The use of this weapon is widely regarded as a difficult and delicate art to master. The whip knife consists of a twelve foot long braided leather whip of the "bullwhip" type commonly found on Earth, equipped with a lanyard to insure retention of the weapon in combat. Set into the final eighteen inches of its length are twenty thin, narrow blades, woven into the leather and arranged in sets, four such blades to a set. Each such weapon is tipped either with a double-edged knife blade approximately seven or eight inches long, or a "stunning tip," a lead weight which is designed to incapacitate the victim when he is struck. Possibly originally intended to be effective against an opponent with a shield (the blade or weight, on its leather extension, would conceivably be able to flex in mid-air, passing around such a protective device to strike the target, similar to a medieval flail) or perhaps developed simply as an attempt to make the common whip more lethal. Rarely used in actual warfare, this weapon is said to be unique to the delta city of Port Kar and is often utilized in the fighting of duels. The whip knife is first mentioned in book #5, Assassin of Gor