# Rapid whipping alternatives

**URL:** <https://discourse.igkt.net/t/rapid-whipping-alternatives/9901>\
**Category:** General Discussion\
**Created:** [31 October 2025 23:01 UTC](https://discourse.igkt.net/t/rapid-whipping-alternatives/9901 "2025-10-31T23:01:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 37

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**Author:** ![Dan\_Lehman](https://discourse.igkt.net/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Dan\_Lehman](https://discourse.igkt.net/u/Dan_Lehman)\
**Post date:** [17 November 2025 23:04 UTC](https://discourse.igkt.net/t/rapid-whipping-alternatives/9901/37 "2025-11-17T23:04:17Z")

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Thanks to Scott’s reminder, I put in a recent whipping  
using the Common Whipping, with a single (what-I’ll-call)  
interrupter --i.e., one pass of the whipping at the mid-way  
point through the u-fold, to prevent pulling out the  
later tucked end (the u-fold will pull only into this “i…”).

There are various combinations of techniques. In addition  
to what I just described (using an “interrupter”), if one is  
game for some brief laying of the 3-strand rope, one can  
try taking a mid-way wrap _through_ the lay, as a means  
to preventing the whipping from sliding off. !? (I’ve not  
yet tried this; I can see that getting this buried part to lie  
proximate to other turns might be a challenge.)

So, waxed twine. I have used tea-bag strings, and rice-bag  
strings (once I figure out how to unto them! --new, La Qilla  
basmati awairs opening, but it might not have a string binding).

I wondered why polyester vs. nylon? Doing some searching,  
I find little information. My thought comes from what I’ve  
heard re conditioning a kermantle rope pre-use.

> Repeated wetting will gradually reduce the length of the rope (sometimes by more than 10%),

So, my thinking runs “Use nylon for whipping (and some  
other binding tasks) as it will tighten your work when wet!”

(I’ve seen lots of commercial-marine gear with what I call  
a “Reverse Groundline Hitch” (shown in [ABoK](https://discourse.igkt.net/t/9845) as a miller’s  
knot, and at 3794/5 in its use to bind lines; surely, though,  
Ashley shows it put on in the wrong direction, which will  
require much care & working --rather, it goes on as a pair  
of opposing HHitches, each locking the other!). And once  
I watched a rigger building a net putting in the RGH with  
just some mild tugs to set it ; yet what I’d seen in used  
nets was quite snug & tight.)

But I found in a com.fish.gear store not nylon but  
“polyester flat braid”. The flat aspect --a sort of  
rectangular cross section-- accommodates the  
crossings of the RGH nicely, reducing bulk ; it can  
be simulated by pairing (non-flat) cords which  
give a 2:1 cross section of sorts.

–dl\*  
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