Krist King cowboyed throughout the West before the trail took him to Florida. “I was too poor to buy much of anything when I was cowboyin’, and I’d been makin’ a few things,” King says about making his own whips for working cattle. “Then I found out I could sell ’em. I’ve pretty much been makin’ whips ever since.”

King builds more than 800 handmade whips a year from his home in Toledo, Ohio. King “shot loads” his whips, adding shotgun BBs to the body for balance and for a smooth roll-out when you flick your wrist.

His nylon whips sell for about ten dollars a foot, and he recommends a ten-foot length for working cattle. Says King: “If you’ve got a bull that wants to go on a fight, generally, a ten foot will reach him right at the point before he wants to come to you and charge.”