At more than 80 metres long, Northern Territory whip cracker Nathan 'Whippy' Griggs has made what he believes to be the longest whip in the world.

Mr Griggs has spent the past two months, and more than $6,000 making the cowhide whip at the Mataranka Homestead.

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The whip is so long that the first time he tried to crack it, he dislocated his shoulder.

But now that he has perfected the art of cracking the 80-metre-plus whip, he hopes to claim the Guinness world record for the longest whip cracked.

The record is currently held by Christopher Lu from Illinois, USA, at 70.53 metres, with whom Mr Griggs said he had "a bit of a rivalry".

Mr Griggs will not yet reveal exactly how long his whip is, for fear Mr Lu will immediately make a longer whip out of rope before he attempts the world record.

"Because I haven't officially gone for the record yet I am not releasing the exact length," he said.

"I don't want [Mr Lu] beating it with something not made out of leather before I get to crack my whip."

Nathan Griggs dislocated his shoulder the first time he tried to crack his 80-metre-plus whip. ( ABC Rural: Daniel Fitzgerald )

Mr Griggs currently holds the Guinness world record for the most number of whip cracks using two whips in one minute, with 614 cracks.

He said it took "a lot of patience" and help from other people to make the eight-strand, 80-metre-plus whip.

"When I was making it I used 11 sides of cowhide; that is five and a half cows of leather," Mr Griggs said.

"I have been making whips for nine years and I would not have attempted to make this a year ago because you need a bit of skill to cut all this leather out.

"Each strand that I had to plait with was around 100 metres long.

"To plait lengths of leather that long I had to wrap them up into bundles and had another person passing the bundles to me, under and around.

"We made so many mistakes and got tangles here, there and everywhere, but we got there in the end."

Kim Eishold holds tension on the whip until the last moment before it cracks. ( ABC Rural: Daniel Fitzgerald )

After a few practices, trying several different ways of cracking the whip, Mr Griggs found it best to have someone hold tension on the other end of the whip, letting go at the last second.

"It is impossible to get it swinging around off the ground in a circle because of the length and weight of it," he said.

"So you actually lie it out in a long line and throw a big loop into it, and because [the whip] is on a taper, that energy is building up and the loop travels down and hopefully cracks."

Mr Griggs hoped to attempt the world record in the next few weeks.