whipping for ship's wheel

[arniesails]

I would like to put a whipping all around my 40" ship's wheel.  I am thinking a french whipping looks great, with a turk's head for the king spoke.  

Are there any guidelines or best practices for selecting the whipping line in terms of size and material?  

Is there a better decorative whipping, keeping it simple though?  

Is it better to do each section between spokes individually, or run around the spokes continuously?

How would I determine how much rope would be required to do the wheel in one continuous whipping?

I know- lots of questions - this is all new for me and your help would be greatly appreciated.

[PatDucey]

I think what you are looking for is coxcombing, similar to this web page.:
http://www.frayedknotarts.com/wheel.html

There are many types of coxcombing, I prefer a three strand that looks like a straight braid over whipping.  French Whipping is a single strand coxcomb that corkscrews around the object being covered.  

If you need help tying a Turks Head, I can direct you to a website where you can download templates for many different Turks Heads.

Pat

[KnotNow!]

Hi,
  If you had plenty of time on your hands you could put any manner of hitching (not whipping) on the wheel and some awesome "T" shaped Turk's Head Knots, all from the same strand, turning out at the spoke junctions.  You could hitch the whole wheel with variations in patern in each segment between spokes.  Then you could put different Thks at each spoke intersection.  A total "purist" might tie the whole wheel as well as the spoke intersections from a single strand.  Just that I will  say to you:  There are no limits.  As much as I love knot covered things... you may wish to consider.. total coverage looks silly to most folks (not to me.. you cover it on every surface and I just llove it... but just a soft warning).  Another thought from a purists.... I may take several years to cover a "thing" with knots.  All done from one strand.  No skipping or variation from the basket weave will be allowed.. Over one, under one.. You come along and make some lovely covering in two or three passes.  I get to say.. but you "cheated" and nobody.. but nobody can tell how you made it without taking it apart ( so cheating is just fine).
  Cover the wheel.  Use something that builds fast. (double grapvine works well).  Put a very fancy THK at the king post.  Do something nice at the other spokes. " Projects completed" are worth 10x the value of projects "dreamed of".  I have often purchased a spare wheel and put all sorts of fancy stuff on, variations and single strand and silly stuff.  I knot.  You sail.  Consider what you want to spend time on.  My wife hikes with a staff with well over 3500 knots on the grip.  I walk with her and you don't even want to know about my staff.  But of course we don't have a boat.