Poi to rope dart (converting)

I have a poi with a foot and half long chain. I made it because I like using both hands. But now I want to convert it to a rope dart. Should I extend the chain with more chain or add a rope?
Thanks all.

Well the best way is doing it like this:

KEY:
O : fire head/weight
--: rope
¬¬¬:chain
<>: handel

Like this:
0¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬---------------------------------------<>

That way you can do wraps, easily, but the rope doesn't burn at all.

add rope.
and rope feels much better than chain.

Thanks, that's pretty much what I was thinking.

Cool, but make sure you leave enough chain. Do I have a story for you, about that or what...
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

"I think you pretty much guessed what happened, the rope burnt through, sending a flying fireball into my next door neighbours garden. My neighburs then ran outside, saw it, and then phoned the police. Apparently,they thought it was a meteor...

The police wern't too happy, I can tell you that."

...and make sure it's cotton rope, not nylon based.
No one enjoys melted plastic in their hand

If possible use kevlar rope instead of chain for the fire safe section, chain makes the footwork a lot harder as it doesn't slip off your foot.

Similally rope darts made of nothing but chain don't work well as they don't run through the hands properly, or shoot off
arms/legs well for cast offs.

Rope designed for for sailboat use (tacking et) is superb as it's extreemly strong, available in whatever width you feel comfortable with, and specifically designed to run well through hands without causing friction burn.

personally, i use a stainless steel dog chain for the fire end of my rope dart and it seems to work fine... only problem i have is that the wick (which is a short snake) tends to act a little funny at times (spinning) due to the the chain + rope thing.

I met another twirler who's rope dart was just a piece of kevlar rope with a monkey's fist at one end. He'd dip it then wet about 50cm of the rope (after the monkey's first) with water. Claimed that it works like a charm.

Beth's got an all kevlar rope rope dart, I quite like it, but the end just isn't heavy enough.

For a rope dart you only need about 25cm of chain between the head and the rope to prevent it burning and this makes the wraps and kick tricks easier than using a metre or so of chain. the other thing about rope darts (and is often forgotten) is that they are supposed to have 2 silk flags near the head to improve the flight of the dart. Silk and fire don't mix so well but I'm using wet denim at the moment which works alright. When I get around to it I'm going to try some thin leather which will probably work better though

@*geo*: isn't the flame doing the job of the flags?

The best rope I have found so far is....

10mm or 15mm cotton bondage rope - great for many uses

http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/bound-to-please/
It is quite cheap from here but the stuff without a core needs to be played with for a while to take out the stretch!

oooops just updated a very old thread