Comparing Two LyD Whips

One of my students got an LyD whip from Peter Jack last week. It only took him a week to get it as it was already in stock, the only one. I had maybe a 6 week wait, which was pretty quick for getting one made from scratch.

There were some significant differences between the whips, which surprised me.

The first was obvious. His was solid black, mine is longitudinal (side by side) red and black. I'm giving the edge to his. It simply looks wicked!

The other differences were significant and functional. His handle was surprisingly much shorter. The distance between the facing edges of the knobs on mine is 5.25" edge to edge, his was shorter by 1", and the core rod felt more like 2" shorter.

His whip feels substantially more flexible than mine. It felt like my Blanton whips, whereas mine feels like the Joe Strain I gave to Tom a couple of years ago.

Whether that's a function of the handle differences or in the braid itself I'm not sure; I suspect some of both. I know the Strain whip broke in nicely eventually and I'm hoping this PJ will do the same.

The upshot, though, was that my student's whip is marvelously fluid right out of the box, while mine after a much longer period of use is still stiffer. I offered to swap him on the spot, which tells you what I thought of the differences. He declined (I knew he was a smart guy but I had to try!)