The fast and the furious = burn too quick....Help!

Just wondering if you guys can help me with this.

Since i started to get a little better at poi, I have started to do some of the moves really quick, just coz it feels rather good. Trouble is that when I am lit up, this tends to either put the wicks out, or make the burn time very short......

Just wondering if any of you wonderful people have a cure for this other than the good old "slow down" thing?? More wick just seems to give me bigger flames and not much more burn time....however it is just the normal 1.5 inch wide wick....would having 3 inch wide wick help??

Any clues at all for longer burn times appreciated!!

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fe fi foo fun

you could try fuels with different viscosities?
but slow down anyway!!

You could do what Charles does - use obscene amounts of fuel.

what fuel do you use?

Try using a fuel with a fuel with a lower volatility (i.e. it burns slower). Not sure what the fuels are called in your neck of the woods, but for the longest burn times, I like to soak my wick in lamp oil and then dip in white gas to make it easier to light.

Three-inch wicking results in really big wicks. Scary-big. Try two-inch wicking first. Working with heavier wicks will also force you to slow down a little (either that, or work really hard).

Cathedral wicks burn for at least twice as long as the tube core type. They are slightly heavier but you can compensate for this by using really light weight chain eg: chandelier chain.

[This message has been edited by Thistle (edited 04 December 2001).]

Ahhh yes should have explained some. Am using normal tube type poi, with a length of about 50 cm of 1.5 inch wick. I burn with pegasol, which is rather similar to Kerosene but does not stink as much.

After I wrote this I was thinking back to some that I read on the Cathedral wicks... might have to build me some fo them for sure!!

Thanks for the suggestions...I am not sure what sort of fuel I could find with a higher viscosity that would still light nicely....and burn cleanly...but I might have a look..

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fe fi foo fun

kitchen towel wicks..... Wanna kill yourself try whole bath towels for wicks

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We are all in the cosmic movie. That means the day you die you watch your whole life repeating for eternity. So you'd better have some good things happen in there and have a fitting climax. --Jim Morrison

Most Memerable crowd saying "Hey look that dude's gonna set himself on fire again!"

I use towel wicks, and since i usually make them 5-6 inches long they're heavy enough to keep me from goin tooo fast, especially if you triple or quad them. Maybe you could just stack your wicks and wrap them a little thicker too. I've found that as they get thicker they usually burn longer, as opposed to burning bigger when they're long. They'll be heavier because they've got more fuel in them, and they'll burn longer too. Plus a slower burning fuel like kero or lamp oil.

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"Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted" - Martin Luther King Jr.

foobaa......
you wouldn't be into dnb by any chance would you... just your name got me a thinkin

see the 'how much fuel do you use' thread, as im not gunna type all that agaiin!

40 minutes? yep 40 minutes.

[This message has been edited by phuzzz (edited 05 December 2001).]

I agree with Mister Sock.

I used to use kevlar and that nylon juggling stuff (wich I liked beter than kevlar) until I forgot my wicks at home when spinning at a friends house (I am a staffer and my staff is six feet and some change, I could put my wicks out at will with no problems) the only extra wicks he had were some old towel wicks he'd made a year ago. I soaked them in kerosine and lit 'em up and they burned for like twenty minutes and I couldn't spin them out to save my life, and I did try. I finally had to jam them in the snow to put them out.
If it's not on this site there are pretty good instructions an towel wick construction at www.geocities.com/firepoi/index_css.html if you want to try them out. They are pretty cheap to make so you might as well

Ola Muchachos! It is i your friendly neighborhood twirlerman, just looking for advice along those lines.
What are the comparative advantages of the different wick materials?
Much obliged.
P.s> i'm new here, a i'm generaly suposed start a new string for somthing like this?
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-Without change, somthing sleeps inside us. The sleeper must awaken.

Just thought I should report back....

I made some interweave (cathedral) wicks...and looking at the ones in the shop here, decided I should put 4 foot of wick on each one....MY GOODNESS...I call them my fire bricks...they are kinda like spinning with bricks on the end of your poi...but they do burn for ages and I cannot put them out for trying in the initial burn!! They are really really good for doing "giant" poi moves as that is where the bricks are trying to get your arms anyway...and yes it has slowed me down just a little...

Try the bearclaw hybrid wicks. They haven't been spun out yet (till they are out of fuel), are about 1/4 the weight of cathedral wicks that burn as long, and don't have a substantial fuel loss at high speeds. Sounds like you woul like the large kind.
http://www.bearclawmfg.com/s_wick.html