How to make Steel Wool Last Longer

Hi everyone,

I spin grade OOO and OOOO Steel wool balls encased in chicken wire cages (i have pics on my web page poispinner.com if you don't know what these are). It gives a brilliant effect, shooting sparks about 20 feet (~7 meters) in the air.

The problem is that it only lasts for about 20-30 seconds. Does anyone know of a way to make the Steel wool last longer? I pull the wool out into long, whispy streaks, and this seems to help.

I did a search on making Steel wool burn longer, and did not find any results. Apologies if this is a redundant post; if you could send me the URL to the appropriate thread, that'd be great.

Thanks everyone!

Sincerely,
Michael

hi there
search for Black Bush Poi
its a fantastic Steel wool Poi
grets steve

black bush poi, now thats the most insane thing ever. it can and will kill you

I´m still alive

....................and black bush poi would be......................?????????
anyways the basic rule of thumb is the bigger and brighter something is, the shorter it will last. for ex................if you use magnesium ribbon youll get that silver white fire, but you only get it for a few seconds before it melts your wicks or whatever else your tryin to spin w\
just me thoughts on the matter..........

Black Bush Poi
its a hollow tube with a kevlar rope X on one side and the chains atached to the other
you can fill it with Steel wool and it lasts a while
grets steve

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....................and black bush poi would be......................?????????

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search for Black Bush Poi
its a fantastic Steel wool Poi

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If you don't know what they are then why don't you search and find out?

I saw them used live for the first time this weekend....

Yeah DSS,
but they should have lasted longer than they did.

The mistake that I made was to use the very finest Steel wool i could get.

The first couple of seconds they worked fine but then the heat from the burning wool softened the rest of the wool above the combustion zone.

This caused the wool to compress and would not allow the air to penetrate correctly,
in other words it just wadded at the end of the tubes and smouldered there.

(cue me screaming "BOLLOX" from the sidelines )

The last set that I made lasted about four times as long with only half the amount of wool....

Lesson learned, test your wool first!

later,
-M-

okay i love Wire wool its great.
so satisfying.
ive foundthat the coaser grade Wire wool used the harder it is to light up with. but the longer it lasts.
i use big fat heavy cages on big fat heavy chain.
the last thing i want is these things flying off.
speed is key
basically as you spin the Wire wool in the cage melts into a huge glowing ball.
if you are going fast enough the molten metal will spray litle bits of itself off,throught the bottom of the cage, making the sparks (and why you get lumps)
so the more metal you have in there the longer it will last. the heavier it will be and the harder to make spray or light.
its a balance. if i wanted to put lots of effort in i would have light grade to med grade to heavy grade to a little bit of steel in the middle. to make a really big solid molten ball thatdd go really well.

hmmmm i dont know what a black bush poi is either so im off to find out.