central core made of hemp which carries lubrication for this movement. On cables requiring extra strength the hemp core is replaced with a steel core which is another stranded cable. They are still lubricated to assist movement required as the cables flex. These individual wires want to fit back into their manufactured preformed positions. The whippings hold them in place until the ferrule is set.

After going artsy fartsy on my wooden mallet I decided the handle looked too plain so I put a long brass whipping on it mainly for looks.



After seeing the long multi strand wire whipping on the bridge cable I tried using some stranded brass wire I had for the whipping. I decided to make it quite long also using about 60 - 70 ft of wire for it. Although I wound it on super tight when I banged the bottom of the handle down hard on my anvil about 100 times to work the tight head down onto the handle the strands of brass wire compacted together at their sides. This created some looseness and with the taper below the head the whipping loosened up enough to be a problem. I had to solder the whipping to make it solid again. The lesson here was - stick to solid wire for whippings (unless you’re doing a flat parallel surface like on the suspension bridge cables posted above).

Anyway here’s what 60 - 70 ft. Of wire looks like on a hammer handle.



This was my set up for handling all that wire. I unspooled about 50 ft. But kept the spool on a pin so it could reel out more if needed. I then ran 25 ft. out to a pulley and back to the mallet which was tightened in a vise. The pulley was then hung across a stake attached to the bench so as I wound the wire it would raise up toward the stake. When the pulley reached the stake I’d move the stake closer so the pulley would hang down low again. With every wind on the handle the wire to and from the pulley would cross itself. After about 8 turns around the handle I’d have to stop and untwist the pulley. This is where 2 people working on this would have paid off. One person just holding and turning the pulley.

If you are not creating a whipping that joins in the middle you wouldn’t have this type of challenge. The decorative types where you drill a hole to tuck the end of the wire in to start and then again to finish and then solder the last few wraps together would be much simpler. You could keep the wire on a spool and just keep winding it off from start to finish. This system as my 1st post demonstrates allows you to really tighten thee whole whipping. You can feel the wire stretch and you have to be careful not to break the wire when doing the final tightening.

After completing the whipping when pulling the slack through, the dam stranded brass wire snapped a wire. I knew there was no way the broken one would pass through below all the windings when I pulled the final slack though so I soldered the strand together and hoped for the best.



Lucky for me it passed through under all the windings and all was well again. Another good reason to avoid wrapping a whipping with stranded wire.

Where do you buy brass wire from? Pardon the ignorant question.

Ton ton said:

2oolhound, I appreciate you taking the time to share this.

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Thanks Ton ton, you can get brass wire from McMaster Carr

and Amazon

I used some picture hanging wire I've had for years bought from a picture frame supply store but like I said the stranded wire is unstable and compresses and will become slack after it gets banged around. It looks fancy though.

2oolhound said:

The original intent as I learned it was to wrap the strands of a cable together so the individual wires wouldn't fray apart. When splicing cable it is impossible to keep the wires from fraying because of all the bending involved without putting whippings on the strands. The end of a cable could also get a whipping to prevent it from fraying apart as well, much like the this hemp rope:

Click to expand...

Nice work on the handles. I rigged up all of my 3-strand nylon boat lines -- thimble eyes, plain eyes, splices -- myself and finished all the ends with whipping. It was fun learning then doing that.

Thanks Rick, here's another thread on whippings and splicing which pertains more to marine whippings.
After reading Private Lugnutz's thread and looking into it I've come to accept the 1st cable loggers were quite probably ex sailors who were displaced after the age of steam created steam ships which spurned the death of the great sailing ships. Feel free to post pics of some of your handy work here anytime.