WESTFIELD WHIP COMPANY

These are a few of the whips that are made at Westfield Whip.



These are in a display case for when they go to trade shows.



This shows just a few of the handles of whips for dressage. The little white pouch on the end of one of the handles is to protect the fancy metal piece during shipping.



This is one of the labels that go on the whips.



This is a whole file cabinet of all the labels.

I hope you enjoyed the tour through Westfield Whip Company.

WESTFIELD WHIP - MORE MACHINES

These machines are cotton braiders that put the cover on the whip. If you notice the ropes above the machines, they pull the whips up as they are being braided. To protect the cotton it is dipped in several coats of lacquer.



Since the whips have to start from the bottom, they are fed down these holes, through the machines before being pulled up towards the ceiling.



This is a rolling machine, to insure the whip is nice and round it is put in this machine.



Or as they did in the old days,resorted to the manual roller.




To tell the truth I'm not quite sure what this machine is, I think it is the braider for the handles of the whips.



This gizmo is for putting on the metal ends of the handles. If they don't quite fit, this "persuades" the handles to be the correct size.

WESTFIELD WHIP - SOME ORIGINAL MATERIALS

This is a piece of baleen ,what whales use to filter out small marine animals. The baleen is cut into small strips and then bundled, small strips of wood that look like quarter round are placed around the baleen, dipped in lacquer and bound until dry.



This is the trough of lacquer that is still used today to seal the whips.



Our young model PJ is holding the start of a whip with a baleen center after it has been bound. Today, fiberglass is used for many of the whip centers.



Goose quills are used to hold the lash on the end of the whip. As the quills are bound they tighten around the lash. To tell you the truth, I am not completely sure if they are used today. The lash looks the same as on most of the whips I saw.



These are horse hair whips and are still made from real horse hair. They are used as fly swatters to swat flys from the front of the horse when the horses real tail swat them in the back. The handles are wood carved to look like bamboo.

WESTFIELD WHIP MANUFACTURING COMPANY

Westfield, MA - Westfield, MA has the nickname "Whip City". In the late 19th Century most of the population of the town was employed in whip making and they produced tens of thousands of whips a day, dominating the US market for riding and buggy whips. There were over 60 companies involved in the manufacturing of whips, now there is only one left, the Westfield Whip Manufacturing Company.




Above are two of the four 18th century braiding machines in existence or at least in use. There is one against the far wall and the other is just off camera. So this factory is like a museum. I was told the manufacturing process is the same as a hundred years ago, just some of the materials have changed. At one time these braiders were motorized but then converted back to manual so there is better control.



This is a close-up of the inside of one of the braiding machines. The one against the wall braids more plaits(strips) of leather.

Stay tuned for more on Westfield Whip. There is a lot more of interesting information.