Just ordered my first fire poi

Went for the monkey fists and the twist oval chains with leather handles. Was just going to get the cathedral set but may aswell get the better quality set, i'll just have to try and not hit myself (much) with them.



I'll spin without lighting them for a while then get them fired up

It's not that they're better quality it's that monkey fist wicks take more kevlar to make than cathedrals. Monkey fist are heavier, my cathedrals burn for about 8 minuits, with 6ft of wicking on each side. I've not burned with a monkey fist in a while so I don't really recall how long they burn. However, I do know that they are heavy when fuled.

The only reason monkey fist cost more is because it uses almost twice as much kevlar.

because they have more kevlar they can hold more fuel and have a longer burn time, they can also be very difficult to blow out if you wanna finish your burn a bit early.

cant you just dunk them in water? should do the trick.

just have to remember which bucket is water and which is parrafin/kero!

mmmmmm, while i havent done it personally so i wouldnt know, i'd be of the opinion that dunking your wicks in water would be a BAD thing, as they will soak up water and make them hard to fuel with paraffin.

try just getting a towl, dunking that in the water and then lying it on the ground, when you want to extinguish your poi sit them on the wet towl and fold the towl over to cover the wicks entirely and pat for 10 seconds to ensure they are properly smothered.

i think id only want to finish my burn early if i set myself on fire!

well, if/when you do you'll know how!

Geeza: DON'T EVER dunk your wicks in water! It's a surefire way to ensure they never light again. Water displaces oil based fuels like paraffin so if there is any moisture in your wicks they will simply not soak up fuel. If your wicks get soaked in water you're looking at a week of drying them outside to get all water out before they will burn properly again.

The correct way to put them out is as Mr Majestik suggested, to smother them, or simply to spin them out. I often blow the wicks on my staff out after they've burned down quite a bit. Once the flame is out, they will begin to smoulder - most people say that the smouldering damages the material of the wick, so you want to stop it smouldering by dunking it back in paraffin. Don't worry, paraffin has a very safe flash point so as long as the flame is completely out you won't set anything on fire by dunking the wick while it's smouldering.

I used my fire poi three times the other night but forgot to put them back into the fuel after extinguishing them (with a damp towel) the final time. I hope I haven't damaged them too much if they continued to smoulder...

thanks kev. Yeh i learned this the other night at a fire circle, I thought they were dunking fire toys out in water but then learned it was paraffin. They told me about the low flash point thing which is good. I just wont in petrol after a burn!

I wouldn't worry too much. I have the same wicks for a couple of years now and have on a number of occassions let them 'smoulder' for a while. I think it's actually paraffin vapour rather than smoke. If there's no embers on your wicks, then there shouldn't be any combustion going on which means there shouldn't be any damage.

they arrived this morning. quite heavy to swing but the heads are the same or less weight that in my sock poi (around 130grams) its the chains that weight the most (220grams in total each) need to get used to them then i'll post a vid of my first fire spin!
just practicing crosses at the moment with sock/glow