Rubber Whips

Rubber Whips
This is a NASTY whip. Make sure your bottom likes sting before you use it. It CAN cut, so be careful of cleanliness with this toy. Making rubber whips is relatively easy and inexpensive. You will need:
a wooden dowel, (1" thick is the best size for most people)
a bicycle inner tube (usually you can get one free that is used at most bicycle shops)
rubber cement
scrap leather to cover the handle.

Cut a section of the dowel the length from your thumb tip to the tip of your little finger or 9" (your preference). (I like to paint the dowel black, but that is a personal preference. Unless someone gets really curious and pulls back the tails to look, no one is going to see any of the dowel.) Cut the inner tube in sections 12"-18" long plus the length of the handle. (Discard the part with the air intake. It's not nice to put that in a whip.) Starting the length of the handle from the top, cut 1/2" wide strips the length of the tube. The tube is going to curve a bit, so please take care in making these cuts. Some tubes have lines you can follow when you are cutting them.

Cut as many lengths as you like. Remember, the more tails, the thuddier the whip. You will need to make one tail cut all the way to the top in order to have a starting point for gluing the tube around the dowel. Take the dowel, cover a lengthwise section with rubber cement, and start gluing the tube around the dowel. Be careful to press out air bubbles, etc.

When you have finished adding as many tails as you want (it's okay to glue the rubber in layers over itself) ......let the whip dry overnight at least. (I've been known to nail brads into the dowel through the rubber, but this is so cheap to make, why not just make another one if the glue gives?) Then, take a small section of the leather and glue it over the top as an end cap. Wrap a length of the leather neatly around the rubber handle and glue down. You can add decorative thumb tacks along the seam to make it pretty, or I sometimes use other things for a handle than leather. Be creative. This is YOUR toy. Let this dry again, overnight, and you have a pretty, nasty little whip with 12" tails. I have made it with longer tails, too, and it still works nicely. I've been told that some people like to sand the edges of the tails to keep them from being quite so sharp, but I haven't felt the need for this. I've never cut anyone with one, but I know people who have, so use with caution.

Like all toys, if you don't know HOW to use it, get instruction; real life, not out of a book. Hospitals are NOT fun environments to be explaining what you THOUGHT you were doing. I know a lot of nurses, none of whom think emergency rooms are scene areas. 'Nuff said!