Type: Cat o'Nine Tails
Styling: Flexible & ridged handled
Details:-
Flexible handle: Flexible handle- length- 12 - 18" handle
Ridged handle: length- handle 8", falls 18" or 21", 4, 6 or 8 plait/round braids, straight or taper braid or falls. [6 & 8 plait have cores inside - these are heavier, and hit with less effort, less effort to throw hard. They are more severe and more accurate
Lengths: See above
Materials Used: Kangaroo
Colors: Black, Red, Purple, Dark Green, Natural and Whiskey.
Dramatic and unusual : Why not have your whip hand-dyed ox blood? (extra fee)

Notes: By the diameter of the falls you can make the cat hit sharply or thuddy.
Tapering of falls means, with less energy they will throw harder, easier and with less effort. It’s just like a whip, with less energy you get more powerful throws.

History of Joe’s Cat O' Nine Tails:
The flexible Cat O’ 9 Tails in this category originated in the late 1970-80's by Jim Farrant. It is his idea and design.

When visiting an Australian museum he saw a Cat O’ 9 that had been used in the penal colonies. It had a ridged handle and was 18" long with falls. He wanted to come up with a different cat for the States. He and Peter Fiske of San Francisco, came up with a black snake handle weighing about 2 lbs, it had a large diameter with 9 falls coming off of it. This was one of the pieces Jim sold as a whip maker.
He has since retired.

Peter has one in his collection dating back to the early 1980's. In the 90's there came out a flexible Cat O’ 9 weighing about a pound. People enjoyed them because they were lighter, less severe and easier to control. I asked Jim if I could make his flexible cat. He gave me permission, so I started making them in the early 90's.

~ Joe Wheeler