Worlds Longest Whip

Worlds longest whip FARM HOME Novelty Items 16-3-20 Although it's not official yet, Ohio part-time farmer and whip maker Krist King says he set the world record last year for the longest whip ever made and "cracked". He hopes to get listed in the Guinness Book of World Records. King's whip is 184 ft. 6 in. long, excluding the handle. It's made from braided nylon parachute cord, and the first 60 ft. is loaded with no. 9 shot for better balance. The whip weighs 27 lbs. "A lot of people are fascinated by it. It makes quite a crack if you do it right," says King, who turns out 400 to 450 whips a year. "It took me 9 days to make the whip and 6 months to learn how to crack it. I had to learn by trial and error and even had to change the handle design. It takes me 2 to 3 tries before I can crack it right and I figure it takes about as much energy as throwing the shotput. "I made it after I happened to look in the Guiness Book one day and saw the whip cracking record. It was for a 140 ft. whip owned by an Australian. I had never built a whip longer than 22 ft., but I was convinced that I could beat the record. "A whip cracks when the tip breaks the sound barrier and creates a miniature sonic boom. A long whip doesn't necessarily crack louder than a short one. In fact, a 10 to 12 ft. whip can make a lot louder crack than a long whip because it's much more controllable. When a cowboy uses a whip to control animals, usually he wants only the noise of the whip cracking. The whip doesn't even strike the animal." King's interest in whips began as a child when he would braid feedbag strips into ropes. After graduating from high school, he worked on ranches where he learned how to use a whip. "The ranchers I worked for used them to control dogs. Instead of hollering at them, they'd just crack the whip to call their dogs back." His commercial whips are made out of a variety of materials, including nylon, leather, buckskin and kangaroo. He's sold them throughout the world, many to working cowboys. King says his whip will be entered in the 1993 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records "unless someone puts in a better claim before they go to press." For more information, contact: FARM 'SHOW Followup, KristKing Braiding, Box 173, Pettisville, Ohio 43553 (ph 419 445-4277).

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