Yale whiplock

A traditional method of whipping any type of line on a sailboat to prevent a line end from fraying or to prevent the tail of an eye splice from working loose is called a Yale whiplock.  There are variations of instructions for a Yale whiplock online, but I cannot find any that construct the whiplock the way I know how, which IMHO is the best way.

The tools you need are whipping twine, needle with large eye, whipping palm, scissors, and lighter.

There are four YouTube videos that are close, and when combined together, provide the right procedure!  Follow this first video to start the whiplock with needle pulling the whipping twine through the line first to form the initial loop.  Do not finish the whip using her technique, though.  Instead, follow this second video to complete the wraps and then lock stitch the wraps.  Use a whipping palm to push the needle through the line, not vice grips to pull the needle through!  Vice grips scars the needle and then damages the cover and core of a line when it is pulled through.  However, instead of diagonal lock stitches, follow this third video to make horizontal lock stitches, which I think look better and may make the line end slightly easier to feed through a rope clutch cam.  Finally, follow this fourth video to bury the remaining tail securely at the end, instead of just cutting it off.  The final step is to burn or tape the remaining 1/2 inch or so of the line end.  

Sorry about the 4-part series of demos!  I should recruit a videographer to just record the method I like best!    

Properly whipping a line tail is so much more seaperson-like and functional than just burning the end of a line, or wrapping it with tape, or dipping it in gooey melted rubber.  Many modern high-tech line cores will not melt anyway - they just smoke and get charred!  Tape doesn't hold for long.  And rubber ends are usually too fat to go through a rope clutch or block, and they peel off anyway.