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Listen: The Bluegrass & Old-Time ProgramDetailed view of a portion of a whip made by George "Junior" Mills - Okeechobee, Florida.
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Series 1640, Isaac Duenas, Farola and Gigante Figure Making ; Box 15, FF1
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General Note
Whip maker George "Junior" Mills of Okeechobee has been working cattle on Florida ranches - mostly in the Lake Okeechobee area, but as far north as Wildwood - since he was fourteen. He estimates that he has made more than 2,000 cow whips in sixty-one years.
Mills began teaching himself to make cow whips at fifteen, using leather from discarded boot tops. Today he painstakingly fashions whips from buckskin by first cutting the "strings" from tanned hides, then braiding several layers in a carefully controlled taper. Mills protects his finished whips by coating them with a mixture he makes by heating beef tallow, beeswax, and pine rosin together.
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