About Me

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I guess I came to whip making by a long and unconventional route, it all started when in my early twenty's I had a job doing the maintenance in a small factory, the factory was on a river and opposite was a chandlery, outside the chandlery used to sit an old retired Seaman who did all the rope splicing and knotting for the yachting folks...

My job at the factory was a tedious one where unless a machine broke down I had nothing to do all day, I filled my days and got over the boredom by sweeping up, making the girls on the assembly line tea and coffee and doing Turks head knots and interweaves that the old boy from the chandlery taught me, I paid him with large bars of chocolate,I think from there my course in life was set, although I didn’t realise it at the time...

I moved on from there and with the aid of the Ron Edwards books taught myself to cut lace and do the basic plaits, I somehow stumbled into making walking poles which were five foot dowels plaited over, a rubber ferrule at the bottom and a series of Turks heads as a handle portion, a flat plaited wrist strap finished it off, the Hiking groups loved them and along with dog leads, collars, belts, key rings and hat bands the next decade or so saw me doing that in my spare time as a hobby, sometimes I did a lot of it and sometimes not a lot at all but it was all good grounding I believe...

The coming of the internet opened my eyes to whip making really and with the help of Bernie Wojcicki who answered endless emails full of dumb questions from me and of course the late great Ron Edwards I learnt about how to construct and balance a whip, Richard Taubman was a help also, and later Chris Barr was the man who assisted a lot with refining my work and taught me how to do fancy ring work...The power of the internet gave me help from some of the best in the world and all of a sudden I was a whip maker...

Whips became a part time hobby business a bit like the walking poles, but unlike the walking poles I kept getting more and more work, it seemed every whip I made I got further orders from it and before I realised what had happened I was a full time whip maker and had found my place in life...

Throughout my journey, always in my thoughts and often by my side is my best friend, soul mate, and one true love, my wife Mel, the sheer joy she brings to my life and being lucky enough to make a living from a craft I’m passionate about gives me inner peace, tranquillity and the feeling I’m the luckiest man alive........

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